Toyota Prius fuel economy

wayword16

I currently have a 2007 Toyota Avensis 1.6 Petrol and i'm thinking of a Generation 3 2011 Toyota Prius for my next car. The Prius seems like a really good car for car camping with the rear seats folding flat and the battery seems good. Would there be much difference in fuel economy between the two cars? I do 90% of my driving around Dublin suburbs so very rarely use a Motorway though i'd plan a handful of car camping trips around the country in the summer in the Prius. Could anyone tell me what the real world milleage is like for the Gen 3 Prius thanks...

wayword16

wayword16 wrote: »

I currently have a 2007 Toyota Avensis 1.6 Petrol and i'm thinking of a Generation 3 2011 Toyota Prius for my next car. The Prius seems like a really good car for car camping with the rear seats folding flat and the battery seems good. Would there be much difference in fuel economy between the two cars? I do 90% of my driving around Dublin suburbs so very rarely use a Motorway though i'd plan a handful of car camping trips around the country in the summer in the Prius. Could anyone tell me what the real world milleage is like for the Gen 3 Prius thanks...

In the MK II I averaged about 4.8 Winter and 4.4 Summer, what you loose on the motorway you gain back in town, the opposite of diesel. Whatever diesels get on the Motorway is lost in town.

Anyway, Choose your tyres carefully. And get the best rating tyres for fuel and wet grip you can.

It takes time to learn how to get the best out of the hybrid system. Check out some of the threads here and do a google search for "pulse and glide" for Boards.ie.

Put this into the google browser site:www.boards.ie pulse and glide

September1

I have Gen 3 Prius and I would get 5.4 to 6.7 (or 42 to 52 mpg) depending on type of driving and weather. I think it may be slightly less comfortable than Avensis and also it has relatively low clearance, which may be annoying sometimes.

zilog_jones

57 MPG average based on nearly 700 users: http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/prius/2011
Will be undoubtedly better on fuel than a 1.6 petrol Avensis, and it's more powerful.

There was a facelift in 2012 which made some improvements to the interior and equipment (touch screen stereo, LED headlights, fixed some issues with interior rattles, etc.) - I would recommend looking for these if you can.

Also you will get better spec if you look in the UK (while you still can ) - the JBL stereo is significantly better (only comes with leather option in Ireland IIRC, but standard on a few levels in UK), and much easier to get things like cruise control.

The Prius Plug-in (2012-2015) is another option, although you will have to go to the UK to get one (they weren't sold here). They have much larger Li-ion batteries, and with a full charge (90 minutes on normal 13A socket; 3 kWh) you can do about 14-18 km in "EV mode" (standard Prius will do 2 km in EV). Used prices are no higher than standard Prius, and motor tax and VRT are lower. I got one a few months ago and I'm pretty happy with it so far - averaging about 80 MPG so far, and even with the cost of charging it's costing half as much to run as my old car (Peugeot 406 diesel). You can sign up for public charging too, though you'll have to buy the right cables.

Quiet a few people give Motorway/city economy figures and reset the trip computer in the middle of a drive etc, completely inaccurate.

It's the per tank consumption average than matters which is the figures I gave above.

zilog_jones

Fuelly (and Spritmonitor - average is also 56 MPG there) is based on distance driven vs. amount of fuel used. You can't enter the fuel consumption directly.

wayword16

Cheers everyone....

wayword16

I bought my Prius last week.☺☺☺ I went for a jap import 2011 gen 3. Looking forward to going out car camping in a couple of wks when it gets a bit warmer in May.....😀😀😀😀😀

Well wear, let us know how you get on.

wayword16

I filled up the car after a few days and the trip gave me a range of 848 km. I'm down to my last two bars on the petrol gauge and covered 790 km so far. So i may get close to 1000 km on a full tank. With a bit more experience of pulse and glide i may do even better...... Happy days....☺☺☺☺☺☺

zilog_jones

Not sure if it's exactly the same on the Japanese version, but the fuel gauge is very pessimistic - in my experience when it goes down to 1 bar and starts beeping/flashing there's still 9 litres left in the tank! What I do when it gets to this level is reset Trip B as I know I can safely do another 100km or so before really needing to refuel.

Not sure what kind of camping you're planning on doing, but if you're going to be using power from the car for extended periods while parked up it's recommended to leave it running ("Ready" light on the dash) in P.

If you leave it in accessory mode (orange light on power button) then the 12V battery can discharge easily (they're not very big). Leaving it in N disconnects the ICE from the electric motors, so can lead to the traction battery getting completely discharged if left long enough (e.g. with aircon on) - also not recommended.

n97 mini

September1 wrote: »

I have Gen 3 Prius and I would get 5.4 to 6.7 (or 42 to 52 mpg) depending on type of driving and weather. I think it may be slightly less comfortable than Avensis and also it has relatively low clearance, which may be annoying sometimes.

This would be our experience when we had a 2011.

zilog_jones wrote: »

57 MPG average based on nearly 700 users: http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/prius/2011
Will be undoubtedly better on fuel than a 1.6 petrol Avensis, and it's more powerful.

Fuelly users are not typical though. I'd consider them the more economy conscious owners.

n97 mini

zilog_jones wrote: »

Not sure if it's exactly the same on the Japanese version, but the fuel gauge is very pessimistic - in my experience when it goes down to 1 bar and starts beeping/flashing there's still 9 litres left in the tank!

Yeah, ours was the same. Not helped by the fact that it's only a 45 litre tank.

In comparison my Civic IMA will nudge 1000km from a 50L tank. It's all relative but the Prius seemed to be at the petrol station every second day in comparison.

grogi

wayword16 wrote: »

I currently have a 2007 Toyota Avensis 1.6 Petrol and i'm thinking of a Generation 3 2011 Toyota Prius for my next car. The Prius seems like a really good car for car camping with the rear seats folding flat and the battery seems good. Would there be much difference in fuel economy between the two cars? I do 90% of my driving around Dublin suburbs so very rarely use a Motorway though i'd plan a handful of car camping trips around the country in the summer in the Prius. Could anyone tell me what the real world milleage is like for the Gen 3 Prius thanks...

I had Prius Mk2, didn't care about tyres (I even got 205/55/16 instead of OEM 195/55/16 because they were cheaper and much easier to get) and about pulse&glide crap...

Averaged 5.8l/100km, mainly short distances around Cork.

zilog_jones

n97 mini wrote: »

Fuelly users are not typical though. I'd consider them the more economy conscious owners.

True, but wayword16 is already talking about pulse and glide so should be able to achieve similar

Personally I tend to just use the cruise control whenever possible, and still get respectable fuel consumption (ignoring EV capabilities of my car). Even stuck at 130 km/h indicated (=120 km/h real speed) it will return around 5.4 l/100km (52 MPG). The only time I get worse than that is short journeys in heavy traffic in the winter with the heater on (lots of idling).

I believe the cruise control can be fitted easily if you don't have it - you just need to buy the stalk and plug it in. Can't confirm this is true for JDM models.