Car with best MPG at 90mph

In reply to frenchyd :

That used to be the case but I'm not sure it is anymore. 

Seems like the best bang for the buck is making your current Prius more efficient. 35 mpg at 90 is pretty damn good already.

Some narrow LRR tires with aero mods would capitalize on an already slippery body design.  Tape up all front body lines, minimize front intake holes, tuck in the mirrors, smooth hubcaps, rear arch skirts and make an airdamn.

twowheeled said:

In reply to Robbie :

There's a few reasons I don't do it, mainly because I work 14 days straight and have 1 week off. It's a copper mine in the middle of nowhere. There is no next door. Closest town is 40 minutes away and has a population of 1000, rent is high, no amenities.

 

If the job is too good to leave or there are no options closer to home( I'm skeptical but will take your word for it), and living near work isn't an option I'd be looking for hotels, or air bnb stuff near work. Are those a possibility?

 Your Prius has 11-12 gallons of fuel capacity, and at 35mpg driving 180 miles round trip means you'll be filling up every 2.3 days. That's 6 fill ups per 14 day work period At $30/ fill up = $180 just to get to and from work. Add mileage related costs like depreciation, meals on the road and increased maintenance to that. Call it closer to $200 per 14 day period. What's your time worth? $20/hr? 50/hr? 2 hours per day traveling X 14 days = 28 hours commuting. If you value your time at $20/hr that's another $560 every 14 days. That's breaks down to $54/day to get to work. If you work 21 days per month that's roughly $1150/month just getting to/from work. 

It sounds like your place in a mountain resort town could be an active air bnb place too. Maybe you could list your place during the 14 day periods when you're away for work and stay  someplace closer to work and kill two birds with one stone? Less driving and more income at the same time?

After hearing more about the situation, cost wise I'm not sure there is going to be a better solution than the Prius or a new job closer to home. Maybe the best solution would be a minivan with a twin mattress. Live out of that while you're at work. 

Ooooh, yes, are there showers at work?  Is there a place you could stash your "sleepable" vehicle and stay for the night while you're working?  Then your commute is only out and back once per 14 day work period.  That means you would spend the same money getting something like 3 mpg.

Mining 12 hrs plus 2 hrs commute a day, you have got to be beat after a couple days of that. Did something kinda like that myself for over a year but I went home on weekends and had a small cheap apartment in a not so good area of town that I shared with someone doing the same thing. Family was 2 1/2 hours away. Got old, moved the family after I lost my roommate. He went back home. Knew a couple others that did that too only they had campers they put in trailer parks. Is that something feasible? After putting in 12 hours and only driving a fraction of that to a bed and going home on the week off would take a lot of stress off and be safer. Understand the desire to go home every night but don't have time to do anything or see the kiddo's, if you have any or spend quality time with the significant other negates that.

Yea the move closer thing doesn't always work. When I worked out in the various flight testing corridors of California's High Desert I was driving 35 miles a direction or about 50 minutes on a good day. I could moved closer if I wanted to live in El Mirage which is pretty much famous for meth labs burning down and the stank from the dairy farms or Lake LA which is pretty much a glowing dot on the map for Megans Law lookups.

Since that wasn't going to happen and my job paid me six figures, provided very good health and dental benefits for the entire family, a 401k and a pension, I just accepted the commute. It's not that I disagree with the MrMM philosophy it's just that, despite what it's zealots seem to think, it doesn't realistically apply to every situation if you want to have a reasonable standard of living. What reasonable is depends on the person. Meth labs and convicted sexual predator hot beds pretty much qualify is unreasonable to me. All the money in the world doesn't help if you hate your life.

Anyway, there's a couple of aero kits for the Prius on the market which claim to lower it'd cd. Eco-Modder keeps talking about them but I don't see any data to back up the assertations. I do think the Model S is reasonably the best choice for a 180 mil round trip.

The ZAV/5th wheel idea is pretty good though if you don't have family you like to see every night. We had guys do that right outside the facility gates or in the facility and I'd have done it if I didn't have a family.

 The Only AERO you Need is a AERO PLANE, or a Helicopter,  That or a Motorhome to Stay in during the work Week.

