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Improved Mpg When You Have More Time


thedeanobeano
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Had a couple of meetings yesterday and was in no rush (unlike my normal 85mph days)

Had a steady run on A roads and Motorway and achieved a not to embarrassing 73.6MPG over 130 miles.

Bottom grill is covered

Quite impressed considering the cold(ish) weather.

Car has now done 89k and am torn between keeping her or trying out an Ampera.

post-117713-0-99590600-1359645037_thumb.

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Had a couple of meetings yesterday and was in no rush (unlike my normal 85mph days)

Had a steady run on A roads and Motorway and achieved a not to embarrassing 73.6MPG over 130 miles.

Bottom grill is covered

Quite impressed considering the cold(ish) weather.

Car has now done 89k and am torn between keeping her or trying out an Ampera.

The higher purchase price of the Ampera against the Prius would deter me from getting one

Impressed to see your good MPG in the Prius :)

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From what I have heard, it is totally impossible to get the claimed MPG in the Ampera. Only very difficult in the Prius. Hehe. Toyota's customer service would make me stay with them.

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Had a couple of meetings yesterday and was in no rush (unlike my normal 85mph days)

Had a steady run on A roads and Motorway and achieved a not to embarrassing 73.6MPG over 130 miles.

Bottom grill is covered

Impressed with your mpg.

I have the bottom grill blocked but am nervous about doing a long high speed trip in case of overheating. Do you know what the outside temperature was?

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... Only very difficult in the Prius.

It's not very difficult to get the manufacturer's mpg in a Prius (or any other Toyota hybrid).

I often get 72mpg or more on a single journey.

I was getting 80+ mpg on the daily commute in the summer.

It is a bit harder to get your average mpg to the manufacturer's mpg but a check on fuelly will show that some people are doing it.

Can the same be said for 'normal' cars?

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Outside temperature was 10C.

In my previous gen 2 and the current gen 3 I usually block the bottom grill until the temps get to about 15C.

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Hi I thought on the Gen 2 you blocked the top grill ?.

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... Only very difficult in the Prius.

It's not very difficult to get the manufacturer's mpg in a Prius (or any other Toyota hybrid).

I often get 72mpg or more on a single journey.

I was getting 80+ mpg on the daily commute in the summer.

It is a bit harder to get your average mpg to the manufacturer's mpg but a check on fuelly will show that some people are doing it.

Can the same be said for 'normal' cars?

My Yaris does! :D

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The claims are for best achievable mpgs are by pulse and gliding below 30 mph, but in reality this is tough to achieve on UK roads IMHO. Needs a lot of concentration, anticipation and luck with the lights and traffic.

Next best, I think, happens to be with steady speeds in the 40-60 mph range such as on slightly congested motorways or when it's so quiet you can set the cruise and chill out in the slow lane (why rush to get somewhere when you only have to work when you get there!)

I monitor engine and inverter temperatures with ScanGauge II and can say there is VERY comfortable safety margin with ambient temperatures up to 15C. Bottom grill blocked on Gen 3. Last Easter I did London-Newcastle (300 miles) in just under 5 hrs, mostly cruising at an indicated 70 - 80 mph and engine temperature was nearly always below 90C. In fact, I then got lazy and then left the bottom block all through last summer.

SGII shows how much the engine is actually off when cruising and how quickly heat is dissipated. Most of the time I find the engine even struggles to reach the ideal operational range of 70-90C. It really is a cold-blooded creature!

On my previous Gen 2, I blocked top and bottom once temperatures dropped below 15C. I did this over 3 winters and never recorded high engine temperatures.

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Next best, I think, happens to be with steady speeds in the 40-60 mph range such as on slightly congested motorways or when it's so quiet you can set the cruise and chill out in the slow lane (why rush to get somewhere when you only have to work when you get there!)

