Archives

I'll start this one...

I added a couple of coroplast campaign signs under the middle of the front end to fair it in and took out the rear seat last night...not too big a deal -- four bolts for the backs, two for the belts and the seat bottom just clips in. A little noisier but still fine, and it's easy to reassemble if I need it.

40 MPG this morning at 25°F for 15.6 miles; better than I've seen in a while. The car seemed to hold its speed on glides a bit better, so I'd like to think the extra aero was helping. I came out of one warm-up pulse a bit early and had to light up to make it to a stop sign. Traffic lights were nearly perfect -- glide in behind the traffic just as it's accelerating for green, no need to brake. A little drafting behind a semi with a flatbed and heavy load (great for DWL as well). :D Tank's up to 36.0.

Brought the tank up to 47.9mpg, for a ~52-53mpg segment this morning. It was a "nice, warm" 25-27F and dead calm.

Just glad to have made it without being part of an accident - it was 45F, raining, foggy, hard to see even with defrost on. Was at 80mpg at the middle of the trip, but traffic, etc. brought it down to 74mpg.

20 degrees this morning and snow on the roads.
The traffic was realively slow with only a minor section of stop and go.
Ended up at 63.9 for the morning.

Much better than the mid fifties I was getting over the weekend.

51.3 into work this morning at 19F with maybe 3" of snow on the ground, rerouted to avoid hills so actually 6.7 miles. Tank up to 49.4, just went to 2 pips.

Note: For previous weeks, look here, and for later weeks, look here.

Good drive in this morning (62.3 mpg). Getting the new route down with some good sync'd lights. Trying to work on drafting for my 3.6mi highway leg. Best I could do was a suburban.

I'll go ahead and post my weeks logs:

This week:# Notes Start End mpg_ Trip T 50W Er±
== ========= trip mpg_SoC trip mpg_SoC avg mi °F car_mpg
01:Drove in Mon Feb 12 213.5 60.7 6 227.9 60.8 5 62.32 14.4 62.5 2.5 1.6
02:Car Shopping (many short trips) 227.9 60.8 5 256.7 59.1 3 48.39 28.8 64.7 ? 0.6
03:Drive in Tue Feb 13 + missing trip? 256.7 59.1 3 279.9 59.3 5 61.61 23.2 64.7 5.0 1.2
04:Drive home, heavy cross winds? 279.9 59.3 5 294.2 59.1 5 55.44 14.3 51.0 3.0 1.8
05:Drv In Feb14,+heater never hit S4 294.2 59.1 5 308.9 58.6 6 50.11 14.7 40.0 ? 1.5
06:Kids sick, many small trips 308.9 58.6 6 346.4 58.5 4 57.69 37.5 43.3 ? 0.9
07:Drive in Feb 15, mid 30s 346.4 58.5 3 360.8 58.3 4 53.87 14.4 36.0 2.5 2.1
08:Drive Home 360.8 58.3 4 375.0 58.2 6 55.77 14.2 36.0 2.5 2.4
09:Son's Karate class (short trip) 375.0 58.2 6 378.7 58.0 6 43.02 3.7 43.0 2.5 6.0
10:Groceries 378.7 58.0 5 383.0 57.9 4 50.27 4.3 39.0 2.5 6.9
11:Drive in Feb 16, mid 30s 383.0 57.9 4 397.4 57.6 6 50.62 14.4 32.0 2.5 2.1
12:Drive home 397.4 57.6 6 411.7 57.6 6 57.60 14.3 32.0 2.5 2.8
13:Drive in to Church Feb 18 411.7 57.6 5 423.3 57.4 6 51.10 11.6 45.5 ? 2.9
14:Drive home from Church 423.3 57.4 6 434.9 57.5 6 61.40 11.6 61.5 ? 4.2

Current city 62.01% Goal EPA_mpg for current city/hwy split = 56.58_mpg
Current hwy 37.99% Current_mpg for current city/hwy split = 54.72_mpg

