Week of Feb 26th - Mar 4th, 2007

JimboK · #71 03-03-2007, 03:09 PM

Oh, the fickle Prius bladder! As I've been telling ya'll, I've been hoping the current tank would be the first at 60+ MPG. Until after today's fillup and doing the math, that is. (I use calculated FE for my database entries.)

The MFD showed 63.0 MPG and the ScanGauge 61.9 @ 517 miles. Today was pretty warm (upper 60s), so I figured the bladder might be a little more flexible and take a tad more than what the instruments suggested, maybe 8.5 to 9 gallons. But 10 stinking gallons?! 51.7 MPG!! Ugghh!!!

I know it will work out in the long run, but the calculated MPG has never been this far off from the instruments. And it makes it that much longer before the database will show Hypermiler status. Can I be an honorary Hypermiler? Pretty please??

locutus · #72 03-04-2007, 01:38 AM

dcoyne78, xcel, Dan - thank you for the kind words and encouragement.

Can't wait for spring to shoot for what mparrish and Dan have been posting. Ah, 70+MPG daily averages.

JimboK - the bladder giveth, and the bladder taketh away.

I haven't had one quite as bad as your current one but it was close - 58.4 MFD-reported / a sub-EPA 49.6 calculated. Ugh. It does balance out though - over 36 tanks the MFD has been, on average, 2.1% optimistic for me. You might have a big swing back on the next tank (as brick did) or it might take a few.

More trips tomorrow for me (nothing today). The forecast is looking up over the next week - mid-30s, sunny, and no more white stuff.

diamondlarry · #73 03-04-2007, 06:17 AM

Locutus, Thanks for posting your results. Since I live in northern IN it gives me an idea of what I could expect if I were to buy a Prius.

Tony, I saw a picture of the statue of Priapus on the History Channel last night.

xcel · #74 03-04-2007, 06:34 AM

Hi All:

___As the week comes to a close, let us hope temps and weather conditions improve for everyone.

___Jared, you have become one of the best far northern states - Prius driver in the country in all less then a year!

___Jim, we can only hope the bladder issue goes away with the next iteration. If every other PZEV rated automobile in the country can do without a bladdered tank including Camry PZEV’s, Toyota just has to get rid of it for the next go around! I hope

___23 - 26 degrees going home last night w/ the same 15 + mph winds from the side. 43.7 to show. Coming in this morning, it was again in the teens (15 - 18 degrees F) with a slightly lighter side wind (10 - 15 mph) and a lousy 40.3

Fill up right after work and hope to see better days in the near future.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

brick · #75 03-04-2007, 04:26 PM

Well, I had a really fantastic weekend of driving. Started out on Saturday morning with my trip to Mike's place to help pull the engine/trans out of his donor Insight. The first part of that trip was a nasty haul up-hill on I-84, but the payoff was tooling around on about 20 miles of really beautiful rolling New England back roads.

From there I continued on to some family stuff in Rhode Island, which was another 30 miles on some of those great roads and getting pretty decent mileage. Unfortunately the magnitude of some of those hills knocked down the segment FE, but the MFD was solidly in the 52-53mpg range. I used a mix of DWL and Warp Stealth depending on what I had to work with.

Finally, I headed back home this morning. Usually I just head west on the "obvious" interstate route. But my experience driving through eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island prompted me to look for a better way. Turns out that the better way is a whole lot better! By looking for non-obvious back roads I managed to knock the segment length down from 105 miles to 64 miles, and shaved about 20 minutes off of the trip time despite much slower speeds. Even better, I was pretty much on my own out there. It appears that the crazy idiots pretty much stick to the highways and leave these 40-50mph state routes for those of us who want to enjoy the ride. Again, there were Monster (with a capital M) hills to contend with, that knocked the segment FE way down. But right now the MFD is showing 170 miles on the tank and 52.6mpg, which is just fine by me! I just can't wait to take the same route in the opposite direction (net loss in altitude) to see what kind of FE can be cranked out of it.

It's just too bad tomorrow is Monday.

brucepick · #76 03-04-2007, 06:44 PM

Hello Brick,

I may have done a similar trip a couple years ago. Meriden, CT to Warwick RI (Provicence shopping areas). I took 17 East from Meriden, got to 138 East in CT which took me to !-95 in RI. A very nice ride and quite direct.

xcel · #77 03-04-2007, 07:21 PM

Hi Tim:

___Time to get rid of those infernal snow tires!

___Temps from 28 - 31 degrees F, strong 15 - 20 mph side winds and decent traffic through Chicago this afternoon. I was very happy with the 48.7 mpg result.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

dcoyne78 · #78 03-06-2007, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diamondlarry

Locutus, Thanks for posting your results. Since I live in northern IN it gives me an idea of what I could expect if I were to buy a Prius.

Tony, I saw a picture of the statue of Priapus on the History Channel last night.

Once you get used to the Prius, with the kind of FE you get from your Saturn, I have no doubt that in mild weather (Sept, Oct, April, May) you will see tanks in the high 70s or low 80s, as the weather warms up more we will be seeing those kinds tanks from locutus and others as well. In the dead of winter it is hard to keep tanks in the 50s, but you may be able to do it.

Dennis