That is my experience. The only time I managed 80mpg was on a 50 mile cruise at about 50mph on a warm afternoon with little other traffic about

I monitor engine and inverter temperatures with ScanGauge II and can say there is VERY comfortable safety margin with ambient temperatures up to 15C. Bottom grill blocked on Gen 3. Last Easter I did London-Newcastle (300 miles) in just under 5 hrs, mostly cruising at an indicated 70 - 80 mph and engine temperature was nearly always below 90C. In fact, I then got lazy and then left the bottom block all through last summer.

SGII shows how much the engine is actually off when cruising and how quickly heat is dissipated. Most of the time I find the engine even struggles to reach the ideal operational range of 70-90C. It really is a cold-blooded creature!

On my previous Gen 2, I blocked top and bottom once temperatures dropped below 15C. I did this over 3 winters and never recorded high engine temperatures.

Useful and reassuring lot of information there - thanks for posting.

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The only time I managed 80mpg was on a 50 mile cruise at about 50mph on a warm afternoon with little other traffic about

Nothing like a summer's drive in the New Forest to get to 80mpg ;)

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Wish I knew what I was doing wrong... I only get low 50's with a daily 55 mile each way journey on A roads and country lanes, keep to around 50-55mph (or within 30mph limits where appropriate). Even doing a straight motorway cruise at 60 for 150-200 miles returns only around 60... and of course that's on the (optimistic) computer compared with more realistic fuelly.

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Dave, have you pumped your tyres up - 42psi in mine.

Another tip is to accelerate up to speed briskly and then come off the throttle and then reapply ligh throttle to hold the speed - this seems to make the mpg indicator go up.

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Dave, country lanes, A roads, mean plenty of acceleration/decceleration, which wil definitely kill the mileage.

If it's any consolation my last tank gave me 42mpg (!) - cold weather, short commute (8 miles each way), mostly town driving, with the odd long distance.

My wife's got a Honda Civic 1.8, so pretty much the same car minus the hybrid technology, and she has a similar commute, brim-to-brim she got 28mpg.

Most of the time I follow driving techniques like accelerate-and-coast, etc. but sometimes I just like to floor it! So I really have no complaints ;-)

[edit] also make sure that when serviced they use 0w20 oil! That's going to add 5mpg at least.

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Yes - I've come to accept that I'll never be a hypermiler, and just console myself that other cars would be no better.... plus the Prius is so much easier to drive, and you still can't beat the feeling of smugness when sat in traffic at zero consumption!

As far as posting here is concerned, it's just to give a bit of balance and set expectations for any newbies who may be reading and expecting to get 70+mpg as a rule rather than as an exception.

As ever - your mileage may vary :)

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Even doing a straight motorway cruise at 60 for 150-200 miles returns only around 60...

60mpg is good for this time of year.

On the 150 mile motorway run this weekend, I averaged 56mpg on the dash.

In the summer, this would be high 60s.

My 20 mile commute suits the prius and I am getting 60mpg at the moment.

In the summer this goes into the high 70s and even 80+.

Even so, my overall average is 57mpg.

Don't forget, the Prius is a family sized, petrol, automatic.

Things to check.

Tyre pressure. At least the recommended pressure. Add a few PSI if you are comfortable to increase the mpg.

Low rolling resistance tyres. If your car has had new tyres fitted, maybe they are not LRR?

Wrong type of oil. Gen3 needs 0w20 oil. You might have been given 5w30 at services.

Things you can do:

Cabin temperature. The warmer you want it, the more fuel you burn.

Grill blocking. Couple of lengths of pipe insulation across the bottom grill (for gen3) when temps below 6C.

When in start/stop traffic, switch to ECO mode.

Driving style. Loads of tips!

In summer, use the aircon rather than wind down the window (unless stuck in stationary traffic).

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From what I have heard, it is totally impossible to get the claimed MPG in the Ampera. Only very difficult in the Prius. Hehe. Toyota's customer service would make me stay with them.

If you were so kind to provide data to support this claim, please?