Difference = 96.71%Key:
Start_Trip = The trip/tank mileage when I started the drive.
Start_mpg = The tanks mpg via the FCD at the start of the drive.
Start_SoC = The number of bars on the battery icon at the start of the drive.
End_Trip = The trip/tank mileage when I finished the drive.
End_mpg = The tanks mpg via the FCD at the end of the drive.
End_SoC = The number of bars on the battery icon at the end of the drive.
mpg_avg = The calculated mpg for this drive.
Trip_mi = The length of this drive.
T_°F = The average temperature for this drive
50W_car = The number of green regen cars that show on my consumption screen
Er±mpg = The range of error associated with mpg_avg

I had no choice but to get gas on a short trip over the weekend. After a mile and a half, mileage was in the low-30s. But after a single morning of driving (even with snow) it's up into the mid-40s and climbing.

Too bad it's going to turn sub-zero temps again. Oh yeah, and several inches of snow.

An overturned 18-wheeler leaking ethanol has shut down Interstate 35E in both directions in Lewisville. I-35E is shut down at Justin Road, near Fox Street and Main Street exits.


Hope the excitement is over by the time I head home: it's within a mile of where I exit the freeway for home.

I had a pretty good start to the week. Temps were ~25F when I started out. I was averaging 46.3(15.4 miles) by the time I got into work. This afternoon the temp was ~30F and I averaged 52.6(15.9 miles) for the trip home. My car sets just long enough for the "today" trip to reset so, if I did the math right, I ended up with 49.68 mpg for the day. The high segment was 54.5(6.3 miles) and the low segment was 40.3(5.8 miles).

Update: I went and filled up tonight because I was at~1/4 tank and they are forecasting blizzard-like conditions for tonight/tomorrow. The tank was a dismal 44.6 mpg but the trip home from the station came to 65.1:woot:

Oh yeah, Larry, you are going to get pounded tonight and tomorrow. Stay indoors and stay safe.

Priapus is having a steering wheel shaft replacement right now. They disconnect the 12v battery which means that he will lose all driving history. It'll take 3,000 miles before we're partners again. I just hope he's a fast learning. :D

It looks like the heaviest snows will be south of us towards the Rochester/Peru area...I hope:) Although, we could still get 6"+.:( Tony, tell Priapus I said to get well soon.;)

Just filled up - very disappointed:( only 34.02 for tank. My first tank here was my best and have been going down hill since. A little discouraged - I know it was really cold for most of this tank 20 to 0 degrees . My commute in the morning kills me. Its only 5 miles and even with air dam and warm pulse and glide. By the time it warms up really good I'm at work.

Any suggestions?

and I still cant get that blue thingy with my mpg to load or pop?

i was a dork......stupid...not paying attention.

i filled up at a different station than my usual, because the deep freeze temps finally broke for a day and my car need a wash badly. i grabbed the first hose to the left, which is where the regular unleaded is, and didn't notice until i paid that i got premium.......sheesh.......

it seemed like it was a whole lot harder to get my mileage back up where it usually is early in a tank........

i want spring, please.

I've been fighting a cold. I stopped for at the doctor's and Whole Foods to pick up some chicken soup after work, then went looking for a flower store that's apparently gone out of business...I spent a lot of time spinning around. 33.8 MPG at 35°F.

My expressway section has about ten interchanges and a service area in the six miles I'm on it. This morning, a semi pulled out of the service area doing 25 MPH while traffic was whizzing by on my left at 65. :( Not much choice but to throw it away, but I still managed to squeak out 37.9 MPG at 14°F. Tank's at 35.7 MPG.

We're expecting a Nor'easter tomorrow through Thursday and we haven't had much snow this season, so I may take some vacation time instead of risking an accident.

This morning's commute was 55.0 MPG at 40º, and the current tank is holding at 58+. We won't have the snow with this approaching storm that some of the rest of you are/will be getting, but temps are supposed to drop again after it passes through. Dammit! I'm working hard to push my database average to the hypermiler level, now sitting an eyelash below it, but Mother Nature is not too helpful.

My 5 mile commute got me 38.5mpg. My engine at start up is at 31 - when I arrive its 184.
My highest speed was 42.

A little tail wind and no snow on the road.
9 degrees.
70.5 coming in to work today.
(30 miles)

I've had four straight morning commutes of 55+MPG.

