I hear ya on the DVP issue. Very easy to get great mileage going down, especially given that it's a creep-n-crawl from the mouth dwon to Wynford of beyond.

I've also used a similar strategy to get home... although just as often it's because I'd rather be MOVING than sitting, even if it doesn't make me much time in the end. I also live in the East end, and have often taken the Danforth all the way across until it turns into McCowan, which takes me home.

Depending on the time of day, I've also found Don Mills a good fun, and mileage-friendly way of heading down into town.

I've been quite surprised to see the mileage I get going up visit my folks in Wasaga Beach, given that it's basically uphill all the way from Toronto to Georgian Bay. I'm consistently at 4.0 L/100 or around there heading up there, taking the 404 north to Green, then taking mostly backroads up through Bradford then up to Wasaga via Angus.

But the best route I've encoutered is coming down from Wasaga via Airport Road to my fiancee's family in Mississauga. Although I only did it once this year, in the '01 before I had figured out the whole tire-inflation issue to my advantage... I got something well below 4.0 on the drive down. Looking forward to trying it again with the '04 and more knowledge.

401 East is like that was well. We went to Bowmanville for pick-your-own apples early October. It's something like 8C outside but I'm still getting 3.8L/100km on the display on the way out. The way back was much worst though. The round trip ended up being quite close to 4.1L/100km.

I think in this part of Ontario, the net height change is small enough that, over long distance, the height change profile is far more important than the height itself. I find that in general, the Prius likes short big climb followed by long, gradual decline. That's why I personally don't like going down Don Mills all that much. The slope down from Shepard to Yorkmills is way too steep for regen to capture much of the energy and the section from Yorkmills to Lawrance has to slight incline to it.

The reverse is great though. In fact, the way up was part of my regular commute route this summer when I was doing 3.6-3.7L/100km tank average. But my client location has changed and I'm no longer driving regularly these days. May not be a bad thing though. I guess I'll just sit tight and let everybody else tough it out over the winter

Andy

P.S. What color are you by the way?

Salsa Red. Judging by your avatar, possibly same as you.

Yup. I'm package A though. Not many of those around.

Were you by any change at IBM's Toronto Lab on Sept 24?

Andy

No, there aren't many package A's around. The two dealerships I've talked to that had moved any Prius had moved exclusively the B package... well... and one that was getting an '04 B package traded in on an '05 nav package, or C, or whatever.

As fate would have it, I was not at the IBM Toronto Lab on Sep. 24, although I do frequently travel up there on business. And if I was, I would have still been in the green '01 Prius at that point.

I was starting to think I was the only red Prius in town... I've seen my share of silvers, even a Tideland, a blue and a driftwood... but I've not seen another red on the road. Good to know that I'm not alone, but thank you for not parking at the mall at the same time that I do, because I think my head might explode if there was another red Prius in the lot.