Saturday marked the first full year of Prius ownership for me. Here are the facts from one year of ownership.

Total Miles Driven 34,193.4

Total Gallons Consumed 613.5

Cost of Gasoline $1,550.64

Ave cost per gallon $2.53

Lifetime MPG 55.7

Lifetime MFD MPG 57.9

Best tank MPG 73.8

Worst tank MPG 46.6

Total # of tanks 84

# of tanks over 60 MPG 13

# of tanks 55 - 60 MPG 32

# of tanks 50 - 55 MPG 30

# of tanks 46 - 50 MPG 9

Est. $ savings vs previous $3,250.74
(Grand Caravan @18 mpg)

Est gal saved vs previous 1276.1

Est $ savings vs Corolla $1,330.19
(Corolla S @30 mpg)

Est gal saved vs Corolla 517.3

I am EXTREMELY pleased with my results for the first year, as you might imagine. Learning to drive differently was a challenge at first but is now a no thought habit. The one thing I regret is that I didn't try to drive for mileage for the first 3 months or I might be near 60 MPG lifetime. Not one mechanical or electrical problem either, as it is as tight as a drum.

How did I get these results?

1. Pulse and glide where possible.
2. Knowing my routes and traffic light patterns and adjusting accordingly.
3. Slow, dead band or green charging acceleration whenever possible.
4. Well inflated tires (52 PSI front - 50 PSI rear) - not necessarily recommended.
5. Speed limit or under at ALL times.
6. Slow, anticipated deceleration (see 2 above).
7. Cruise Control whenever possible (about 65% of the time).
8. Momentum preservation thru 6 above - accelerating from 5 mph is better than 0 mph - accelerating from 10 mph is better than 5 mph - etc.

Finally - WHAT AN AUTOMOBILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Toyota!

Alden Bowles
2005 Toyota Prius II HSD

Excellent report!

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Who keeps such detailed information about their car? Wow.

Just those who care:

http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Resist: I have a spreadsheet I track every tank on. After the initial setup it's relatively easy to use. It requires 4 entries for each tank. Gallons, Total Sale, Cost per Gallon, and the MFD displayed MPG. I didn't mention it above but I also calculate the MPG to MFD MPG and come up with 3.89% difference between actual gallons consumed and the displayed mpg.


Bob's right - I do care - but another reason is all of the naysaying I heard publicly and privately after my purchase. I decided the best thing to do, to prove to myself and anyone else who asked, was to be able to provide a complete, documented history rather than an anecdotal one.

Alden Bowles
2005 Toyota Prius II HSD

I think a lot of us track mileage, cost etc in detail as I keep a spreadsheet with all of the same info. So far through 2642 miles I've burned 47.94 gals. @ a cost of $134.67 for a 55.1 mpg average.

Nice Picasso Moon. Looks like you were "serious" from day one.

Alden Bowles
2005 Toyota Prius II HSD

I am a relatively new owner, but with an engineering degree I am led to wonder, when we do learn to change our driving habits (I drive totally differently in the Prius), can we really compare to our previous car? When I drive my old sunfire - I kept it for the icy winter roads - I don't drive it anything like the Prius. I never glide up to the light, keep my foot on the accelerator so light as to just keep the car moving (like hypergliding in the Prius), etc... Not that I don't want to, but the 'contest' against the MFD isn't there, so neither is the focus.

My 11 year old 168,000 mile Sunfire still gets 24 mpg. My Prius gets 56. I imagine if I drove the Sunfire for a whole tank the way I drive the Prius I might get 28 in it. Nowhere near the Prius, but nothing to sneeze at either. As someone else said in another thread, all cars should come with these instantaneous MPG feedback devices. If they did, we'd all use a lot less gas.

HI..

You're great about tracking your own record. I'll try to do the same thing with my new Prius. I did not make spreadsheet with my old Honda Element but using your strategies in tracking MPG. I made my Element worked about 29-34 MPG since we bought in 2004.

My husband did the same thing by having front tire higher PSI than the rare. This really works for better gas mileages.

Hi.. I do agree with MPG feedback device. I love that the Prius has that. When driving I can see how much gas we use and so on..

We can reeducate ourselves how to be a better driver as well as drive for better MPG. I'm not an engineer but M in exercise sciences. We just have to admit that healthy driving habits (and not too rough on the car.. Ha haa..) make differences.