Thursday: 55.8 MPG at 23ºF
Friday: 55.3 MPG at 28ºF
Monday: 55.1 MPG at 30ºF
Tuesday (today): 60.1 MPG at 39ºF

Hopefully tomorrow will be another good one.

It was 49F and got 80.7mpg this morning! Temperatures will go below freezing in a day or two, so the FE will also dive...

I hereby subtitle today's post "the effect of wind".

There's been a brisk wind out of the NE (20 mph or so) for the last day. This means that my commute home was (on average) directly into the wind, and my commute to work this morning had a tailwind.

Yesterday's commute home was an abysmal 43.6 / 6.1 miles / 23F - not perfect traffic-wise or light-wise, but not horrible, I thought. The wind said otherwise.

This morning's commute with the same wind, this time behind me, was 57.9 / 6.1 miles / 16F. This even though I thought the route itself went less than perfectly (random garbage trucks and school buses causing unexpected stops).

I didn't think wind would be such a huge factor with entirely city driving, but these two commutes show otherwise.

Disclaimer: The picture below is a joke... My prius is fine... :o

Went car shopping last night for a new minivan since Toyota won't split their hybrid market up by importing the Estima :mad: . Well in Houston, all the dealers are lined up in one stretch of Highway (just outside the city to escape municipal tax). So it required about half a dozen trips all about 3 miles. I never got to stage 4, so the ICE was always on. So from the time I left work, to the time we finished shopping and parked in our driveway, I was only able to manage 48 mpg (and in Houston, I got no cold to blame). Brings my week average down to 55.2 mpg, just under my EPA goal of 55.6 mpg.

I'm almost resigned to performing the Engine Veto (EV) Button surgery. I'll probably try to do the OEM install, but fear it might look more like this by the time I'm done.
http://www.evnut.com/images/prius/disassembly/dash_crash.jpg

62.5 mpg yesterday and today with temps in the 30's? I dunno. Just trying to keep the iFCD as high as possible. Over the weekend had some unavoidable interstate driving when hypermiling just wasn't possible.

But just trying to hang in there 'till Spring, which seems awfully far away lately?

Hang in there everyone!

Bob

A short drive to an appointment during the day with a lot of lights...19 MPG on the way out, 28 MPG on the way back. The grille and underside are blocked, so hopefully some of the heat will still be there for the ride home. I'm getting out late today, so I'll probably be dealing with heavy traffic.

Wow, what day is it? I was stuck in a training room all day and lost track.

Extra driving due to the training, but did pretty well. I ended this tank early at 225 miles (four bars out of ten, but that last one was pretty stale) and 48.1mpg on the MFD. The beautiful thing was that I actually got a calculated number that was nearly consistent! 47.7mpg at the pump. That Shell station always gave me consistent fills with the Accord so I guess I'll just make it a point to go back with the Prius whenever possible.

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:kcZxje-ypeCpGM:http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/Caldoniaa/swaggart.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/Caldoniaa/swaggart.jpg)

After driving the straight and narrow this morning on a 80mpg+ run, I get 56mpg on the way back. I was doing like a few years ago and "showing" a couple of lead-footed idiots. One was a pickup in a residential area that figures I'm the 98-pound weakling - the other is a guy that on the freeway that was somewhat reckless, got passed by me and the traffic, and kind of looked like he was not exactly sober.

While I did not do anything really stupid, it did remind me I did this 2-3 times a week a few years ago and getting around 55mpg instead of 70-75. Part of my reason to avoid rush hour is to avoid temptation. ;) :o

At least it can be said I can't rermember the last time I did this...

55.4 on the way home. Can't quite think of why. The only thing I could think to blame was the strong crosswind. It's making it harder to get back up to my 60 mpg tank though.

I've updated this weeks logs.

At least it can be said I can't rermember the last time I did this...

