Hi all,
I just had a little question - would warming up my hch for 1-2 minutes on idle in the morning help improve mpg for the first 5-10 minutes of my trip? I park outside, so the car gets pretty cold overnight. Also, my first 5 minutes of driving are stark uphill - with 50% assist and revs around 2800-3000 rpm - i cant go much slower because most cars gun that route at 50 miles per hour while I poke around at 35-40 miles per hour.

i know that warming the car up doesnt make sense for FE when your initial route is mostly flat - because then it's just like sitting at a stoplight wasting gas and getting 0 mpg - but because I have to go uphill for the first part of my route, i thought maybe warming the engine up would produce better mpg that would perhaps make up for the initial gas used. correct me if i'm totally wrong.

i havn't tried this yet, but i know whenever i hit both stoplights when they're red around the top of hill and wait without autostop (because the engine is still too cold to shut off) i always get better mileage - 51 instead of 48 mpg by the end of my round trip.