Giving Us All A Bad Name?

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Come on who was it?

I was driving down the M65 yesterday and in the distance saw a mk2 silver Prius. It's always a joy to see another Prius, but as I got nearer I noticed that trucks were braking and pulling out to overtake! It turns out it was an old couple driving at 50 mph! :o What were they thinking? 50mpg on a clear motorway and were causing a right old obstruction. I know we Prius drivers can get a bit of a bad name with the likes of Clarkson and his hate campaign (I normally like him but we differ on our Prius views), but driving like this on a motorway - aggghhhh! You could hear what the other drivers were thinking. :(

I had to whizz past hoping they wouldn't see me in case they gave me a Prius Wave

I just hope the Prius doesn't become the Volvo 340 of the new millenium, otherwise we should all be packing out tartan rugs, thermos flasks & black scottie dogs in the back of our cars, whilst adopting an erratic driving technique :o ! God help us if the Prius becomes the car of choice for the blue rinse brigade, though perhaps it wouldn't be as bad as becoming the car of choice for arrogant cab drivers!?! ;)

What d'ya recon?

[Dave R.]

Well, as per previous posts of mine, there doesn't appear to be much benefit from crawling around in the Prius.... the last couple of days, I've driven my trip to work like a maniac (well, within speed limits but not sloooowwly) and achieved the same mpg as previous days. If anything, whizzing up to 60mph actually seems to help the consumption figures if anything! :)

[Chris Dance]

Grumpy Cabbie. I'm an oldie but I do not do 50 on clear motorways so not all oldies are slow drivers. There are all sorts of drivers in all sorts of cars and we all get annoyed at the slow drivers as you describe. I think I prefer slow drivers though rather than the reckless BMW Mercedes and white van guys who think 80 MPH is slow on motorways. I have been cut up by young youths on a 30MPH ring road and I think they are very dangerous. They do not care about speed limits or other road users.

[Ikelos]

oh dear, I better not mention my age, I could be thrown off the forum............... :( :( :D :D

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Grumpy Cabbie. I'm an oldie but I do not do 50 on clear motorways so not all oldies are slow drivers. There are all sorts of drivers in all sorts of cars and we all get annoyed at the slow drivers as you describe. I think I prefer slow drivers though rather than the reckless BMW Mercedes and white van guys who think 80 MPH is slow on motorways. I have been cut up by young youths on a 30MPH ring road and I think they are very dangerous. They do not care about speed limits or other road users.

I'm liking the way you restrained from mentioning the humble cab driver ;)

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Well, as per previous posts of mine, there doesn't appear to be much benefit from crawling around in the Prius.... the last couple of days, I've driven my trip to work like a maniac (well, within speed limits but not sloooowwly) and achieved the same mpg as previous days. If anything, whizzing up to 60mph actually seems to help the consumption figures if anything! :)

I'm finding that 60 mph really does seem to the best consumption figures - and without really trying. Am wondering if it is actually programmed like that as you can cruise at 60mph with the gauge showing 100mpg. I have managed to achieve some great figures on A roads at 55-60 mph - well until I come to a hill :(

[Sagitar]

Well, as per previous posts of mine, there doesn't appear to be much benefit from crawling around in the Prius.... the last couple of days, I've driven my trip to work like a maniac (well, within speed limits but not sloooowwly) and achieved the same mpg as previous days. If anything, whizzing up to 60mph actually seems to help the consumption figures if anything! :)

I'm finding that 60 mph really does seem to the best consumption figures - and without really trying. Am wondering if it is actually programmed like that as you can cruise at 60mph with the gauge showing 100mpg. I have managed to achieve some great figures on A roads at 55-60 mph - well until I come to a hill :(

I don't think you should read too much into a single event. They might have had a good reason for going slow.

I normally drive at the limit on motorways, but I can remember one occasion in the last year when I was early for a service slot that I had booked and doodled along for a couple of miles on the M1 close to Watford . . . . . . but I was driving a Lexus IS250 SE at the time.

[Fujisan]

I travel on the motorway's quite lot and every few days or so I see trucks having to pull out and overtake cars (and the odd van), of all sorts of makes and models, driven by drivers of widely differring ages.

Either they have a very good reason to travel at that speed (mpg, environment, the car's shagged) or they lack confidence on the motorway.

But, it is their choice.

Car driver's who can see more than six inches in front of them and truck drivers who are a ) awake or b ) not watching DVD's, can anticipate and plan to avoid these minor difficulties. Bottom line, IMHO, if truckers were having to brake to get around that car, then it is the truckers who are the bad drivers in my book.

[timberwolf]

+1 Fujisan

A question for you new Prius owners, are you assuming that the Gen 2 and 3 give the same MPG at the same speeds, weather conditions and driving styles?

[ian rooke]

Hi I have had 2 Gen2s and 1 Gen3 the Gen3 is about 10% better on fuel for the same driving 58mpg as against 52mpg it is also a far nicer drive .

The best I have out of the Gen3 is 65mpg for one tank full, its at 59 mpg at the moment they all seem to drop about 5mpg in the cold weather.

[timberwolf]

My summer to winter drop is nearly 3 times that as calculated from the petrol pump.

My drop last year was from 60 mpg down to 47 mpg in Jan/Feb 2008.

This year I've hit the winter drop off much earlier, I've dropped to 46 mpg already as of my last fill-up this

weekend,which surprised me as the MFD was still showing a 51.8 avg mpg.

[Chris Dance]

My consumption on my Gen 2 is showing as 49.9 MPG. On a hot day last August it was over 60MPG.

[Fujisan]

+1 Fujisan

A question for you new Prius owners, are you assuming that the Gen 2 and 3 give the same MPG at the same speeds, weather conditions and driving styles?

Add terrain to that list. Those going up (and down) hills, especially at motorway speeds will never get the same mpg as people living on the flat.

Probably the ideal place for a Prius is somewhere warm (but not so hot you have to use the A/C all the time) with no real winters, that is also flat, with a driver who never goes near motorways.

[timberwolf]

Yep, there are lots of factors...

A few more factors could be:

Traffic

Traffic lights and junctions

mpg graph not linear

I wouldn't be surprised if someone hasn't compiled a big list.