RE-CAL!! :eek:

Feel better? ;)

Hi All:

___Oh boy did I have a fun day … 2 hours and 45 minutes to get into work this morning. Interstate was snow covered and I did not see a lane divider for the first 35 miles. I did have a nice 20 - 25 + mph tail wind for about 1/3 of the drive. Offset tail/side wind for the rest. 40.5 was the result and I was ecstatic to get it! Funny thing is with that tail wind when heading due west and traveling 35 mph at 1,200 RPM w/ the TC still locked up; I was seeing 40 - 45 mpg on the iFCD. Never have I ever seen that before under those conditions? It was the only thing that saved me as everything else failed in the conditions Chicago had this morning.

___Then the real fun began. On the way home, 25 to 35 + mph winds only head on. Driving the first 8 miles from a training facility to the Interstate and I might as well have been cutting a trail for snowmobiles. 4” of fresh snow and not a plow in sight :( Interstate was snow packed and covered the whole way home … Saw an SUV and P/U flying by in the fast lane (totally snow covered and packed) about 10 miles south of Joliet. 5 miles later the P/U was piled into a guard rail taking out 1.5 lanes. Figures. The slush and snow was so bad I stopped twice just to remove the mess from the windshield by hand! A whopping 38.7 mpg to a Mobil 30 miles from home. Filled up and posted my worst tank ever at 39.35 mpg. Those - 9 to 5 degree F temps really kicked me in the teeth last week. From the station, stop and crawl driving in the worst winter conditions in … forever. Total time: 3 hours and 45 minutes. Last 30 miles, 34.5 mpg :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Well hey, Wayne, your worst tank is still better than my best, and you're driving a bigger car.

I had a late meeting yesterday and had to get home in time for dinner, so I wound up right in the thick of the evening rush -- 5:30-6:30 PM. The different traffic patterns caught me off guard in a couple of places, and I was having to do very short pulses from a stop to inch forward for multiple light cycles. If it was flat, I probably would've just opened the door and pushed it instead. :D In spite of everything, I still managed a reasonable 33.7 MPG for 15-1/2 miles.

Snow today and I could use a day off anyway, so I'm staying home. A lot of the local schools have canceled as well because there hasn't been any significant snow this season until now.

All that winter stuff started up here overnight. We're getting this pelletized icy semi-wet crap in 18F temps that sticks to itself as it lands, creating a hard-packed road surface until the plows come by and pummel it into powder. If there are any plows. I've never seen anything quite like it.

My ride took about 50 minutes at 30mph on the highway route, as I wasn't taking any chances with the big hills on roads that probably haven't even been looked at by a plow or sand truck. People were reasonable for a while but started getting stupid the more congested the road got. I was happy to get off the roads when I did, and wth 43.7mpg to show for it.

For all the FE headaches they present, the snow tires are worth it. This little car drove like a champ! I've heard all kinds of horror stories about Prius in the snow and I have to assume it's the Integritys giving the car a bad name. Of course I still have to get home somehow and the ride is supposed to be worse later in the day due to freezing rain. We'll see how that goes.

69.7mpg at 29F - could have done around 72mpg on this Insight.

Outside of an equally ugly commute home (see post from yesterday, that wind was still howling), some pretty decent trips to bring the average up. All city driving.

43.2 / 6.1 miles / 16F (w/headwind, starting WT 27F)
67.7 / 11.6 miles / 14F (head/cross wind, starting WT 110F)
52.9 / 11.6 miles / 9F (tail/cross wind, starting WT 42F)
...and a nearly perfect commute into work this morning in terms of traffic and lights, 56.9 / 6.1 miles / 1F (block heater aided, starting WT ~100F)

Tank average is up to 49.9 / 1 pip. And we all know 49.9 is a world of difference from 50.1. :D Still a few miles left to salvage a 50MPG tank.

Filled up last night and got 42 for the week. :) Temps here have been 40-50. I have a 10-mile commute, half rural 55mph and half city 40mph. We'll see what this new cold (at least for Texas...) does in the coming week.

I may have to try a grill block. My temperature gauge only starts to move when I'm almost through my commute.

Hi All:

___Another one of those days … 3 + inches of Lake Effect on the local streets and not a plow to be seen. Hit the Interstate and its wet/mush for over 40 miles. 38.7 was the result. I have to come up with something different and soon :( Darn Chicago weather these past 3 weeks anyway :mad:

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I had a light coating of ice on my windshield this morning, which required the defroster. On top of that, I was running late, so I had to take the highway. 47.2 MPG at 32ºF. I have the next week off, so hopefully the weather will warm up by then.

