Ok this is crazy. I thought my poor old 2005 prius was getting a bit tired and worn, like it's best days were behind it. And yet with my current tank I'm on 3.6L per 100km, which is about 65 MPG (US), and my best tank average ever! Sure I've been on holidays and doing mostly slower trips with fairly little highway driving. Still crazy good though.
Yep, there have been quite a few trips about 30 km each way on an undulating winding road with mostly 60 km/hr (37 MPH) speed limits and only light traffic. Trips like that definitely give a huge boost to fuel economy.
Two days ago I made a trip to Birmingham alabama in a rain storm fighting head winds going 77 mph through hills.. let's just say, it's the worst mpg I've ever seen. 38 mpg! On the plus side on the way back with the cruise control set to 82 mph, even going 90 at one point, following another prius (a Gen 2) I got 42.8. I was going with the wind, it was so quiet! It was such a fun time flying up I-65
Yeah high speeds and head winds really knock the old MPG around. I've had that before. My usual trips aren't super high speed or anything, I normally do quite a bit around 60 MPH (100 km/hr) though. The last two weeks or so have had lot of uncharacteristicly slow roads, and I've been taking the opportunity to play a little bit of the hypermiling game. We've of course got summer down here at the moment, which also helps.
