Challenge winner gets the lead out
Self-admitted heavy-footed driver posts most impressive number to claim Hyper Miler title
Over the course of the summer, we’ve be profiling our four readers who signed up for the Hyper Miler Challenge in the Monday e-Driving section. Today, the winner.
On the one hand, a handicapper would have probably tabbed Susan Dalip as the odds-on favourite to win the Province Hyper Miler Challenge.
Her and husband Don have owned a 2006 Toyota Prius for more than a decade, and she commutes from Port Coquitlam to her job at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver in their 2016 all-electric Kia Soul.
On the other hand, she is a self-admitted “lead-foot” when it comes to driving, and she did the Challenge with her husband in the passenger seat, adding weight to the 2017 Toyota Prius Technology that her three competitors driving solo did not have.
All of which makes her final fuel economy number of 3.0 L/100 km over the 61-kilometre drive — beginning at Colossus in Langley, travelling 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 — all the more impressive.
Susan says much of the credit for her challenge-winning effort goes to Don, saying he provided just the right amount of coaching, aided in large part by the Prius’s dashboard readouts.
“He was telling me when to ease up on the accelerator, when to brake more, those kind of things,” explains Susan, adding with a laugh, “If he wasn’t there, I’d definitely have been in last place.”
She also admits there was an occasion or two that she might not have exactly reached the posted speed limit.
“I was happy it had Ontario plates on it so people behind me might have figured I was going somewhat slower than normal because I was a tourist.”
So how does the 2017 Prius compare to their 2006 Prius?
Susan says she doesn’t drive their Prius that often but did take it to Kelowna and back a few weeks ago. Not surprisingly, the comparison between that decade-old model and the hybrid she drove during the Hyper Miler Challenge was startling.
“The difference between the two was amazing, particularly in terms of how they accelerated and how smooth the ride was,” she said, but did note their 2006 model still achieved great fuel economy. “I went (to Kelowna) and back on about $50 worth of gas.”
The time behind the wheel of the 2006 model also led her to appreciate the 2017 model’s integrated navigation system and fuel economy readout graphics.
“Like our EV, all those updated electronics are really great.
“The one big thing I did notice is that our older Prius just takes that little bit of extra time to accelerate, you sort of need to be gentle with it. The new one just accelerated that much better.”
Of course, her Kia Soul EV accelerates even better than that, and as much as she liked the 2017 Prius, you’ll have a hard time getting her to part with her all-electric commuter.
“I charge it up at work, which means I rarely need to plug it in at home,” she says. “I love it.”