So, out of each year you work 2/3 of 365 days? (About 240 days?)

At 90 mph, you get 36 mpg. 90 mile Trip takes 60 mins and 2.5 gal. Say at 60 mph the Prius gets 48 mpg, then your same 90 mile Trip takes 90 minutes and 1.875 gal. So you spend about $1.25 to save 30 minutes at $2/gal gas. That's a good trade in my book (same as yours it would seem). In both cases, you still drive 90 miles, so you spend about $20-30 on depreciation/insurance no matter what.

Now, the difference between 36 and 48 mpg is significant, but only saves about $2.50 per day (@ $2/gal). Times 240 days is $600 per year. I really doubt you will find a car significantly better than the Prius at 90 for the same price of car purchase/depreciation/insurance, and maintenance less than $600 more than a Prius. You're probably in about the best car already.

Even aero mods will be hard to make pay off. If you get the Prius up to 40 mpg at 90 mph, that only saves $240/year. So the cost of mods needs to be less than that or you need to drive the car multiple years to break even on the mod.

Where do your co-workers live? If you can carpool, even once a week, you would save $50 or so in depreciation/maintenance (and it would be nice to split that with your carpool buddy, so say $25). $25/7 = $3.50 per work day or equal to increasing your mileage at 90mph to almost 54 mpg.

TL;DR, When moving closer to work isn't an option, continue to drive fast but get a carpool going.

Crx hf. Not going to read all of this, so don’t donkey punch me if I’m repeating. 

Prius= efficient but boring

TDI-- boring and you get the added joy of creating health problems for others!  (still pissed at VW and likely will be long-term) 

I say you live a little and enjoy life everyday.    Buy a C5 Corvette.  It will knock down 30mpg or darn close to it at 90mph, cosset you with luxury, and you can really haul ass and have fun when you want to.   Life it too short to spend it in a penalty box----especially with a commute that long. 

Otherwise I'd look at the Ford Fusion Hybrid---- probably 35-40mpg at 90mph and much more entertaining (and clean) than a TDI or Prius.   

In reply to Robbie :

I love these posts... 

Even with your raise, I still couldn't afford to live closer to work.

MrMM can go berk himself... 

I lean towards TDI, but mostly because I already have one... for much of the same reasons (except for the 90 MPH bit - not feasible in congested suburbia...).  

That said, the road may be wide open, but once in awhile it will see patrol presence. And one speeding ticket at those speeds will wipe out any MPG savings for a year.  So with that in mind, I would pick whatever car your area stateys drive and forget MPG. Here in PA, that would be a Ford Explorer or Taurus. Preferably in black.  Side benefit is everyone will get the berk out of your way when you come up behind them.

The0retical said:

Yea the move closer thing doesn't always work. When I worked out in the various flight testing corridors of California's High Desert I was driving 35 miles a direction or about 50 minutes on a good day. I could moved closer if I wanted to live in El Mirage which is pretty much famous for meth labs burning down and the stank from the dairy farms or Lake LA which is pretty much a glowing dot on the map for Megans Law lookups.

Since that wasn't going to happen and my job paid me six figures, provided very good health and dental benefits for the entire family, a 401k and a pension, I just accepted the commute. It's not that I disagree with the MrMM philosophy it's just that, despite what it's zealots seem to think, it doesn't realistically apply to every situation if you want to have a reasonable standard of living. What reasonable is depends on the person. Meth labs and convicted sexual predator hot beds pretty much qualify is unreasonable to me. All the money in the world doesn't help if you hate your life.

Anyway, there's a couple of aero kits for the Prius on the market which claim to lower it'd cd. Eco-Modder keeps talking about them but I don't see any data to back up the dissertations. I do think the Model S is reasonably the best choice for a 180 mil round trip.

The ZAV/5th wheel idea is pretty good though if you don't have family you like to see every night. We had guys do that right outside the facility gates or in the facility and I'd have done it if I didn't have a family.

You were either working at Edwards AFB or Lockhead near Lancaster. You said Lake LA so I'm assuming Edwards. I know many test pilots and NASA folks out there who commute!

