[coloradospringsprius]

My wife drives to Boulder occasionally (100 miles, all on divided highway) to visit her parents. She always calls me after she arrives, and usually her message goes basically like this: "I'm here, and everything's fine."

Today it was, "I'm here, everything's fine, and the screen reads 65 miles per gallon."

Any suggestions, An04 Prius?

 

[Astrowoman]

I see an '06 Prius in your future....

 

[An04Prius]

My wife drives to Boulder occasionally (100 miles, all on divided highway) to visit her parents. She always calls me after she arrives, and usually her message goes basically like this: "I'm here, and everything's fine."

Today it was, "I'm here, everything's fine, and the screen reads 65 miles per gallon."

Any suggestions, An04 Prius?

uh OH<ABSOLUTELY>... Note to myself: Do Not get involved in other peoples disputes

 

[coloradospringsprius]

As much as I LOVE the idea of a second Prius, it's unlikely right now. The "problem" is that we rarely need a second car: My wife is a freelancer who works at home, and I'm one of the fortunate few Americans who's able to walk to work. (Though the Prius gets plenty of work-related driving when I go out to review things or interview people.) Since the Prius arrived on February 9th, we've only put about 150 miles on our Carter-era Tercel.

Of course, the situation could change when the G4 Prius is released in 15 months or so. I'd like to see some sort of Prius mini - something along the lines of the Insight, but with a full hybrid system and more up-to-date technology all around. Then we could use the economical 80-mpg car around town, and reserve our old 53-mpg "gas guzzler" for trips where we needed a little more space.

The trick in the meantime is to avoid jealousy. Who could have foreseen that the "for better or worse" that tripped to blithely off my tongue 10 years ago might include the spouse's *better* gas mileage?!?

 

[An04Prius]

The trick in the meantime is to avoid jealousy. Who could have foreseen that the "for better or worse" that tripped to blithely off my tongue 10 years ago might include the spouse's *better* gas mileage?!?

OK, I'm working on it...2nd note to myself: do not get involved in other people's disputes

 

[Hep]

My wife drives to Boulder occasionally (100 miles, all on divided highway) to visit her parents. She always calls me after she arrives, and usually her message goes basically like this: "I'm here, and everything's fine."

Today it was, "I'm here, everything's fine, and the screen reads 65 miles per gallon."

Any suggestions, An04 Prius?

Bifocals may help. 45 can look like 65 if you are between 45 and 65.

 

[dontcheff]

My wife drives to Boulder occasionally (100 miles, all on divided highway) to visit her parents. She always calls me after she arrives, and usually her message goes basically like this: "I'm here, and everything's fine."

Today it was, "I'm here, everything's fine, and the screen reads 65 miles per gallon."

Any suggestions, An04 Prius?

65 MPG: hardly. Unless she was descending almost all the time. Or did she mean that she got a 5 min. interval with 65 MPG?

My wife likes very much the Prius but she does not care much about what the monitor shows

 

[coloradospringsprius]

65 MPG: hardly. Unless she was descending almost all the time. Or did she mean that she got a 5 min. interval with 65 MPG?

Yes, it's a net descent to Boulder - we regularly get about 60 mpg on the entire 100-mile stretch, and 51 to 54 mpg on the return trip. We have always gotten great highway mileage in our Prius, probably helped by the thin, dry air up here. (For instance, we recently got 59 mpg on a 1090-mile road -trip to Wyoming.) My wife actually got better mileage than she initially told me, because the screen read 55 mpg when she left Colorado Springs (with about 30 miles on the tank) and 65 mpg when she arrived in Boulder. That works out to around 68 mpg on the trip.

How to account for this upward bump? The weather was warmer than usual, and my wife drives a little slower than I do. But there's one other thing - it horrifies me to consider it - that might have improved her mileage:

Unlike most highway trips, the car didn't have to lug around my 165 pounds! (Okay, 170 pounds.)

This presents a new quandry for single-Prius, multiple-mpg-junkie households: Do we heavier drivers have an obligation to allow the lightest drivers to do most of the single-occupant driving?

 

[coloradospringsprius]

Wife returned yesterday, with screen showing 58.5 mpg after 370 miles. Talk about partner cross-contamination: Practically the first words out of her mouth were, "If the wind hadn't been so strong today, I think I would have brought it home showing 60 mpg." :!:

 

[An04Prius]

Wife returned yesterday, with screen showing 58.5 mpg after 370 miles. Talk about partner cross-contamination: Practically the first words out of her mouth were, "If the wind hadn't been so strong today, I think I would have brought it home showing 60 mpg." :!:

The WIND?? oh OH... 3rd note to myself, DO NOT get involved...

 

[coloradospringsprius]

Man, this is much more serious than I thought. You may have to get a new job, that you cannot walk to, so you MUST have another Prius. The trick will be for you to time it to the availabiltiy of the plug-in Prius, which will be your car, and you can then walk around with a permanent grin on your face.

...and of course give up many of the benefits of marital bliss. I know, I know, it is a catch 44, or 50.2, or 60.1, however you look at it.

An04 Prius, your wisdom is equalled only by your sense of humor!

 

[BIF]

OK, I'm working on it...right now I'm thinking the American Bar Association may have to rethink the whole model "pre-nup" to include jealous-spouse-mpg-junkie syndrome. :wink:

I actually floated my cursor over that, thinking that maybe it was a link. D'oh! I really need to get off these antibiotics!

 

[ggoldberg]

Problems with Spousal MPG envy

Yeah, my wife has a competitive edge and when "my Prius" arrived, she was chomping at the bit to demonstrate her prowess in driving the vehicle at a higher MPG than I had been able to achieve. Never anticipated getting involved in spousal "MPG Envy" when our Seaside Pearl 2005 Prius came into our life a few months ago. Now we are both secretly seeking the equivalent of a "steroid boost" to try and "move ahead" in our little "MPG Wars" competition!
This is really so much fun.
--Gary
:wink:

 

[An04Prius]

Re: Problems with Spousal MPG envy

Yeah, my wife has a competitive edge and when "my Prius" arrived, she was chomping at the bit to demonstrate her prowess in driving the vehicle at a higher MPG than I had been able to achieve. Never anticipated getting involved in spousal "MPG Envy" when our Seaside Pearl 2005 Prius came into our life a few months ago. Now we are both secretly seeking the equivalent of a "steroid boost" to try and "move ahead" in our little "MPG Wars" competition!

This is really so much fun.

--Gary
:wink:

Hmmm, I'd like to help. But 4th note to myself...

 

[ggoldberg]

RE: Spousal MPG envy

Oh so true!

My wife (who still manages to be my best friend in spite of it all!) says I do not have a chance in hell because she has that "special touch" on the accelerator and is so much better at finding the "sweet spot" that just rides that vertical bar up to the top end on the Consumption Display and keeps it there!
She is having so much fun meeting this challenge with "my Prius" that I am stuck driving the 1996 Volvo wagon that is barely getting 16 MPG on good days!

javascript:emoticon(':roll:')

--Gary