818 miles at 65.1 MPG
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bshef said:
Interesting take on the situation. I actually drive with the traffic when there is any. I have been flipped off twice in the last 34,000 miles. That's about average and both times I was following the car in front of me with a two second following distance. I drive the speed limit in the right lane and use the left lane for passing. Most people, Ive found, do not drive ten over like I used to. The two offensive drivers were both young, inexperienced drivers in expensive vehicles in a very well-to-do neighborhood. There was no way to tell if you were joking, so I assume that you were not.
The tank was driven on my normal commute from home to work. The drive starts on rural roads at 40-45 mph. The middle third is on highway at 60-65 mph. The rest is entering Austin at 45 and later 30 mph. I anticipate the lights and use my brake very sparingly. I accelerate slowly but as fast as at least half of the other drivers. On the second half of the tank, I got a boost from not using the AC. I rolled down the driver's window about halfway instead and saw a boost in mileage of 6 MPG compared to the first half for those sections
I kept a diary on an excel spreadsheet that can be found here.
no......I'm not joking......
like I mentioned, I do try very hard to better my mileage all the time and out here in So. Calif...I get many cases of stink eye and worse when leaving lights and stop signs.
I think my lower results are partly due to some hilly terrain and minimum highway driving. I also encounter many trips under 6 miles which probably kills my averages...(not to mention my P* still being practically new).
AC....I've been following the advise of most post that recommend using AC over windows down. Maybe I'll test my next tank without AC being used!
Thanks for sharing.....
Happy Birthday America....
Ray, my little calculator says 818 mi at 65.1 means 12.56 gal from a tank spec'd at 11.9 gal. So even if you stretched the bladder & topped off enough to squeeze in .6 more than specd capacity, how do you start & end your trip so precisely at a gas pump ? or carry spare gas ? or hold the world's record for runnning out of gas ? 
or ??
or ??I have put in 12.75 gallons on several occasions. What on earth makes you trust what the manual says. It says the tank capacity is 11.9 gallons but that doesn't mean that that is all you can put in the car. It also says that an oil change takes 3.9 quarts but that will always result in an overfill. A proper oil change that falls half way between the full and add marks takes exactly 3 quarts of oil. The manual also says we have DSP on our radio but we don't. It's just a book guys and it is often wrong. The car holds around 13 gallons if you are empty and then sqeeze in every drop you can without spilling any. If you are content with the range that you get with 9 gallon fillups, then that's OK. I intend to get 600+ miles out of my tanks and better than 50 MPG. It's really not hard at all if you have a rather long commute(30 miles one way) and live in a warm climate.
My wife drives 70 on the highway and takes off faster than I do. She doesn't spend much time worrying about mileage and consitently gets 52-55 MPG in her new Prius. She has less than 5000 miles and got 52 MPG on her first tank and higher since then. She has several 600+ mile tanks so far.
My wife drives 70 on the highway and takes off faster than I do. She doesn't spend much time worrying about mileage and consitently gets 52-55 MPG in her new Prius. She has less than 5000 miles and got 52 MPG on her first tank and higher since then. She has several 600+ mile tanks so far.
Do you fill up very slowly, or at full pump speed? Do you top off?
I don't get that good milage (average a little over 45,) but I definitely don't get to use anywhere near that much gas per tank. When the last bar blinks, even if I drive an extra 40 miles, I only put in a little over 9 gallons...
(I live in Oregon where there is no self-serve gas, so attendants always pump for me. They tend to pump at full speed, and stop after the first auto cut-off.)
I'm not doubting, I've seen more than one poster claim more than 12 gallons pumped, I'm just curious how to do it.
I don't get that good milage (average a little over 45,) but I definitely don't get to use anywhere near that much gas per tank. When the last bar blinks, even if I drive an extra 40 miles, I only put in a little over 9 gallons...
(I live in Oregon where there is no self-serve gas, so attendants always pump for me. They tend to pump at full speed, and stop after the first auto cut-off.)
I'm not doubting, I've seen more than one poster claim more than 12 gallons pumped, I'm just curious how to do it.
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I live in Oregon too and I've had attendents pump as little as 3 1/2 gallons in my car at full speed. Now I just tell them, "It will shut off early. But it needs about 10 gallons, so please top it off." I don't have too many problems now, but I usually go to the same one or two gas stations too.ehurtley said:
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It's believeable considering that Ray lives in a hot climate, meaning the bladder typically accepts more fuel, PLUS he's been jamming gas into it for 34,000 miles, which has probably stretched it out a little. Ray may have the country's biggest Prius gas tank.melgish said:
The last time I filled the tank, it had recently gone to one pip (no flashing) and only took 8.5 gallons. (And I'm not complaining - it was a good fill.) I bet that never happens to Ray.
I tend to fill at the same one or two as well, and yes, if it shuts off WAY early, I tell them to continue. Except one time when the station was about 15 cents a gallon more than everyone else, but I'd been on the blinking pip for 10 miles with my wife in the car, so I filled up as soon as possible. When it auto shutoff after only 2.5 gallons, and the attendant gave me a quizzical look (like "I thought you said 'fill 'er up'...") with a "Is that it?" I retorted "Yeah, I've only driven 350 miles on this tank..." (That's what the MFD said!)sutherlin12 said:
I just had my first "noticeable" experience of the expanding bladder gas tank yesterday. I was down to 1 pip, not blinking, and it took 11.205 gallons without even trying real hard. Temperature here, in Austin as well, was around 100 or a bit more. I had put 11.2 gallons in once before, but the pip was blinking at that time.
Demonstrates the importance of averaging over several tanks to get you true average mpg.
Demonstrates the importance of averaging over several tanks to get you true average mpg.
When the light blinks, I get gas. I dont think I have ever pumped more than 9gal, and usually 7/8. Warm climate also, but not hot. I dont think it is wise to try to drain the tank, or put in more than what it readily takes when the pump auto clicks off.Sonwise said:
Mftrs always provide a margin of error, which is why we see low/full, min/max, markings on oil, anti-freeze, brake fluid, etc. I dont believe in pushing that margin on either side...but I have no technical basis to preach that.
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