Prius

Adding to this blog, we have a few comments about our hybrid car. We first bought a 2002 Prius and after putting 36,000 trouble free miles on it and averaging 44.5 MPG, we traded it in on a 2005 with all the bells and whistles, like side air bags, smart entry, nav system and better sound. We now have 23,418 miles as of the last fill up and are getting 47.6 MPG measured tank to tank. The last fillup was 58.4 MPG which raised the lifetime average by 1 MPG. We drove it on a trip from Arizona to Maryland and back, getting caught in the Katrina gas crisis. Because we don't have to fill up until we get to 450 miles or so on the tank we could look for cheapo stations and never paid over $3.00 per gallon on that trip. We have done several things to increase the mileage of the car over stock. We put Mobil 1 oil in it. We raised the tire pressure 7 psi over recommended but not to exceed the sidewall maximum. We installed the "stealth" mod which allows us to move the car short distances without starting the engine. When no other cars are around and we are on secondary roads, I practice "pulse driving" which increases the mileage.

We are very happy with this car, so much so that Al returned to Arizona and brought it back up to Washington where we are spending the winter.

This is the blog site for Al MacDiarmid and Jean Young. Our picture is on the profile. Hopefully, we will add stuff from time to time.