It’s definitely the length of your commute (or lack thereof) that’s the primary cause; you may have a little bit of a lead foot, but we can work on that with you.
I’m in a colder climate too (Northern IL), as opposed to some of our AH mileage champions (lots of TX, AZ, and OK folks here, apparently ::waves::
, so my experience may be similar…
First 5 to 8 minutes, depending on temperature, you’ll have no VCM, and no auto-stop. I did notice this afternoon, with an ambient outdoor of 68F, per the car's sensor, that I gained auto-stop almost immediately (after one stop and about 2 minutes' time). With a higher temp, you'll get quicker engagement of auto-stop.
VCM, however, doesn’t come on until the engine’s fully warmed up. For me, this occurs about 3-4 miles down the road, on average – in the morning, I come out of a 25mph development straight on to a 55mph two-lane – not the best for my engine (but it’ll warm things up a little faster than if I were going 30). By the time I hit my first slowdown / light a mile or so down the road, I’m at about 14-15mpg, and more often than not, unless ambient temps are 60F or better, I’m not getting auto-stop at that light. Rebooting (turning the car off ) isn’t an option at that point, because that defeats the purpose of getting the car to operating temp so that you can get VCM & IMA functioning fully.
After that light, the limit changes to 40mph; if I’m lucky, I’m doing close to that, and not crawling. Most mornings, about 2 miles after that light, I see VCM activate (the ‘Eco’ light in your dash). At that moment, I’m at about 21mpg, give or take a few tenths. Your mileage will begin climbing rapidly after that point, especially if you are fortunate enough to have a road that’s not congested, with few stops, where you can drive a steady speed. About 5 minutes of this would put you at about 29mpg, easily. From there, you’re set.
Your goal, as far as not having an instantaneous FE gauge (like in the Navi cars), is to:
a. Accellerate a bit smoothly and slowly from the light – to the point where many cars will pass you as they’re getting up to speed. Never mind them – you’ll be catching up to them shortly.
b. When you’re at your desired speed, keep the minimum pressure needed on the accelerator to keep a set speed. Do not vary this with changes in elevation. It will be a bit stressful on your ankle the first couple of days - hang in there!
c. Maintain a bit of distance – it gives you more reaction time to avoid starting / stopping unnecessarily. Maintaining momentum will help you greatly. Your (literally in your case) biggest FE killer is your starting / stopping.
Now…if you are stuck with a sub-10mi commute, it’s like Jason said – there’s no hybrid car in the world that will help you, because all of them require time to bring themselves up to operating temperature, just as any ICE does. You’d need a full-electric vehicle (and for someone like you, range wouldn’t be an issue with one of those, although temperature might).
Finally – I’m not going to be charitable about your dealer's salesperson. Auto-stop does help, and is important (if you doubt me, watch your trip mpg decrease by .1mpg every ten seconds when you’re at a light sometime and it's not engaged - you'll be looking to shut that ICE down, if you're like me these days).
However, and I don’t say this lightly – he either doesn’t know his product, or he out and out lied, if you told him your driving profile was short-trip (especially *that* short a trip). Either way, he did you a disservice. Again, with your driving profile, even a Toyota hybrid isn’t going to help you unless you drive farther on your average trip. However, in your type of driving, I *would* recommend a Toyota over a Honda, as much as it kills me to say that
