Simon says: Thou shalt be frugal
Reader sold on the hybrid concept after taking Hyper Miler Challenge in 2017 Prius Tech
(Over the course of the summer in Monday’s E-Driving section we’ll be profiling four readers who signed up for the Hyper Miler Challenge. We’ll present them in order of fourth through first. Today, our third-place finisher.)
He didn’t post the lowest number, but Simon Hunt takes the prize as the keenest of all our Hyper Miler Challenge respondents.
The Steveston resident wasted no time in responding to our call for participants, with his initial email to us noting: “I coast and am as frugal as it comes when driving, rarely braking and anticipating traffic lights in front of me.”
In other words, a bona fide hyper miler.
Hunt was first out of the gate on our 61-kilometre route in the 2017 Toyota Prius Tech during our daylong Hyper Miler Challenge, and he was equally keen about the hybrid vehicle. Well, maybe not the colour.
“Love it, but the colour is a little too bright for me. I’d like a black one.”
The semi-retired merchandiser is somewhat familiar with the Prius as, in 2014, he rented one in Las Vegas for a drive to Bryce Canyon. He was impressed as he got just under 4.0 L/100km in fuel economy. That was in the third generation Prius, which in comparison to the new fourth-gen looks like the kind of boxy hatchbacks many associate with hybrids.
Hunt’s daily driver on his 80-kilometre round-trip is a 2004 Ford Focus that gets decent gas mileage at around 6.7L/100km.
But it’s nothing like the new Prius, which has an official Natural Resources Canada rating of 4.5 L/100km.
“My goal was to beat the official fuel economy rating, and we all did that,” Hunt says, referring to his Hyper Miler competitors.
With a number of 3.3 L/100 km, he certainly did that, and he figures that given another chance, he could lower that still.
“I had the air conditioning on and I had the satellite radio on,” he said, adding that he found the fuel economy dash readouts are “like watching a video game.”
That onboard computer readout revealed that Hunt travelled 61.6 kilometres in one hour and 24 minutes at an average speed of 44 km/h. The route began at Colossus in Langley, travelled west along Highway 1, then up and over Burnaby Mountain, onto the Barnet Highway, then east along Lougheed Highway to the Golden Ears Bridge in Maple Ridge with a return to the Colossus parking lot.
In addition to the miserly fuel economy, Hunt was also impressed with the car’s handling and ride.
“It’s just so quiet and smooth. When you lift off the gas it just coasts so beautifully. It’s just a great car,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about getting one, though I think the smaller Prius c would suit me better.”
He’s also sold on the hybrid concept, so much so that after taking part in the Hyper Miler Challenge, he’s rethinking his mode of transportation for a road trip next year.
“It will take me from Vancouver to San Diego to Miami to Boston to Chicago to Spokane and home, nearly 21,000 kilometres, and I was planning on renting or purchasing a small, two-person used motor home, but now a hybrid is a real possibility.”
Just not a red one.