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From what I have heard, it is totally impossible to get the claimed MPG in the Ampera. Only very difficult in the Prius. Hehe. Toyota's customer service would make me stay with them.

If you were so kind to provide data to support this claim, please?

Greetings Alfonso,

As the Ampera is VERY expensive in Denmark (a 150 per cent the price of a mid spec Prius) I have not done a lot of "research" into the actual MPG of this car. I notice that an English review says that the official MPG is probably possible if the car is charged fully once per day. In a Danish review, however, the motor journalists did not manage more than 76 MPG:

"På testens 145 kilometer opnåede vi et samlet forbrug på 27 km/l, hvilket er inklusive de knap 60 kilometers batteridrift. Forbruget for kørslen med forbrændingsmotoren som generator lå på ikke-imponerende 15,9 km/l, men hvor ofte kører du også længere end 60 km i ét stræk?"

"Having driven a total distance of 145 km, (approximately 90 miles), we achieved an average consumption of 27 km./l (approximately 76 UK MPG), which included having used nothing but Battery propulsion for just under 60 km (37 miles). Using the combustion engine as a generator returned a not too impressive 45 MPG, but then again, how often do you actually drive more than 37 miles in one stretch?"

Source: Danish car magazine "Bilexpressen.dk": http://www.bilekspre...sel-opel-ampera

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Yes - I've come to accept that I'll never be a hypermiler, and just console myself that other cars would be no better.... plus the Prius is so much easier to drive, and you still can't beat the feeling of smugness when sat in traffic at zero consumption!

As far as posting here is concerned, it's just to give a bit of balance and set expectations for any newbies who may be reading and expecting to get 70+mpg as a rule rather than as an exception.

As ever - your mileage may vary :)

I have a feeling that you might have the wrong oil in your car. The gen3 Prius MUST use 0w20 oil to get the quoted miles per gallon, but some dealers follow the gen2 service schedule which suggests 5w30. Oh and the fact that 0w20 oil is about £50 for 5 litres and 5w30 is about £20 might have something to do with it for cost cutting :) The 5w30 doesnt damage the car but it does stop it performing correctly as far as mpg's are concerned.

When I had 5w30 put in mine by mistake I struggled to get 55mpg, 60 mpg was almost impossible to get and anything over that was a dream. The correct oil was later put back in and all of a sudden 75 mpg was achievable again. Even now with 70k hard miles, I can still get 75-80 mpg 5 min averages on many sections of my daily commute.

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Yes - I've come to accept that I'll never be a hypermiler, and just console myself that other cars would be no better.... plus the Prius is so much easier to drive, and you still can't beat the feeling of smugness when sat in traffic at zero consumption!

As far as posting here is concerned, it's just to give a bit of balance and set expectations for any newbies who may be reading and expecting to get 70+mpg as a rule rather than as an exception.

As ever - your mileage may vary :)

I have a feeling that you might have the wrong oil in your car. The gen3 Prius MUST use 0w20 oil to get the quoted miles per gallon, but some dealers follow the gen2 service schedule which suggests 5w30. Oh and the fact that 0w20 oil is about £50 for 5 litres and 5w30 is about £20 might have something to do with it for cost cutting :) The 5w30 doesnt damage the car but it does stop it performing correctly as far as mpg's are concerned.

When I had 5w30 put in mine by mistake I struggled to get 55mpg, 60 mpg was almost impossible to get and anything over that was a dream. The correct oil was later put back in and all of a sudden 75 mpg was achievable again. Even now with 70k hard miles, I can still get 75-80 mpg 5 min averages on many sections of my daily commute.

THanks Grumpy.. sensible advice.

However - current mileage is on a brand new (well, just had it's first 10K service) GenIII, so I would hope it had the right oil and tyres from the factory! I had WWIII with the dealers a couple of years ago with my first Gen III, and had the experience of MPG dropping with tyres - unfortunately mine's a company lease car so I'm at the mercy of the leasing company.... though to be fair to them the were very supportive when I first had oil hassles.

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