Real Life Mileage

[Chris Macnamara]

I had a loan of a TSpirit for the last couple of days, as Toyota Swindon kindly let me have it, even though I'd already ordered my car through them.

I drove from Swindon to York, some 225 miles, almost all motorway. Stuck it on cruise at 74 mph wherever I could, and when I got there, the trip A, which I'd reset to 0, was showing 62.8 mpg. Good?. On the way back, I was about 2/3 motorway, rushhour and so on,and used the fosseway, so less consistent, and I see that over all, for around 450 miles, with the road back being much more braking and accelerating, the mpg has dropped to 58, which I'm still really pleased with.

Before I started the journey, I put exactly 30.01 litres of fuel in, which filled it up, and before it was on 2 bars. As I was a couple of miles from home, the last bar started flashing.

Is this what I can expect regularly?

Also, had aircon on all the way. And the car was pretty much in normal mode all the way.

Cheers

Chris

[Jan&tone]

Prius or Auris?

My Prius - cruise control at 67mph regularly returns 68 mpg - best so far is 68.8 on a 78mile motorway journey (m25)

On the Prius, one of the displays is 'best consumption' which is taken from the 'best' that is achieved and displayed when you fill up - you may well have attained the magical 72 or even more, but if when you fill up the average mpg is lower then the lower figure will be recorded.

I did the Economy challenge in an Auris, did the same course in my Prius and the mpg in the Prius was better, but I have just over 4500 miles on the Prius, the Auris was brand new demonstrator...

So at 75mph, yes, you didn't do bad - apart from breaking the law

[DrCez]

I'll assume you were in a Prius as you asked about supply from Japan in another post (the Auris is built in the UK).

I don't do that much long-distance driving but typically average mid 50's mpg travelling on motorways around mid 70's mph so your figures look really good to me. Bear in mind the Gen 3 Prius exaggerates its mpg figures a little - by about 6% for my car.

I think the biggest controlling factors are air temperature, tyre pressures and driving style. This time of year is when I see my best mpg stats in city driving. You can expect mpg to drop in the winter - I would estimate low to mid 50's on the motorway. Traffic can actually help because the car's mpg is much better at lower speeds although slowing for lots of roundabouts is usually bad news. If you're stopped or slow-moving long enough for the HV Battery to run down and require the petrol engine to recharge that will hurt the mpg but other than that I'm always impressed how efficient the Prius is in traffic.

Personally I think on any given day the prevailing wind direction is also significant but I don't hear a lot of discussion about that.

On the motorway I don't think ECO/PWR/normal makes much difference to mpg but I don't have cruise control (I try to accelerate without getting into the red area, I'm not sure what the cruise control does in different modes).

74 mph indicated will be below 70 mph actual - but you probably knew that :) According to my sat nav my Prius is reading 76-77 mph when its true speed is 70.

When the last bar starts flashing on the fuel display you still have about 2 gallons left. Normally this would be enough for another 100 miles + but the range will say much less, so don't panic!

In summary it looks promising and bodes well for when you've really got used to the car. Keep up the good work

[Chris Macnamara]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I travel to Norwich and York from Swindon quite regularly with work, and I can honestly say that the drive to York yesterday was the most relaxed and comfiest I've done. Ive never had cruise control before, and it's an absolute godsend for that kind of journey. And driving in York in quiet electric is glorious.

Really looking forward to getting my white T Spirit now.

Cheers

Chris

[Opifex]

I did the trip up from Provence at the start of May with the cruise control set at 75mph and the indicated consumption was 62mpg when we reached Calais. I dropped the speed to 68mph on this side of the Channel and the indicated gradually rose to 68mpg by the time we had reached the M4.

My best consumption, measured at the pumps, was 69.99mpg over 198 miles of clear, mainly flat roads, but including a few miles of motorway and getting lost in towns a couple of times. Oh, if only I'd tried a bit harder I might have got to the magic 70mpg.

[Sagitar]

Last year I described how I got a quirky consumption figure after driving down some long hills in the Lake District and then filling up and re-setting the trip in Keswick.

We were at the same hotel in Portinscale recently and I decided to see whether the effect was repeatable.