Goodbye 60MPG tank. Drive in today was 50.11. I seemed completely unable to get to S4 and no matter how black the arrows were the ICE just kept on running. Figured out when I dropped the kids off that it was because I'd had the heater on the whole commute. Wouldn't have turned it off even if I did figure it out though, the kids needed the heat. 40C in Houston is practically an ice-age. Think most of the hit to my mpg was the heater and not the weather.

Ohh well, can't have the kids shivering. Tank average down to 59.1 (link in my sig).

___Next item … I use higher ICE loads during P&G but never for heading up to a steady cruise. The two accel’s are fundamentally different methods for achieving max FE for a given set of conditions. Re-read Tarabell’s article and look at the accel tests I designed for her. The slow and steady accel to a given target beat a faster accel to the same steady speed target over the same distances. P&G and accel to a steady state target are two different techniques and do not result in the same accels to reach a given max FE goal over a given distance.


Thanks for that reminder Wayne. I have been using the same TPS# for P&G as I do for regular acceleration. I think you have probably went over this before( :o ) but, if I'm accelerating up to speed at 15 on the TPS(my car registers from 0-99), what would be a good P&G TPS reading? I'm thinking 25-30 but am not sure.

Now, for the "Daily Grind." We got pounded with 8-10" of "sky poop" along with winds that were steady at 15-20 mph with gusts of 30+:eek: My morning commute before the storm wasn't too bad. I had 47.0 by the time I rolled into my spot at work. The afternoon portion went through the cellar. I had an average of 36.* by the time I picked up my wife and got home which brought my average for the day to a touch above 41.5.:( Spring...Are we there yet?:)

Yes, I am posting a bit early today. One good thing about the "sky poop" is: if it gets bad enough you get a day off. :D

O MPG today - I had the day off thanks to the wonderful snow/ice.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/garage/images/294.png

I simply saw some assumptions that do not match my own experiences in the many hybrid and non-hybrid vehicles I have had the opportunity to drive. Seeing brief moments of glory and turning that into gospel is how you may possibly lead a new member astray so please be very careful out there.

I wouldn't want to do that, so I've removed the reply and reference to it. I'm sorry for the inaccurate information and thread disruption.

I found tarabell's other article and have some new information to digest, so hopefully your input and hers will help me along.

The sky poop has indeed arrived in the northeast, but I braved
the sleet-balls and went out for a quick cruise around town
anyways just to collect a little data. Haven't actually *tried*
the Hydroedges in the muck yet. Well, despite all the whining
and horror stories over on the Prius forums, this li'l thing
pulls like a tractor. Only came close to getting stuck when
I swung into a mostly unplowed school lot to turn around, and
wound up in the deep stuff pointing slightly uphill, and
gradually ground to a halt. At that point the steady-pressure-
and-let-traction-control-do-its-thing strategy wouldn't work
anymore, but a little judicious jigging between reverse and
forward eventually worked me out of it in little segments back
into the shallower swath where a plow had come by a long time
ago, and then everything was fine. No need to break the snow
shovel out of the back seat. It was a lot of fun in general,
and I've definitely confirmed that the car will NOT let you
go into "Park" anywhere over 2 MPH in either direction. [I
needed something other than dry pavement to test that.]
.
At half a tank, though, MPG average is completely in the toilet
at 44.0. Wasn't doing a whole lot better before that anyways,
with the cold, but this one might be my first sub-50 tank in
a really long time. Of course going out and playing snowmobile
just for fun doesn't help.
.
But for the record, the Prius [with better tires on it] is
a *dandy* snow car. It was also fun watching the green diamond (http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/tpms/)
alternately blink the side LEDs fast and then slowly, as the
spin-limiting kicked in and out -- but it did so very smoothly,
I couldn't really feel any step change.
.
_H*

I forgot to note on my earlier post that the information was for yesterday. It was today that I had off. Unfortunately for me, the wife had to work.:( By the time I took her to work and picked her up and went to my mom's and went grocery shopping:rolleyes: , I still had racked up 61.* miles for the day and was able to average 44.8. :)

OMG...I have so much work to do on this tank! I don't even know how I'm going to salvage it. I'm actually pretty happy about sitting at 40mi and 43mpg after driving only in a winter storm. But at the same time I'm at 43mpg and have a long way to come back. I think my sig asks the only question that needs to be asked.

