Hi folks,

To pickup our 2003 Prius I, I had to drive it back 816.6 miles. This took 12 hours, 9 minutes, from Weatherford TX to Huntsville AL. I-20 was flat from Texas through Louisianna, Mississippi and Alabama. I-65 from Birmingham to Huntsville had some modest hills but was more flat than hilly. Since the weather was mild, 64-74 degrees, and there was little or no wind, I broke the trip into 2-3 hour segments and used the cruise control to hold a speed and measure the MPG for that segment. The results:

MPH MPG (hh:mm)
61 51.7 (2:42)
65 51.3 (2:08)
70 49.2 (2:22)
75 39.2 (1:07)
75 39.0 (3:50)
-------------------
67.2 45.2 (12:09) trip total

The data suggests a cruise speed of 68 mph would have given about 50 mpg without changing the total trip time. "Lesson's learned."

Is there any mechanism for adding these data points to the mileage database?

Bob Wilson

The mileage database is only equipped to handle individual tanks. If you can estimate where you started a new tank, simply calculate the MPG for each tank and any other information you may like to the "extra info" section.

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Hi Jason,

I figured it out and have the five segements entered as 'tanks' now. No problem in the future.

Bob Wilson

I think that this information is tremendously valuable, especially to folks who may be interested in buying a particular hybrid but are not sure what type of mileage to expect, in part because of the variation of MPGs in the database, and in part because of articles that tell of poor hybrid mileage compared to EPA numbers.

So this data is extremely helpful. Thanks taking the time to measure, and for posting the results.

i bet the info is very useful for you too. very smart to break up your trip like that.