Day 5

So after work I decided to take a drive to Los Angeles to visit some family. Los Angeles is twice as far as Palm Springs, so I get to put my true driving to the test.
The highway going to Los Angeles is usually one of two things, extremely congested or speeding through. Since today is Sunday and it was the afternoon so traffic wasn't so bad. Everyone was driving at 80, 90 MPH so I had to follow. This is where I see the Prius becoming not so fuel efficent as it says. When you are driving at the speed limit, 60 or 70 mph, it still tends to stay within the EPA MPG of 45. When you start going over the speed limit at 80 or 90 MPH is when the car decides to use more of the gas engine then the electric battery.
In the car there's this screen, that shows you what is getting powered and and the car is relying on what for power. On the bottom it also shows you what's your MPG consumption. Anywhere from 0 when you parked to 99.9 when you are solely running on the electric battery. I noticed a button on the screen that took me to a page telling me how much electricity was used and generated. At the bottom it showed my average MPG for today's driving. It said 42.2 MPG for the last 163 miles. That's pretty much my whole trip to LA, both city and highway driving. EPA estimates say that the Prius should be 48 city and 43 highway. My hunch is that 80 and 90 MPG that hurt it. But still, 42.2 MPG still isn't bad.
Well I got 3 days left to experience this car, let's see what other experiences I get. Since I found taht little MPG feature, for the remaining 3 days I will be keeping an eye on it to see my average.