Like Dan in Houston, I'm having trouble hitting 60 mpgs on this tank because of the cold (40 degree high today in Austin). Currently sitting at 58 mpg at 250 miles with 7 pips left. 60mpg/600 miles still might be doable with temps improving.

We will be moving at some point in the next 2 years or so within the Austin area. All of a sudden, square feet & schools seem like minor issues compared to the big one...................what will my commute look like??!!!!!! :)

Scored 57.7 remarkably while running errands. Pharmacy, video, pizza. Lots of parking lot P&G. EPA for the trip based on city and highway split was only 56.4, so I managed to just eek by it.

Getting excited about the thought of the EV button surgery based on feedback from my last post on it. Thanks for all the input guys. I'll probably still mill over the decision for weeks but it feels like I'll do it.

Being able to enforce S2 & S3 glides will put me in much better standing. That's where I'm getting most of my hit.

One or two good commutes and I should eek back past EPA for the week.

Tank now stands at 58.5 but because of all the highway miles it still puts me closer to EPA numbers than the earlier 59.1.

Hopefully warmer days will get mparrish and I back to a 60.0 tank. Full tank log in my sig.

33.6 MPG at 14°F this morning, some wind, roads covered with rough ice. The car wouldn't coast worth a darn and death turns are definitely out.

I hate this weather. It took 20 minutes worth of scraping and heating to get 1/4" of packed ice off of the windshield this morning. There was absolutely nothing I could do to bring up the mileage after that so this tank is completely hosed, not even up to 40mpg right now.

Last night I got 59.6mpg in 30F weather, with a little bit of stop-and-go.....and dealing with another tollway jerk. :mad:

This morning it was abour 25F and got 72mpg - about par, even though it seems I had 2-3 tailgaters (who easily could have passed me).

Had to drive home during the middle of the day yesterday, and drive back an hour later. That drive back being mostly warmed up and with very little traffic was beautiful.

49.0 / work->house (6.1 miles) / 14F
60.3 / house->work / 16F, more or less pre-warmed up
48.9 / work->house, 14F
52.8 / house->work, 1F (block-heater aided) - I see we're back to the deep freeze.

Tank at 50.2 / last pip. I'm ecstatic about a 50 tank avg for how cold it's been, and because after the first 3 trips the tank was sitting at 38.

53.9 on the way in. Not at all what I was hoping, but due in part to the 36F weather (I know, it's like spring to you guys). The real hit is that I have to run the heater, and that always gets me. At least I was able to P&G the climate control. This allowed the ICE to shut off when I wanted it to.

As soon as I get some time, I'll move it into the garage. That should help.

Still below EPA for the week, but haven't completely cratered the tank yet (at least compared to the EPA goal). Updates linked in my sig.

Temps were ~15F with winds 10-15 mph. Today's commute of 31.2 miles ended up at 44.4 mpg.

Hi All:

___Chicago had an almost 60 degree day in Dec. and yet another day below 0 again this morning. Projected to be - 4 in the morning when I leave … I don’t know what it wrong with February but I hope it goes away soon ;)

___- 3 to 4 degrees F in w/ a 39.9 result. 16 - 19 home with a 43.3. We need some warmer temps. Average temps for my locale in Feb. is 33/17 (Hi/Lo) and I haven’t seen the low but twice in the last 3 weeks :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Went home late last night, after the rush...I couldn't do my normal warm-up P&G because my egress was blocked by ice piles, there's rough ice all over the parking lot and the traffic light at the end of the street is out. I took a different way home that allows more DWB but less P&G, thinking that I'd have problems with my normal glides because of the turns and ice. Only 31.5 MPG at 10°F for 15 miles -- my worst commute in quite a while, but still better than my tanks last summer.

