surface of the road

Last Thursday I got my new Prius (the "standard" one). I'm extremely happy with it. It drives like a limo.

Yesterday I drove my first 500 km from Eindhoven (Netherlands) to the north of France (Lille). I was not focussing on the MPG. But after a day of shopping I was tired and decided to drive back calmly and set the cruisecontrol to 100km/hr (60 MPH)

In Belgium the highways are a bit bumpier and the surface is not as smooth as we have them in Holland just across the border. I noticed the following:

In Belgium I got an average 5,2 l/km ( 45,3 MPG) and when I crossed the border and the surface of the road turned smooth it showed an immediate improvement to 4,7 l/km. (50,1 MPG). Still driving on cruisecontrol and no difference in driving behaviour.

If just by paving the roads properly we can already save 10% instantly on CO2 emissions and petrol consumption this is somthing to think about.

Question: Do some of you experience the same?

Thanks Bumperkleber

Reply to
king
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I never had the situation where I was driving on bumpy roads for a long stretch, and then on smooth to make the direct comparison, so your experience is an excellent illustration of how the road conditions affect gase mileage.

Even though I didn't have specific numbers to back it up, it's exactly for that reason I sometimes alter my route to use smoother roads... assuming that doesn't entail a significantly longer trip.

If anyone doubts that a rough road can make a big difference, it's simple physics: it takes energy for a bump, or series of bumps, to shake your car, and that energy is coming from what would otherwise be forward motion (or regen).

Reply to
Mr. G

When I was researching tire rolling resistance I came across a lot of information about rolling resistance and the type of road surface. But since I don't have a lot of control over the road surface, I noted it but didn't really take any notes.

What tire pressure do you run? How close is it to the maximum cold pressure for your tires?

Bob Wilson

Reply to
Bob & Holly Wilson

Tirepressures is something I have not checked yet. Since the car is on the road for just 4 days now. I assume it has the standard pressure. I need to check the big book that came with the car.

Grtz Bumperkleber.

Reply to
king

"king" ...

King, this is one area that the book is not so good on. Most of us are using tires inflated rather hard. I use 42 psi in the front and 40 in the rear and it adds significant MPG. Reported wear of tires the I have seen (in NGs and in real life) is unchanged/not noticed.

Here is another book on-line that is pretty good and is written by users, not Toyota:

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22 discusses tire pressure.Read this whole thing to learn a lot about your car. Read the regular manual as well - there is really good stuff in both. Hope this helps, Tomes

Reply to
Tomes

"Tomes" schreef in bericht news:g4ujs5$us8$ snipped-for-privacy@registered.motzarella.org...

Hi Tomes,

I will read it. Thanks for the tip.

Greetz Bumperkleber

Reply to
king

This is very interesting as I have had a similar experience but without the abrupt change between good and bad pavement which could be noted. So, as a result, my data are not as good as yours.

The Prius is a very finely engineered and tuned car. It is optimized so every change from standard counts toward lowering gas mileage -- weight, sttreamlining (such as adding a roof rack), tire pressure, use of heater and cooler, etc. I've even noticed that wet or dry weather appears to change the gas mileage a bit.

But, even at its worst (in winter with the heater running contiuously), the gas mileage is still better than any other car that I have owned.

TKM

Reply to
TKM

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