2016 Toyota Prius: How Many MPGs Can YOU Get?

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I’ve had the good fortune to chase the 2016 Toyota Prius story, from the premiere event in Las Vegas last September, through the first drive media event in November. I saw some crazy great MPGs on the first drive – but that was in Southern California, under ideal weather conditions. Last week, I was able to put the new Prius to the test here in New Jersey in colder temperatures, shooting a review video for Autobytel. I took the opportunity to knock out a ‘stunt drive’ video for the MPGomatic channel…

The 2016 Prius is the most efficient glider that I’ve driven to date. Needless to say, I did quite a bit better than the official ratings of 54 city, 50 highway, 52 combined on this backroad, small town crawl. Check out the video for the details.

Two caveats: 1) that this was a pre-production Prius … most likely, one of the very same vehicles we tested in Southern California back in November. 2) This was strictly a stunt drive – not a city/highway test. I did not have the time/resources to perform tank fill tests.

Things are challenging these days at MPGomatic. While the dramatic drop in fuel prices has led to less interest in fuel economy, it remains a significant purchase decision factor. Although we’re seeing slightly less traffic, the most troubling aspect is an exponential drop in advertising revenues. When ad revenues were strong, it gave us the ability to do more comprehensive fuel economy testing.

Production Note: The ten mile MPG test loop video was shot with three cameras: a GoPro Hero3 (on me), a ContourHD (on the road), and a Panasonic V720 (on the gauges). I ran the same route as my Prius C fuel economy test, a few years back.

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4 thoughts on “2016 Toyota Prius: How Many MPGs Can YOU Get?”

  1. Could you post the route?

    That way I can use Google Earth to map the altitude changes. In the future, you might consider using a recording, GPS, like a Garmin Nuvi, that can generate a ‘kml’ file. That would give us the detailed engineering data for the route.

    Thanks,
    Bob Wilson, Huntsville AL

  3. Things are challenging these days at MPGomatic. While the dramatic drop in fuel prices has led to less interest in fuel economy, it remains a significant purchase decision factor.

  4. Ooo thats really cool..I really enjoyed watching your vedio…I wish i could be there with you 🙂

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