A day in the life of the Prius
Posted on August 20, 2008 - Filed Under Daily Dose, Day to Day, Money Talks | 8 Comments
OK so I’m not going to blog about a whole day in the life of my Prius because that would be sort of boring. I don’t drive that much so mostly it just sits out in the driveway looking pretty. This will be the story of one typical trip in the Prius, a trip I make once a week at almost the same time every week (though the day varies a bit, depending on what we need or what our schedule is.)
I head to the Great Lakes Naval Base every week, it’s a 17.5 mile drive through the suburbs of Chicago somewhere around 4:30pm. The highest speed limit posted is 45, the lowest 30 (except on the base of course where it’s 25 or less.) The traffic is usually relatively light, for the suburbs of Chicago at that time of day. Relatively light means if I hit some of the traffic lights properly, I can maintain the speed limit for most of the trip. It’s rare that I can exceed the speed limit, there’s just too much traffic and too many traffic lights for that, except in a few spots past Deerfield and Lake Forest.
When I get to the Naval base, I hit the NEX gas station and fill up with the cheap gas (thank you NEX) which means I put between 2 and 4 gallons in the tank – usually 2 gallons. I reset the mileage tracker, pull out of the gas station and drive just under a mile to the NEX/commissary. An hour later, I head for home. And this is where the fun starts.
When I first fill up the tank and reset the mileage, it starts really low – somewhere around 30-32mpg. When I pull out of the NEX to come home, I’ll probably hit 34-37mpg pretty quickly and from there… I just watch the gas mileage improve. It’s fascinating to watch it move from 34 to 40 to 44 to 47 to 50 mpg!!! and beyond. When it goes beyond 50mpg it feels like we should throw a party or something but I don’t want to get to confident that it’s going to stay there, I’m always sure it’s going to drop again quickly. But when it doesn’t and it’s at 52mpg and staying there – wow.
When I pulled into my driveway after the 17.5 mile drive home…
I love this car.
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8 Responses to “A day in the life of the Prius”
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I love my Prius too. It is the COOLEST car on the road.l
Holy moly! You could make me give up my beautiful Saturn!
63 mpg is crazy. In a good way.
I bet your dad’s car isn’t doing as well.
(May I be just a tad anal and point out that you said 17.5 miles and it says 19 miles. )
I love, love, love my Prius! I just don’t get that mileage on a regular basis….I’ve got to drive somewhere other than around my house I guess. Joe tells me I’ll see more of the mileage you’re talking about when we go to Wisconsin for the wedding in September. I hope so…I’ll feel so much better. I do see better mileage when I reset my miles, but it goes back down to mid 30’s pretty quickly. Creature of habit…..
Holy Moly! You could make me give up my beautiful Lexus!
If I could afford a Prius I would get one. But my Saturn does well with mileage. Okay nearly as well as your Prius does, but she still makes me proud. lol
62 miles per gallon?!! That rocks!
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