It is now 2005 August 1. We are in the year of 18 projects, and apparently they are keeping the oil flowing in the world, although the market is so tight that a little hint of hurricane or a little flame at a refinery can send oil prices soaring towards the Space Shuttle. I heard today that Ford's average gasoline mileage is only about 19 mpg. This is averaged over all of Ford's vehicles. Evidently Ford can't get out of the SUV habit. One of these days it will bankrupt them. Toyota is much better, surely. They make gasoline-frugal cars such as the Corolla and the Matrix, and hybrids such as the Highlander and the Prius. But no, they are not the most gas-frugal brand of car. Honda is, at 25 mpg, and even that is not good in my opinion. Evidently Toyota has too many SUVs, too. They roar down TV news advertisements and car dealerships with a huge army of Tundra SUVs, ruining the good gasoline mileage they get from the Prius. Hopefully this will change soon.
But the Prius does indeed get good gasoline mileage. It gets nearly 50 mpg! This, plus conserving on when you drive, anyway, will help you through the high gasoline prices ahead of us. To show you what I mean, here is a record of our Prius, which we bought last Christmas Eve:
| Date | Gallons | Price | Panel mpg | Actual mpg | Miles Driven |
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| 2005/06/12 | 8.088 | 16.98 | 49.1 | 49.0 | 396 |
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| 2005/06/20 | 8.608 | 17.55 | 48.1 | 46.1 | 397 |
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| 2005/06/29 | 8.424 | 18.27 | 48.8 | 48.9 | 412 |
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| 2005/07/07 | 7.736 | 16.16 | 49.3 | 51.6 | 399 |
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| 2005/07/16 | 8.584 | 19.65 | 48.3 | 43.0 | 369 |
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| 2005/07/31 | 8.4 | 18.22 | 49.8 | 49.3 | 414 |
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Pretty good, isn't it? The display on the Prius shows the number of miles since the last refueling and the mpg at that time. "Panel mpg" refers to this number on the display panel on the dashboard. "Actual mpg" is obtained by subtracting the mileage from the past refueling mileage, and dividing by the number of gallons. There is a bit of bouncing around, caused by uneven places at which gasoline pumps cut off. But the trend is clear. This vehicle averages at least in the high forties, and many times it comes close to or exceeds 50 mpg. Even with today's high prices, it still costs only $18 to fill the tank.
This is the car of the future. Either auto makers must make hybrids like this one or fail. Toyota is destined to be the top automaker in the United States, and in the entire world, by far.
