Took the family on a road trip in the Prius for the first time last weekend...LA out to La Quinta...car was terrific and comfortable...despite two accidents on 10 going there (making 145 trip nearly 4 hours!), it was never cramped. Glad I had the white exterior in desert...kept it a little cooler....also, cloth seats are SO MUCH BETTER in the heat...no back of thigh burn! Mileage was good...46 mpg round trip, driving in mid 70's most of return...still not sure how I'm ever going to average 50. Left E350 @ home...never regretted it for a moment! (also, being black/black - a color combo I'll never make the mistake of buying again).
Last week I drove ~2100 miles on a Gen III Prii rental car. One tank netted 51 mpg and others in the 40's. Last February I rented the one pictured in my avatar and drove from Minnesota to Florida and all over the place in between over a 2.5 week adventure. Awesome car for those trips. $112 in gas to get there from here I put 5k miles on that rental. Mike
+1 to that! I had leather in past cars and the cloth is much better in the SW summers. Once you get about 5k miles on the Prius, it does much better I've found. I can now get 49 to 50 city (ECO mode) and have gotten as good as 53 on the road (mountainous driving).
I have put nearly 7K on my car in road trip mileage. It is fantastic. And you can carry a lot of stuff. You did really well with mileage. 46 MPG at 70+ MPH is solid.