I left the car outside last night to keep the salt and ice from thawing in the garage, so I started from 10°F instead of 35 this morning. Glides were longer on the warm-up P&G, since some of the ice has gone away in my neighborhood. Once I got past the first light, I found myself catching up to a box truck with nobody behind, so I was able to pulse and D-FAS for several miles to the expressway. Caught a draft target on the expressway, found a slower one in the right lane, then he braked to 25 to turn off at the service area. :( The rest was fairly normal, except I couldn't glide into a space...I had to relight just to get across the lot because it's so rough with all the ice. 35 MPG for 15.5 miles at 10°F.

Had the ECU replaced in my Civic. Just posted a tank of 40.7 mpg. It had helped.

psy

71.2mpg at 19F - coldest commute this winter. Maybe a couple of more miles could have been added.

Finished off the tank yesterday.

- 50.0 / 7.9 miles / 14F from work to the gas station I've been using whenever possible to try to get some semblance of consistency.

Tank finished at 50.2 / 390 miles / went to 0 pips at 389 miles. It went into the database as 51.2 based on fuel pumped.

Got the new tank off on the right foot, and if the forecast for next week is correct I might even be able to hold it there! :cool: Current forecast calls for mid-30s by early next week. We seriously haven't seen 25+ since 1/22.

- 54.1 / 1.6 miles / 16F home from the gas station. (MFD reported 75.6, I swear that thing has a mind of it's own right after being reset :confused: )
- 70.7 / 11.6 miles / 14F, less than an hour after the above. I thought traffic actually went poorly for this segment :eek:
- 51.3 / 11.5 miles / 7F after sitting in the cold for 2 hours
- 68.0 / 3.9 miles / 7F - this is really an extension of the above (stop without shutdown), combined then is 54.7 / 15.4 miles.
- 52.0 / 6.1 miles / 1F into work this morning.

New tank at 59.7 / 35 miles. Spring is just around the corner! Hang in there everyone!

Temp started out at -2F this morning. By the time I glided into my spot at work, the average was at 43.3. This afternoon, after seeing just a touch over 51 on the segment from my wife's work to home, I ended up with the average at 45.8 for the day's commute. My mother-in-law is taking us out for seafood later so I may have a chance to bring today's average a little closer to 50.

Hi All:

___- 4 to 2 degree temps this morning w/ a 10 mph headwind. 40.5 was all I could deliver :( Finally received a decent 10 – 15 mph tail wind in temps from 11 - 14 degrees F for the ride home. 46.7 to show for it. I will take that number any day in these temps :)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Boy, this tank is putting up a fight. I punch up to 60.5, and a cold front (25F in Austin this a.m.) knocks it down to 58. If I can survive "weekend family highway driving", I can probably still hit 60 by fillup at the end of next week.

335 miles with 5 pips left. Still looking good for my first 600 mile tank.

Given the fluidity of the many variables, I find it hard to tell if the car is breaking in, and if so how much it has broken in. Temperatures, routes, and me just getting better seem to mask any possible improvements due to break in.

I'm sitting on 3300 miles. I've read numerous different posts re: break in.........that it happens at 3k, 5k, 6k, etc. From other Prius owners experiences, when did you first notice a bump due to break in? And was it over the course of a couple thousand miles? Or fairly dramatic?