The run into Keswick from Ambleside involves some long downhill stretches just as you run into the town which have the effect of charging the traction Battery to a high level. I filled up at a garage in Keswick, re-set the trip and then drove to the hotel. The distance is under three miles and is all pretty level with 30 m.p.h. speed restrictions for most of the way. I drove normally and photographed the display as soon as I arrived at the hotel. The resulting picture is below. It is exactly the same result as I reported last year.

[Jan&tone]

Last year I described how I got a quirky consumption figure after driving down some long hills in the Lake District and then filling up and re-setting the trip in Keswick.

We were at the same hotel in Portinscale recently and I decided to see whether the effect was repeatable.

The run into Keswick from Ambleside involves some long downhill stretches just as you run into the town which have the effect of charging the traction battery to a high level. I filled up at a garage in Keswick, re-set the trip and then drove to the hotel. The distance is under three miles and is all pretty level with 30 m.p.h. speed restrictions for most of the way. I drove normally and photographed the display as soon as I arrived at the hotel. The resulting picture is below. It is exactly the same result as I reported last year.

Although the distance is relatively short, it does show that not only is the 72mpg quoted by Mr T attainable, it can be exceeded!

Well done.

[Doesn'tExist]

LOL...I've not exceeded it to that extend although I have figured out how to do that, but in real life as reported many a time before I regurarly can get to an average of 72.1mpg with a combination of country side, town, dual carriage way and motorway driving. Not hard to achieve, just get a feel for how it works and operates.

[Dave R.]

To reiterate an old hobby-horse of mine, another big feature on consumption is the TYPE of tyre. After I had 3 tyres replaced last November (Lease car, so I had to put up with whatever rubbish Kwik Fit had in stock - and certainly wasn't allowed to replace with Michelin Primergy) - my fuel consumption has gone through the roof. I now struggle to get above 52mpg. It's really depressing to read the posts about "regularly get 60mpg" or "set cruise to 65mph and got 70mpg on a long run".... Take a look at my fuelly stats and you can see the drop in the graph.

[Jan&tone]

To reiterate an old hobby-horse of mine, another big feature on consumption is the TYPE of tyre. After I had 3 tyres replaced last November (Lease car, so I had to put up with whatever rubbish Kwik Fit had in stock - and certainly wasn't allowed to replace with Michelin Primergy) - my fuel consumption has gone through the roof. I now struggle to get above 52mpg. It's really depressing to read the posts about "regularly get 60mpg" or "set cruise to 65mph and got 70mpg on a long run".... Take a look at my fuelly stats and you can see the drop in the graph.

Dave -see my comment on the budget tyres thread... Viscosity of oil has a major effect on the Gen3... 0w-20 is the CORRECT oil... 5w-30 can be used but must be replaced at the earliest opportunity (according to my handbook anyway)

You say your car is leased so you have to have what they say, sorry but that is boll*cks... Your car, if leased, should be kept 'up to manufacturers standards' ie, should not be modified in any way, or should be returned to manufacturers specificarions at the end of the lease.. Any repairs or replacements should be original equipment specifications...

Thank goodness I buy my own cars... I don't have to argue the point at dealers!

[Red diesel]

To reiterate an old hobby-horse of mine, another big feature on consumption is the TYPE of tyre. After I had 3 tyres replaced last November (Lease car, so I had to put up with whatever rubbish Kwik Fit had in stock - and certainly wasn't allowed to replace with Michelin Primergy) - my fuel consumption has gone through the roof. I now struggle to get above 52mpg. It's really depressing to read the posts about "regularly get 60mpg" or "set cruise to 65mph and got 70mpg on a long run".... Take a look at my fuelly stats and you can see the drop in the graph.

To reiterate an old hobby-horse of mine, another big feature on consumption is the TYPE of tyre. After I had 3 tyres replaced last November (Lease car, so I had to put up with whatever rubbish Kwik Fit had in stock - and certainly wasn't allowed to replace with Michelin Primergy) - my fuel consumption has gone through the roof. I now struggle to get above 52mpg. It's really depressing to read the posts about "regularly get 60mpg" or "set cruise to 65mph and got 70mpg on a long run".... Take a look at my fuelly stats and you can see the drop in the graph.

