To get the advertised highest figures, you need to drive the Prius like a
granny.  The display can 'teach' you how to achieve the best MPG; kinda like
the "upshift" indicator gimmick they used to put on the Rabbits.......

Mike B.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joy Hecht" <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 5:44 PM
Subject: Re: Our rigs ain't pigs (caution: major argument)

Your wife's echo gets 54 mpg?  Geez, my Prius doesn't even get that!  And as
far as I can tell the Prius is basically an echo with a hybrid engine.

Joy

****************************************************************
Joy Hecht
now living in a real house in northern Virginia
and Matilda, 1989 Burgundy Vanagon
now living in the driveway and resting after two and a half years
lugging Joy and her stuff around...

For musings about life traveling in the van or living in one place:
http://www.joyhecht.net

****************************************************************

:::-----Original Message-----
:::From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
:::Of Nathaniel Poole
:::Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 3:19 PM
:::To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
:::Subject: Our rigs ain't pigs (caution: major argument)
:::
:::I just read an very interesting article in today�s Old and Male newspaper
:::describing automotive trends since 1980. In the light of this article, it
:::shows these archaic, underpowered rigs of ours really were not that far
:::off
:::the mark for their time.
:::
:::It also shows how gradually, through the forces of marketing, we have
:::been
:::hoodwinked. I also think it shows that us VW van owners are actually more
:::progressive than the general population, resisting a powerful trend.
:::
:::What the data shows is that since 1980 average vehicle horsepower climbed
:::85%, vehicle weight 30%, while MPG stayed mostly static at around 20. For
:::light trucks as a category, acceleration has increased 4-fold.
:::
:::There are several issues here. The most obvious is that if we still
:::accepted
:::the power and acceleration of our old rigs in modern vehicles, one can
:::only
:::imagine the MPG we would be getting. Drop engine displacement by half and
:::imagine what fuel economy you would get with modern, powerful, fuel
:::efficient engines. I know these things aren�t linear, but my wife�s echo
:::has
:::a 1.5 litre @ 108 hp. It gets 54 MPG. If it had a one-litre motor in it
:::what
:::mileage would it get? In 1980 that would have been adequate power and
:::displacement.
:::
:::While these vans were never speedsters (who would expect it with a camper
:::anyway) the engines were acceptable in their time. Remember, average hp
:::was
:::almost half of today�s in 1980. It is our expectations that have changed.
:::More power and speed and damn the economics and environment.
:::
:::What would be really, really interesting, would be to take a modern, low
:::displacement high efficiency engine and use that for a conversion.
:::The Echo engine above I believe has 108 ft/lbs of torque which is close
:::to
:::the WBX, so you wouldn�t notice the power difference in a van, but I
:::would
:::bet you would get a hell of a boost in MPG. In my AC van I could put in
:::an
:::even smaller motor without noticing a power difference, but I doubt one
:::even
:::exists today.
:::
:::Sometimes it worth the while to stop and think about these long term
:::changes
:::that happen without anyone asking if that�s what we really want.
:::If somebody came forward today and said it would be official policy that
:::motor vehicle power would double over the next twenty five years with no
:::improvement in gas mileage, I think there would be at least a lively
:::debate
:::about it.
:::