Hi Jason:

___Believe me, I am not fooled by anything in regards to HW mods, techniques, and conditions. Technique is worth ~ 33%, conditions are ~ 33% and mods are worth ~ 33% for the Insight and me. 700 miles on a tank in an 04 Prius are the signs of a very good game gauge driver imho. I cannot wait to hear of his own real world exploits …

___Maybe you should consider a new section and link to “Driver of the month” or something similar? Maybe include a little Bio information on the car, the driver, and the daily grind (I mean drive ). For last month, I would nominate Rick Reese as he surpassed 1000 miles on a single tank for the first time this spring in his 2000 5-speed Honda Insight called “Flipper”. Not to mention the many times he has averaged > 100 miles/gallon over an entire tank over the last two or three years! Rick, if I had someplace to drive for another 36 miles yesterday, I would have made it to 1000 miles on a tank for the first time ever! The low fuel warning light was on over the last 70 miles or so and I know my Insight can go at least 110 miles after the light. Adding 10.8 gallons at the station however says that our tanks can actually hold ~ 11.2 gallons from top off to top off maybe? I just didn’t really have anyplace I needed to go For the month of April, it would have to be Krousdb for his > 700 mile and > 70 mpg tank in his 04 Prius called “EMAXX”. I would also include Hot_Georgia_2004’s HCH w/ CVT called “Sparky” for a very nice string of high mileage numbers over the last two months. I don’t even know if his HCH is even broken in yet but at least he is going after tire pressures now. Hopefully he will have the OEM break-in oil swapped out for 0W-20 Mobil1 Synthetic in the immediate future to help that much more …

___I can bet that after a few months of these headlines and acknowledgements, Honda and Toyota might take notice as to what this database actually means and might even throw in a few awards like Toyota/Honda hats, free oil change coupons, 30,000 mile tune-ups/checkups and such …

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

Xcel,

Perhaps I can create a "highest tank" output at the top of the database. It won't take any additional modifications. The requirements would be > 500 mi, as any car can achieve this.

 

Done!

Now, I'm off for a bit. later

 

xcel,
Thanks for noticing.
I have free oil changes for life from my dealership. They did the first oil change last week at 5K miles and put in the "regular" stuff.
I'll have to inquire about the synthetic oil.

Last month I learned a good lesson about driving environment and the effects.
In February I was looking forward to March warmer temps.
March did warm up a little but quite a weather fight up there and caused a
brutal 20-35MPH head/cross wind to battle almost everyday so my numbers
really didn't improve that much. Had a couple good runs inbetween though.
One day I broke my current record and got 63.4MPG on my daily 45M route.
Hopefully April things will calm down some.
Also am beginning to learn a couple of tough hills I drive.

Good idea about the driver of the month for each vehicle type.
Steve

 

Just noticed the last paragraph you had there, xcel. I think I breezed over it before I just may do this. Thanks for the idea.

 

Hmm.. well I've had my Prius for about 2 weeks now. I got it with 3 miles on it and I now have about 150 miles on it. My mileage so far is ~55-56 MPG. I live in Miami Flroida, the temp here has been between 70 and 80 the whole time.

I have not yet put any data in the database becuase I want to get more miles before I do that.

My driving has been mostly city with some highway.

What I have noticed is that the mileage for about the first 5 minutes of driving while the car warms up is about 30. Once the car is warmed up I'm able to pretty easily stay above the 50 mpg zone.

It has to also be noted of course that normal cars get lower MPG during warmup also, so getting 35-40 mpg on short 5 minute commutes is still a lot better than in a normal car because a normal car that si rated at 20 mpg is really going to be getting 10-13 mpg on those short commutes.

 

Your conditions are even better than mine in Orlando! How long are your commutes? If they're longer than 45 minutes or so, you are in a position to start setting the mileage records.

I suggest you start practicing the "no arrows" energy conservation technique.

 

The good news is that this morning my average MPG was 54.2 when I got into the car. My commute to work took 18 minutes, at the end of which my average MPG was 55.8.

The bad news is that coming home for lunch my average dropped back down to 53.7

I'll post my average MPG at the end of the month in the database.

 

That's nothing Try my stand-still parking lot traffic at the end of each day. I dropped 5mpg just today and am at 40 miles now.

 

I figured out my issue, the way to work is a slight downhill grade, while the way back of course is uphill.

This being south florida its only minor, but its there, and I see from a couple of trips now that it makes about 5 mpg difference +/- per trip, so when averaging it all out it affected my average by about 1.5 mpg +/- each way.