Tech with a twist of lime! & FLHybrid Club.

I am enjoying my only day off in a week.  Let's talk about calculating your miles per gallon (MPG) over a tank of gas. The way the Prius calculates MPG is simple; the vehicle has four cylinders, it feeds the four cylinders the same amount of fuel, Prius multiply their consumption as measured in cylinder one by four to get total consumption.  1*4=4  4*amount of fuel used=total fuel consumed    consumption/miles traveled= miles traveled for each unit of fuel consumed.  Now for the part that works on every car.  We don't usually have fuel flow meters that we can read, so we have to gauge how much fuel the car has used since last fill up.  Most people will not run their tanks dry to avoid stressing the car and to avoid being stranded in inconvenient situations.

If we cannot measure as the car consumes the fuel and we aren't able to measure a perfect tank how do we know how to gauge our progress without relying on what the car says?  We know something the car does not (usually) know, we know how much fuel we put in.  For example, if we put in 2 gallons of fuel to bring the car to full, then drove 50 miles and filled up again, this time the vehicle took 2.5 gallons to get to full, we used 2.5 gallons!  50 miles/2.5 gallons= 20 miles per gallon.  There are only two minor inconveniences with this method of calculation.  You have to wait until you have used some fuel and refilled, and it is less accurate on single tanks for the Prius.  The reason for the loss of accuracy is, the North American Prius all have flexible fuel tanks and hold different amounts of fuel under different environmental variables.  Therefore, for the Prius this method only gives a rough estimate and the car gives a better and instant rough estimate.  However, this method combined over all the tank fills in question, will tell you the car's exact mileage for the series of fills in question.  If you pumped 80 gallons into the car and traveled 5000 miles for the tanks you are tracking, you achieved an average of 62.5 MPG!

Kacey Green
GRLT.com
"Tech with a twist of lime!"
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Especially if you drive an Audi, BMW, GM, Honda, Toyota, or Volkswagen vehicle.

Since the summer of 2004, I have been recommending top tier gas to everyone I knew who drives a BMW, GM, Honda, or Toyota product.  These manufacturers got together with oil companies and created a fuel standard, in response to the damage poor quality gasoline was doing to their customers' engines, the companies had been replacing engines under warranty and it was getting expensive.

Toyota even has set their fleet maintenance interval to 5000 miles; many of their vehicles such as the Classic Prius (NHW11) were sporting a 7500-mile maintenance interval.  But for 2004 the new Prius, which has the same engine(1NZ-FXE) as all previous Prius, they ratcheted that down to 5000 miles between servicing, because that's what the fleet standard is (I'm sure it doesn't hurt that they stand to make money off every oil change).

Three cars have worn the Prius name badge:
Toyota Prius NHW10 (1997-2001)        |JDM Prius, Original Prius, First Prius
Toyota Prius NHW11 (2000-2003)      |Classic, 1.1, or 2^nd Gen, First US Prius
Toyota Prius NHW20 (2004-Present)    | 2^nd Gen, 3^rd Gen, 2.0, or Hatchback

Anyway, the automakers got together and set a standard for all fuels to meet in order to carry their certification, the first retailers to meet the standard were Chevron and Quik Trip.  For short while Shell was promoting the Top Tier Gas initiative in their television, print, and radio advertisements; later they started promoting it has something unique to their own brand, dropping the Top Tier label.

Continue reading this article after the jump

My brother and I trekked to Gainesville so the band could record for their new album and for the concert on Saturday.   Before we even started the trip, a dark Honda Accord Hybrid crossed in front of us when we were exiting a shopping complex; regular readers will remember how hard it is for me to spot these bad boys in the wild.  Like many of my hybrid encounters, the driver could not see the lettering on my car, the look on her face was as though she was wondering, "Who the heck is this person, why did they wave at me all friendly-like."  The other type of encounter is one with others like me they wave back!  (This is the preferred reaction.)

Once we were underway things were looking like it was going to be a smooth trip, we were rolling along and making great progress, until we go on the freeway.

Continue reading "Traveling Companions 3, 4, and 5" after the jump