i just recently bought a 2007 gen 2 prius. it is so far averaging me about 50 mpg.. very impressed and satisfied of course! i was wondering if the gen 3 mpg was similar, better, or worse? thx
3rd gen is generally better, especially at highway speeds. The 3rd gen also reports higher mpg than calculated by approx. 4%-6% high whereas the 2nd gen is only about 2% high. This over-reporting makes the mpg difference between generations look even higher.
While there are driving styles and situations where they get the same mileage, in general, Gen 3 is about 5 MPG better.
Gen 3 is better for most drivers, particularly in warm-up and on the highway. However, the Gen 2's smaller engine actually allows it to have greater potential efficiency and the different programming of the car made the Gen 2 easier for hypermilers wanting to push the car to the limit. Hence part of the excitement about the Prius c*. The 1.5L engine based on the Gen 2 plus lower weight increases the potential efficiency. Wayne Gerdes, hypermiler extraordinaire, managed to get 85mpg on a highway trip, something that the neither the Gen 2 nor Gen 3 Prius could possibly match. * Any excuse.
Yes, I'm driving a Gen. 3 and my dash calc. vs. the Fuelly calculation is almost always 3 mpg higher.
We have over 66,000 miles on our Prius. The mpg gauge is over reporting 3-4 mpg 99.99% of the time. Only a couple of times was it right on or slightly under reporting and than the next fill up it would be off 4-5 mpg, so it was the pump stopping too soon etc. Someday somebody will find a way to fix this by a simple software download or something.
I do not use Fuelly (Gen 2) but when I compare the dash indicator versus odometer calculation, the pen and paper is usually 1 mpg higher than the dash.
