Well I have to confess that I was a big sceptic of the Prius when they first arrived. The usual concerns complexity, reliability, battery life, cost, payback time............The continued rise in fuel costs with no logical way to even guess where it might be next year let alone 10 I revisited gas savers and considering all the factors hybreds seem to be the choice for someone who does not change cars evry couple years ( tend to keep ours 10 years or longer) Prius is the leader of that pack. Last month our gas bill exceded our mortgage, enough is enough. After driving both the Prius and the Pc we bought the Prius level III. I am quite impressed at this early point in time. Was able to squeeze over 50 mpg out of it on my first highway run of 300 miles( having had a scangage in my F250 the last 3 years trying to max the mileage out of that guzzler has given me basic training on allowing an instrument to train me to drive "right"). This seemed like a good spot to learn from the experiance of others. RAL
A person like you who ran a SG in a truck is a perfect fit for a Prius. Not that I think a SG makes that big of a difference, it just shows you are motivated. In you in-town driving learn to "drive without brakes." 60 - 70 mpg will be easy in temperate weather. Keeping fuel economy up in intemperate weather takes more thought and effort. Lucky for you you get to gain confidence in the spring There are many good threads and stickies in this forum explaining the do's and don'ts of the good fuel economy, but I suggest you head over to cleanmpg.com and read the tutorial that Wayne Gerdes authored. He can be intimidating in the sense that he understands that the sum of all savings leads to max savings, but he also points out the key points. As in many things, 80% of the max can be gained from 20% of max effort. Start there
About 12 months BP (Before Prius), a SG in concert with Uncle Wayne's advice made a considerable difference in my Subaru. I can easily imagine even more benefit in an F250.
I was able to gain a couple mpg using the SG in the 250. Now that the wife has the Prius I'll be driving the old CRV. The F250 will serve as the standby heavy lifter. I'll move the SG to the Honda. It is a 25 mpg pretty much all the time rig, wonder what she'll do with the SG? RAL