Dave -see my comment on the budget tyres thread... Viscosity of oil has a major effect on the Gen3... 0w-20 is the CORRECT oil... 5w-30 can be used but must be replaced at the earliest opportunity (according to my handbook anyway)

You say your car is leased so you have to have what they say, sorry but that is boll*cks... Your car, if leased, should be kept 'up to manufacturers standards' ie, should not be modified in any way, or should be returned to manufacturers specificarions at the end of the lease.. Any repairs or replacements should be original equipment specifications...

Thank goodness I buy my own cars... I don't have to argue the point at dealers!

I presume what Dave R means is that under his lease contract - he must get his tyres from Kiwi fit and thus he is restricted to whatever tyres they have in stock. However - perhaps it would be best to ring around some kiwi fit branches to see if any of them have the proper original Toyota spec tyres in stock. If that don't work - its worth discussing with the leasing company that there is a fuel saving to be had from having the proper tyres on. So could they kindly see to it that they ensure the supplier (Kiwi Fit) has the right tyres in stock.

Incidentally - i nearly had heart failure the other week when i looked at the family Nissan 1.5 DCI - to see that the original Continental tyres were replaced with some make ive never heard of before. I think i will have to bring it in myself for its next set of tyres :ffs: .

Red diesel

[bengalboy]

Im looking in to a prius, but the journey i would undertake for half the week would consist of some hilly (up and down) A roads for about 40 - 50 miles would you expect these sort of trips to have poor mpg or good mpg ?

[Jan&tone]

Im looking in to a prius, but the journey i would undertake for half the week would consist of some hilly (up and down) A roads for about 40 - 50 miles would you expect these sort of trips to have poor mpg or good mpg ?

Really depends on how you drive it. I work exactly 20 miles from home and use some twisty country roads to get there, accellerating, braking pretty much all the time, most of it is 60mph speed limit and obviously i encounter more than one tractor at this time of year!

If I reset the trip meter at the beginning of a journey I usually have between 51 and 55 mpg displayed when I get to work.

On a recent run to Cromer fro home however, on a mixture of dual carriageway and single carriageway roads and a mixture of speed limits, with the a/c on all the way there I got 68.7 displayed, not quite my best, but pretty close and much better than my Son's Saab95 diesel who only got 38.6 for the same journey at the same time!

[johalareewi]

Depends on what sort speeds you do and if you do heavy braking and accelerating.

Can you take one out for a test drive over your route?

You could get a demonstrater to yourself for an afternoon (my dealer did this).

But whatever you do, the prius should get better mpg than a comparable car (large automatic).

Have a look at fuelly.com for prius mpgs. There are lots there...

http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/prius

[monya]

Prius or Auris?

My Prius - cruise control at 67mph regularly returns 68 mpg - best so far is 68.8 on a 78mile motorway journey (m25)

On the Prius, one of the displays is 'best consumption' which is taken from the 'best' that is achieved and displayed when you fill up - you may well have attained the magical 72 or even more, but if when you fill up the average mpg is lower then the lower figure will be recorded.

I did the Economy challenge in an Auris, did the same course in my Prius and the mpg in the Prius was better, but I have just over 4500 miles on the Prius, the Auris was brand new demonstrator...

So at 75mph, yes, you didn't do bad - apart from breaking the law

I would expect the Prius to achieve a slightly higher MPG than the Auris as it's more aerodynamic in body shape

[cbcdesign]

Managed 74.9MPG yesterday on a 15 mile trip yesterday which included a stop after 10 miles. Very pleased with that. It was in normal mode with AC on and keeping up with normal traffic flow too.

[r04drunner1]

Managed 74.9MPG yesterday on a 15 mile trip yesterday which included a stop after 10 miles. Very pleased with that. It was in normal mode with AC on and keeping up with normal traffic flow too.

That's excellent mate

I'm getting a reading of just over 61MPG now on average. It used to be 57MPG I think the improvement is down to a combination of better weather, higher pressure in the tyres (not overinflated, just taken up to manufacturer's recommended levels) and adopting a driving style that is more attuned to the car. On the downside I also keep the Climate Control on virtually all the time. (Sometimes I switch the CC off when just starting home from the office, so that the car will still switch off the ICE when stationary at the traffic lights that infest the start of my commute home.)

