Entries Tagged 'Toyota Prius' ↓

The images above were taken during a weekend trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to attend a wedding. The images also live in the 2008 Gallery if you care to see any notes on an individual photograph.

This is the longest roadtrip yet in the Toyota Prius. From Akron we went through Charleston, West Virginia on the way down. On the way back we visited a friend of Ann's in Celina, Tennessee and came back via Cincinnati. That's 1,210 miles and we averaged 51.3MPG according to the MFD.

From the December 5th 2007 Edmunds Auto blog:

The Toyota Prius — by itself — outsold entire automotive brands (that's all models added together) in the month of November. You'd probably say, "I'm sure the Prius did outsell some entire brands in November, brands like Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche and maybe even Jaguar, Land Rover and Hummer too."

Actually, it outsold all those brands…added together. But the Prius outsold some other brands last month, too. Brands you've probably heard of…

…like Acura, Audi, Buick, Infiniti, Lincoln, Mercury, Mitsubishi, Saturn, Scion, Subaru, Suzuki and Volvo. And guess what? At 16,737 units in November it was only the fourth-best month of 2007 for the Prius. Toyota sold 24,000 of these hybrids in May, 19,100 in March and 17,700 in June.

BTW, the Prius was 300 units away from outselling Cadillac in November, and less than 1,000 units short of outselling Volkswagen. I should also note that the Prius was Toyota/Lexus' third-best selling vehicle in November, beaten only by Camry and Corolla.

Before the onset of winter I blocked the grills with pipe insulating foam. I noticed a drop in MPG once freezing winter arrived. We were averaging around 35mpg around town in freezing temps. It's hard to tell how much it helps since I have no data with the grills open in similar temperatures.

On the annual Ohio Xmas journey from Akron to Glenmont to Medway and back, we did the entire trip, 428 miles, on one tank. As we got within 3 miles of home when the last gas pip started to flash. After dinner I filled the tank and it took 9.17 gallons to fill. The tank holds 11.9 gallons, which means we had about 2.7 gallons in the tank. That means we could have gone about 120 miles before running out gas in the current conditions. The flexible bladder is the wild card, since there could have been less than 2.7 gallons in the tank.

The MFD reported 48.4 MPG for the trip, while the math indicates 46.7 MPG. I think the MFD number makes sense when you consider the times the engine was not consuming gas while in motion.

Flew into Vancouver, BC today and when I walked out to grab a taxi I was pleased to find a Prius taxi next in line.

Of course I had to chat up the driver during the ride.

His was a 2005 model that has more then 428,000 Kilometers (approx 266,000 miles). The only thing to go wrong on his car was the display for the speedometer, which needed replacing around 200,000 kilometers. He said it cost him about $400 CDN to replace it. He also has had two break jobs during the lifetime of the car.

He loves his Prius as he says it has saved him a lot of money in gas costs the last two year, not to mention the little he has spent in repairs.

I asked him about oil changes. He's changing the oil every 8,000 kilometers. He's using 10W-30 Dino Pennzoil.

I was careful to listen for rattles but could only hear the handle on my Portercase rattling around in the back.

I decided to give Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30 synthetic oil a try in the Prius over the winter. This change was on 11-24-07 at 6,178 miles. A K&N filter was used.

The Trop Artic was a good oil for the money, considering I did two changes with it early on to get the break-in gunk out of the engine. The Prius never gets really hot, even on the highway, when you have a chance to boil off fuel and water in the oil. I'm hoping that the PP will add protection again shear from fuel dilution. Sometime in April or May when we hit 5K miles on this oil I'll have a UOA done and she how it held up.

Current service records for the Prius:

6-16-07 - 952 miles - First Oil change to Trop Artic 5w-30 Synthetic Blend with Mobil 1 M1-103 filter

10-28-07 - 4760 miles - Oil change with Trop Artic 5w-30 Synthetic Blend with Mobil 1 M1-103 filter

11-05-07 - 5,288 miles - Rotate tires, top off fluid levels. ($16.68)

11-24-07 - 6,178 miles - Oil change to Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30 and K&N Filter

MILES ON OIL:

952 miles on factory fill oil

3,808 miles on first change to Trop Artic (UOA done on this oil)

1,418 miles on second fill of Trop-Artic

I was curious to see how the Trop Artic 5w-30 semi-synthetic was holding up and to get a baseline for this engine. Report below:
1255001_jim-arnold-akron-oh_2007-prius-1-5l-4-cyc-dohc_07110753.pdf

Download the PDF above or click the image below for a JPG version of the PDF. The PDF will have attached notes you can read.

The leaves have finally changed. The sun finally broke through at the end of the day making our back yard come alive with color.

Click the photo to see a large version

Trying to time the last oil change before winter so I can get to spring. In a little over four months we put 3,808 miles on the Prius since the last oil change on June 16th. We're at 4,760 miles on the car at this oil change.

Could not help but park by these other Prius while out and about in Cleveland.

A quick Labor Day weekend trip to Columbus gave us the best mileage yet in the Prius with the MFD showing 55.5 MPG for just under our 300-mile trip. We currently have a little over 3,000 miles on the car.

We made a quick stop at Trader Joe's and parked our Prius next to a friend. The red Prius is one of the less commonly seen versions here in Ohio.

We made stops at the Columbus Zoo and the The Topiary Garden at the Old Deaf School Park. It features Georges Seurat's Famous post impressionist painting, A Sunday On The Island Of La Grande Jatte, created in topiary. It's worth a stop the next time you visit Columbus.

While eating lunch at the Mohawk Tavern in German Village we spied a couple come in, one wearing a T-shirt with nothing on the front but 01.20.09.