Thinking of taking a break...

[benlovesgoddess]

Up to about 2004 i used to just stick £5, £10 or £20 of fuel in. My MPG obsession began when i started using bio diesel (used chip fat), and could only get it from 1 place. I finally started getting the full tanks to make the calculation. Apart from 5 years on heating oil, i then always kept track of brim to brim economy.
With the Prius being a particularly (for me) nippy car while put in "power" mode, i might start putting my foot down.
Back as a pizza boy, 10 mpg would be a big difference.
These days its not really a financial issue, my high mpg obsession is just a competitive thing. Its probably unnecessarily negging me out and limiting my driving pleasure.
I'm thinking of keeping my miles and litres, but neither working out mpg or adding it here (maybe till later date).
Unless my enjoyment of racking up high daily figures outweighs the pleasure of some faster acceleration!
The Prius shouldnt deliver less than 55-60 mpg even when driven hard.

[Draigflag]

Ben I can relate to a lot of what you're saying, and as I've mentioned before, from previous posts I think we're quite similar. A big part of owning a car is enjoying driving, I don't mean by driving like a WRC driver every time you get in the car, but enjoy the roads, the scenery and above all, not worry about the cost of journey or how high your MPG's are. Fuel is quite cheap, and like you say loosing a few MPG's is not a big deal unless you're doing 50,000+ miles a year. When I drove that GTI flat out, I remembered how much fun driving can be, and that fun is sometimes more important than how long a tank of fuel lasts.

But, I would still keep a note somewhere of your mileage, as you may regret not doing so in a few months, keep a record, add it later, delete it later, you have the choice. Don't worry about how inefficient your car looks compared to others on Fuelly, it only matters to you. My cars are neither the highest or lowest on here, I'm happy with average, I can afford to run them.

[R.I.D.E.]

I started really getting serious in 2008. I filed a provisional application for my patent number 7677208 about the same time.

Today I refilled my tank at 425 miles, 7.315 gals (US), cost $2.019 a gallon, $14.77.

58.1 mpg last tank.

On the 2.3 mile trip home, using everything I know, I hit 83.2 (US) on that single leg of today's drive.

That's 100 mpg British, with a 20% bump for the larger gallon measurement.

I've driven cars that got 1 tenth of that mpg, but have no desire to do so now.

[Draigflag]

2.3 miles?? You can't make a claim like that for using a freshly reset famously inaccurate car computer as a form of measurement, over such a small distance. Average that over a tankful, and I'll take my hat off to you, not before lol. Even a Hummer could trump that over the same distance

[benlovesgoddess]

Yeah, i ll keep the data in the glovebox.
I've spent so long trying to max out each journeys mpg, i dunno if i'll be able to maintain a driving style with uneconomical acceleration...!

[Draigflag]

You need to experiment more Ben, driving faster/more aggressively might not use as much fuel as you think, you'll be braking more, and generating more battery power, and I tend to find when driving faster, I'm lifting off the accelerator more often, and coasting (in gear) for longer too. I've been driving aggressively on thins tank so far, and I'm only 1.5 MPG down on my last tank, give it a go!

[SteveMak]

In all my previous vehicles (all long-termers), I always started out keeping accurate fuel economy logs. I could rationalize it in my mind as a way of monitoring the vehicle's healthy. I did this with cars and motorcycles. At some point, I'd just lose interest, and I'd just fill when I needed, and drive as I needed.

Today, I'm on my 16th month and over 21,000 miles on a new car, with accurate logs since Day-1. My competition is with myself, seeing if I can beat previous records, get better averages. I enjoy driving. I enjoy hypermiling. I enjoy looking at my stats. I don't know long it'll last though.

To each their own.

[BlueRover]

BEN

Welcome back to the real world!

99% of Prius drivers around my home are taxi drivers and they seem to take great joy in racing from every light. Of course they seem to spend lots of time hitting lampposts and keeping sales up in Canada LOL

Keep a record as a sudden change may indicate a problem with the car. Not so likely without carburetors, automatic chokes, points, distributors, ignition wires and oil bath air cleaners. (who remembers them)

[benlovesgoddess]

This morning I both accelerated harder, and aimed to maintain a higher top speed.
Despite leaving at the same time, we weren't any earlier...!
A new low of 53 mpg indicated for 24 miles (Mid 60s to low 70s, with a high of 88 my previous scores).
However, the few people stuck behind me at 30 mph through the villages were left far behind, rather than overtaking me on the other side of the of the speed limit.
The car does accelerate well, but I didn't enjoy the sub 60 figure (I can hide the figure from the display though, might do that next...)

[OliverGT]

Have to agree with a lot of the above.

I do enjoy driving and as I have a slow car, I enjoy the hypermiling aspect of driving.

I do also have an Alfa Romeo 156 TS, it's only the 1.6 but it's still a hoot to drive, you'll notice that I don't even have it listed here on Fuelly, that's because when I'm driving the Alfa, I'm enjoying the driving (and wondering what will go wrong next ).

I'd love a Honda Insight MK1, which I would hypermile to death.

I'd also love an M5 which I would thrash to death.

It's horses for courses really, I wouldn't buy a fast car and hypermile it, similarly I don't try and race my little Peugeot because that's not what it's good at.

Basically, I'll drive anything and enjoy it's strengths rather than trying to make it something it's not.

Oliver.