So 74.9MPG really is excellent, keep up the good work.

[Seamaster73]

My impression of both the Auris HSD and Prius is that driven thoughtlessly, they deliver only slightly better than average MPG. But if you're prepared to adapt your style to suit the way the HSD system works, great MPG is achievable. This explains why cretinous motoring journalists are able to write articles questioning the "real world" MPG. They don't drive them in a way that allows them to deliver maximum economy.

The worst MPG I've had from my Prius is roughly equal to the best I ever got from my little Merc, so I'm happy enough.

[kithmo]

I managed 76.0 mpg on a 200 mile round trip yesterday, no motorways, just A roads, keeping up with the traffic, mostly around 50-55mph with the occasional 60mph+ stretch and several 30mph & 40mph villages. The 76.0 was the trip reading, which is usually around 4 mpg over, so around 72 mpg real world. I hardly ever go into the PWR range of the bar on the ECO meter, except when pulling out of busy junctions into fast flowing traffic. My last tank gave me 62.78 mpg, brim to brim calculated, with 40% short commutes (3 miles from a cold engine) and 60% longer runs, this was my best yet. My average on Fuelly is now 54.0 mpg over 16 months in nearly 7900 miles. Last years average was 52.8 mpg (75% of my driving is the short 3 mile commute), this year 54.9 mpg so far (winter has yet to come) and it is getting better as the car is run in. I am getting used to the driving style and am not trying as hard to achieve the economy as it is coming naturally.

[Seamaster73]

The result of my first tank is in: 64.5 mpg according to Fuelly, which is almost exactly the same as indicated by the Prius trip computer. Most of that driving was motorway/A-road using ECO mode and adaptive cruise control set at max 60 mph.

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/seamaster/prius

Shows what can be achieved from a Prius that isn't even run in yet.

[r04drunner1]

I had my first "decent" run in the Prius T4 this evening - by decent I mean a 90 mile round trip. I filled up with fuel at the start and zeroed the trip.

The journey was a short stretch of motorway, some city/town driving at 30 MPH, but mostly A or B road with sweeping bends, hills and valleys. I tried to drive Prius-sensitively, looking for opportunities to glide and/or stretch out ICE-off conditions without impeding traffic.

By journey's end on the outward leg the trip meter showed 80 MPG. Which I was ecstatic about. I was driving to the speed limit and to the flow of traffic... which happened to be relatively slow at times. I only gave a "Prius surprise" to one eager beaver in a BMW at the traffic lights grand prix; well, he was asking for it. Beyond that, I restrained myself. Oh, and I switched the A/C off.

On the way back, I was still being good but traffic was flowing more freely so I drove faster to stay up. There was less chance to get ICE-off conditions. Also I switched the A/C on for several stretches because the windscreen was starting to steam up. The trip meter bounced around the low 70's on the way back after some particularly fast sections, but I had a slow stretch in the last 5 miles coming back home and the trip just nudged into 75 MPG as I pulled into the driveway in EV mode.

All in all, I am well chuffed.

P.S. It also proves that the 72MPG quoted for the Prius is quite feasible in ordinary driving, even allowing for trip meter error.

[cbcdesign]

P.S. It also proves that the 72MPG quoted for the Prius is quite feasible in ordinary driving, even allowing for trip meter error.

It certainly does.

There is a lot to be gained using pulse & glide techniques too. I have found that if I pulse up to the traffic flow speed, foot fully off the throttle then slowly re-apply it to run on the Battery I can really boost the economy. I honestly thought P&G was a load of nonsense when I read about it whilst waiting for the car but it really does help!

My new best figure on a half mile trip to a mates house: 83.9MPG!

The trip back knocked it down to 64MPG but still pretty good for a short trip on flat ground.

[Seamaster73]

I was very pleased to see a reported 70mpg during a long, straight, flat run from Amsterdam to Brussels and back on Saturday — ECO mode and radar cruise set at 100km/h (about 62mph), and carrying a full tank and three passengers.