In the previous Open Thread post for our 2004 Toyota Prius, commenter liquoredonlife asked what was the worst MPG it has ever gotten. We've just posted last month's fuel economy of our long-term test cars so you saw that the worst for the Prius was, gasp!, 18.5. But I was curious about how many times during its six years with us we've gotten its mpg below 20.
Turns out that 18.5 was a miscalculation that arose from a previous "short-fill" situation. Once we threw that one out, the correct value for lowest mpg ever is 26.7.
Head for the jump to see a breakdown of our Prius' fuel economy history ever since it first arrived in our fleet.
| 0-10000 |
|
| miles | 9989 |
| gallons | 238.32 |
| avg | 41.92 |
| min | 28.14 |
| max | 57.57 |
|
|
|
| 10000-20000 |
|
| miles | 9965.3 |
| gallons | 242.52 |
| avg | 41.09 |
| min | 28.26 |
| max | 59.27 |
|
|
|
| 20000-30000 | |
| miles | 9859.5 |
| gallons | 243.08 |
| avg | 40.56 |
| min | 28.71 |
| max | 52.44 |
|
|
|
| 30000-40000 |
|
| miles | 9995.4 |
| gallons | 236.53 |
| avg | 42.26 |
| min | 28.26 |
| max | 59.27 |
|
|
|
| 40000-54000 | |
| miles | 9961 |
| gallons | 254.18 |
| avg | 39.19 |
| min | 26.73 |
| max | 51.32 |
|
|
|
| 54000-64000 | |
| miles | 9826.1 |
| gallons | 241.21 |
| avg | 40.74 |
| min | 30.20 |
| max | 49.85 |
|
|
|
| 64000-79000 | |
| miles | 9947 |
| gallons | 256.99 |
| avg | 38.70 |
| min | 28.62 |
| max | 50.12 |
|
|
|
| 79000-85000 |
|
| miles | 5130.4 |
| gallons | 133.13 |
| avg | 38.54 |
| min | 33.79 |
| max | 50.83 |
The last time we had that high 59.3 mpg was back in October 2004. And we haven't really gotten that close to that number since. Second best mpg was 54.8 that same month.
Caroline Pardilla, Deputy Managing Editor @ 84,963 miles
breif says:
12:58 PM, 10/ 5/10
A ODO reading vs. fuel mileage would be much easier to comprehend.
TheDustman says:
01:32 PM, 10/ 5/10
I thought the Pruis was supposed to get high 40's avg, better than any other hybrid...my Civic has achieved 41.2 life to date, 60k miles.
aerodax says:
02:39 PM, 10/ 5/10
@ TheDustman
YMMV. I doubt you drive your Civic hard. I had a 07 Civic for 35K and I averaged 26 MPG. I've now had my 2010 Prius for 18K and I'm averaging 41 MPG. I drive it just as hard if not harder than the Civic.
klinker says:
05:04 PM, 10/ 5/10
We have 2 Gen2 Priuses in our family (2006 and 2007, same gen as Edmunds' LT tester. We consistently get 48-50 mpg on the 2006 and 55-62 on the 2007 which is overall much better than Edmunds' observation but still quite a bit of difference between the two cars considering they are driven very similarly #lightly# with similar routes #~60% 45mph street, ~40% 70mph highway#. I've noticed when driving in the mpg-optimal ~50 mph range, I can easily get 60+ mpg with the 2006 while the 2007 can barely do over 50. This is not just a fuel computer calibration issue either; the 2006 consistently always gets 100+ miles more per tank than the 2007. It seems like the 2007 is far more conservative in how much electric-only power it provides to the wheels vs. the 2006. I wonder if these cars just have a lot of car-to-car variability in terms of mpg which would explain why the Edmunds LT tester is such a dud?
Oh, curiously enough we did a 1000 mile round trip road trip in our 2007 the other weekend, running up/down mountains and cruising ~75~80 the whole way and passing slower cars often on 2-lane roads. The car averaged 49 mpg for the trip which was to me quite impressive considering the amount of passing I did.
rollk says:
11:33 PM, 10/ 5/10
Probably because the battery isn't what it use to be back in 2004.
takemorepills says:
11:36 AM, 10/ 7/10
Didn't this car have a very expensive repair recently?
http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/07/2004-toyota-prius-freak-out-fixed.html#more
So, let's figure that into the cost-to-own calculations. I couldn't believe a supposedly reliable car needed a $2500 fix at only 70K miles. I think I'd rather have a fuel efficient basic econobox that this rolling technological headache time-bomb.
These cars won't be worth much if anything after 100K miles.