Testing the 2010 Toyota Prius: We Enter Fuel Economy Run, Tarnish a Reputation

Testing the 2010 Toyota Prius: We Enter Fuel Economy Run, Tarnish a Reputation

The embargo's lifted now and word about the 2010 Prius -- from the drivers' points of view -- will be all over the Web this morning.

Edmunds is offering you two pieces, a full test-drive by Inside Line Senior Editor Erin Riches, and an Edmunds.com consumer road test review by yours truly.

We've also got here for you a tale of how Green Car Advisor and a bunch of other journalists may have utterly ruined the Prius' image in what has been prime country for the hybrid.

As part of the press introduction, held at the end of February in Northern California's famed Napa Valley wine region, Toyota challenged reporters to take on a 33.8-mile Prius fuel economy route to see if we could beat the 62.9 miles per gallon average that Prius Chief Engineer Akihiko Otsuka managed.

I was in the first wave of about 30 journalists, teamed two to a car, and at various times during the day each of us attempted the feat.

My partner and I took off from the hotel Toyota was using at about 3 p.m., me behind the wheel, he with one eye on the Prius' instantaneous fuel economy gauge and the other on road and traffic conditions.

We figured that the intent was to drive in a fairly normal mode -- Otsuka hadn't said anything about pushing the car down the highway, or tucking in behind big rigs to gain a few feet per gallon by drafting.

Going for Broke

It was slow going for the first few miles as we crawled through downtown Yountville, where Main Street was under construction, and edged up to the highway on-ramp with an impressive 72.3 mpg showing on the gauge.

But by the time we were halfway down the first 10-miles stretch of highway, even though we kept in the slow lane and were running at about 40 mph on a road posted for 55, we knew that driving anywhere near normal wouldn't cut it: our fuel economy had dropped below 60 mpg.

For the rest of the route, which wound through downtown Napa, past four school zones, then down a long stretch of the winery-lined Silverado Trail highway and back to the hotel on a series of flat country roads, we drove that poor Prius as if the engine had blown, the tires were flat and the transmission was dragging bits beneath the car.

It was emergency blinkers on, crawling in bike lanes and on the shoulders of the roads at 5 and 10 miles an hour, using the low-speed all-electric drive mode whenever possible, holding up lines of traffic and generally (although inadvertently and in the spirit of competition) making sure that hundreds of people who saw us passing by would wonder forever just what in the heck was wrong with that brand-new Prius!

When we arrived back at the hotel, we proudly pointed out that we had beat the chief engineer's effort.

We accomplished the route at 66.7 miles a gallon.

Turns out that everyone else in our group, and in the second wave of journalists who took the challenge two days later, also beat the chief.

And our 66.7 mpg wasn't all that impressive.

The winner in our group did it at 75.3 miles a gallon.

One wave two, one team must have gotten out and pushed because their car because it came in at a jaw-dropping 94.6 mpg (a feat that was tossed out of the competition as not being representative of realistic driving!).

In all, half of the 26 teams whose results were counted (another, with a 26.8 mpg average for the route, was also tossed out -- for not trying very hard) came in at 70 mpg or better.

Our 66.7 mpg was only good for 23rd overall.

Lasting Impressions

And every time I think of how we drove to accomplish that, I laugh as I imagine the image a whole lot of wine country residents and visitors must have of the new Prius after seeing herds of them limping along the highways those two days in late February as if every moving part were broken!

Here's hoping, for Toyota's sake, that some of those people are reading this and spread the word: we liked the car and there was nothing wrong with it. The only problems were the people driving.

A few days after returning from the 2010 Prius press preview, I spoke with Inside Line's Erin Riches, who had put one of the new Priuses through its paces that same week.

She hadn't had time to take the driving challenge, but with a crew of Edmunds test engineers did put one of the cars though a 115-mile fuel economy loop of their own design.

It wasn't the best route, she said, because it was more than half highway and, as everyone should know by now, a Prius is best for fuel economy in stop-and-go city driving.

Still, Riches got an honest 52.2 miles a gallon out of the 2010 Prius she was driving, and that's nothing to scoff at.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.