Trackmouse said:

Crx hf. Not going to read all of this, so don’t donkey punch me if I’m repeating. 

90mph was about the top speed of mine when I had one. 

In reply to yupididit :

Close Gray Butte is where I spent the vast majority of my time when I was in the US. I've been to all the surrounding facilities and bases for testing including Ridgecrest for testing at China Lake which I can also safely say I'd commute to having spent several months there.

yeah F China Lake, hell  I could'nt live near Edwards if I worked there.

Truck with a slide in camper, toad the prius, then stay in the camper as much or as little as you like?

I see lots of people talking about moving closer to work, and how that's not always an option. But nobody has mentioned the option of working closer to home. It's usually a lot easier to find a new job close to home than it is to buy/sell a house and move your entire life closer to a job. Live where you want, and find a job that will support you nearby. A job that far away would have to pay me a bunch more than anything else close to home to justify the time/money that I'd lose commuting that far. OP could probably take a $10-15k annual pay cut and be in the same spot financially if work was closer to home. And that doesn't value the increased free time. 

Sixth gear in a Corvette could very easily be one of the most economical answers here...

Streetwiseguy said:

Sixth gear in a Corvette could very easily be one of the most economical answers here...

At a minimum, it's probably not too far off.  Tall gearing to make up for the big engine, good aero, etc.  And it's certainly way more fun than anything else that'll knock down those kind of mpg numbers. 

Im sad i didn't get in on this thread from the start. Not enough time to respond to everything before work (evening class)!

TDI's maintenance costs basically always kill any minor MPG advantage vs the Prius. Even the gas vs diesel cost can more than kill it. TDIs are basically never cheaper to run. TDI people will deny this til death, it seems.

I have had the unique experience of doing an extended 90mph run in a 1g Insight. It got 38-39mpg across a completely flat stretch for ~100 miles. Not enough better to offset any of its MANY downsides. I still own a Prius and a 1g Insight and there are very few circumstances i would suggest the Insight to someone over a Prius. 

Also, part of being willing to go 90mph for long stretches is that noone else is around. So this whole idea of being a danger to others because you go 90mph when there's noone else around is foolish. You could argue about the emotional endangerment of anyone who happens to care about the OP if he were in a single car accident, but you'd need to start your own damn thread unless you don't want to be a bigger shiny happy person than the guy you're complaining about. My .02. As a Texan, i understand deserted roads and saving time. And i havent hurt anyone, ever. And i'm still alive. And i still live in Texas. Honestly, many of you should be jealous! 

Fort worth to college station on the old c5 got like 34.8 at an average speed pretty close to what you mentioned.

I had a picture of it before photbucket E36 M3 in everyones cereal.

Probably could have squeeking out a little more if it was lower, blocked off the front vents, sealed the front of the hood, ran the base model tire sizes with something less grippy and took the lass side mirror off. Have to be a manual though.

Wouldnt save you money though, maybe just up your enjoyment, but id probably rather do it in the prius. Sure vette is more fun to drop a couple gears and take off but once you actually get to 90, prius has things like cupholders and probably bluetooth and room

yupididit said:

Trackmouse said:

Crx hf. Not going to read all of this, so don’t donkey punch me if I’m repeating. 

90mph was about the top speed of mine when I had one. 

Exactly! To the floor. No lift. 

Of course, if the OP is going to do 90, why not higher? 100? 120?

I also had an HF. Concurrently with having an Insight. The CRX was better at nothing besides reliability (battery pack cant fail if it doesnt't exist) and cargo space. It handled worse, accelerated about the same, had a 20+mph slower top speed (Insight is actually slightly faster top speed than my Prius...), and had less safety and convenience features. 

A CRX HF is a cool car, but if you are trying to pick a high-mpg commuter based on purely practical concerns, it doesn't hold a candle to a 2g+ Prius. 

I know he doesn’t want us to read him the riot act, so I’ll instead ask about tire consumption here. 90 has gotta wear them out fast. And that should play a role since you can’t expect cheap tires to do 90mph everyday and not blow out, AT 90!