This wasn't the week to get anywhere *near* other vehicles,
especially trucks. Huge flat chunks of ice were flying off
on a regular basis yesterday; they'd go way up and make a
couple of lazy, looping turns and then come slamming down
on either the road or a following vehicle. Lots of sudden
"ohsh1t" brake-lights in the left lane where people were
being the usual stupid. Most of the snow is off the roofs
by now, but today I saw something even more terrifying. Next
to me was a semi that had apparently been through lots of
slop, and there were HUNDREDS of pounds of compacted salty
ice stuck to the bogey wheel framework of the trailer. Which
looked as though it could calve off that iceberg at any
moment; that dropping onto the road would clearly take out
any car behind the thing. I let him get *far* away, noting
the several idiots crammed right in on his butt and totally
oblivious to the hazard.
.
A while later there was a big traffic slowdown and I had to
squeeze past the results of a 4 or 5 car mixup; I don't think
it was caused by the truck-iceberg because I thought I saw
that same truck also squeezing past the mess ahead of me.
But just looking 6 feet over while I was next to that guy
and seeing that huge pendulous mass made a really big
impression on me.
.
First sub-50-mpg fillup in a *long* time last night; it's
like nine frigin' degrees around here. New tank is
hovering right around 50; had to fight it up from 20-
something because we were doing a bunch of signal-capture
last night and running it there in a nice warm bay but
not actually *going* anywhere for that bit of burned gas.
Then tonight I was trying to pseudo-jumpstart someone
except that when you do that from a Prius, you want to just
charge the target battery and then unhook before they try
cranking. So I was powered up for like 2 hours, sporadically
running the ICE to maintain HV charge and push a trickle
of that energy over to the other car. Doesn't work very
well, I'll add; just because I'm sourcing 14V doesn't mean
the other battery is going to pull much more than an amp
even if it's fairly drained. So obviously I need to throw
together a little boost converter of some sort.
.
_H*

Full time commutes this week have been pretty weak. Morning temps in the teens and lousy traffic conditions have produced trip MPGs in the 40s. But some redemption yesterday. Two trips across town (part time commute and dinner out with my lady) produced a daily figure of 63.3. The commute home itself was 67.6. It could have been better but I was a bit pushed to get home, pick her up, and get to the restaurant by our reservation time.

Getting close to another 500 mile tank: One pip left (not blinking) with about 470 miles. Tank MPG is 57+.

Since last post:

- 59.2 / 11.4 miles / 16F
- 52.3 / 5.4 miles / 14F 30 minutes after the above.
- 70.0 / 14.1 miles / 14F about 20 minutes after the above. I missed the break-even point of stop w/shutdown vs. stop w/o shutdown by a little bit, as it had to run once to maintain charge while parked. If I take that into account the trip was more like 66-67.
- 56.3 / 14.1 miles / 18F after being parked outside for 36 hours.

Tank sitting at 59.6 / 80 miles. Forecast high for tomorrow and the next few days is still 35-40 and no precip. Sounds like biking weather to me. ;)

Hi All:

___I guess I might as well be the one to finish off this weeks fun … Maybe 20 or so < 2, < 6 and < 10 mile trips this weekend. The (2) 2-mile stints yielded 29 and 36 respectively. Got caught at 3 and 2 lights respectively each way from dead cold and there just isn’t enough time/distance to make up for it :( A ton of 38 - 40’s for the rest and all in temps from 10 - 22 degrees F. Should eek out above 40 for the tank in the morning but I am still locked into this crazy short tank/horrid FE cycle :( Where are those darn 30 + degree F temps!!!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

You guys (gender-non-specific of course) make me jealous.

For me, a good tank is anything above 24 mpg.
Shucks, my car is above 3000 lb. and is shaped like a brick.
But it's doing better than when I bought it.

You guys (gender-non-specific of course) make me jealous.

For me, a good tank is anything above 24 mpg.
Shucks, my car is above 3000 lb. and is shaped like a brick.
But it's doing better than when I bought it.

If we were measuring at liters per 100km, your improvements could be among the most dramatic. ;)

Hi Brucepick:

___Hang in there and don’t give up hope! I remember the first time I touched 35 in the Brick of a Ranger P/U and I was thinking “Oh My God”! 35 is a winter tank with short trips now ;) Don’t worry, with a little more practice while out on a desolate road, that monster (it looks like a Volvo Station Wagon?) will be singing sweet music with you behind her windscreen … In the bigger scheme of things, when its time for your next vehicle, I think I know what type of vehicle you will be considering as a replacement. I am quite sure you will be as ready to take her to new heights without having to work it all out on your own given what you are learning today :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne

My week ended up yesterday pretty low. Temps in the 30's to 40's took a hit. More on stage progression I think than actual ICE efficiently I think.

So far this tank based on my city/hwy split and the EPA numbers between I have:

Week 1 of this tank = 104.79 % EPA
Week 2 of this tank = 96.71 % EPA <== That's this week.

All in all the averages put me just over EPA (really, just by a hair). Full tank and week info is updated in my sig as well.