Tuesday, November 27, 2007

My Thoughts on the Prius Part 1 - Gas Mileage

This is Part 1 or a six part series.


My family and I had our Prius for seven months now. I really like the car. Here are some of my thoughts and impression on the gas mileage.

Thought about the Toyota Prius Hybrid – Gas Mileage.

The first thing everyone wants to know about is the gas mileage. Typically around town doing mostly short trips we get between 43 to 45 mpg. On a road trip driving at 70 to 75 mph, we got 45 mpg. We don’t try to do any special Prius tricks to maximize the gas mileage. There are four people in my household who drive the Prius and have different driving styles, so 45 mpg without working to optimize the gas mileage isn’t bad. Typically, we get over 350 miles between fill-ups.

During our road trip we spent a few days at Mammoth Cave National Park. Driving in and around the park we got almost 55 mpg. Typical we drove between 30 and 50 mph. There were few stop signs and not much traffic. The driving conditions in the park were ideal for maximizing gas mileage.

Considering my other vehicles are a Chevy Astro (@ 15mpg) and a Chevy Impala (20 city, 29 highway mpg) the Prius' 45 mpg is fantastic. Also, a gas fill-up only cost between $20 to $25. (> 325 miles) The Impala is $35 to $40 (< style=""> The Astro Van cost $50 or more (<>