09-26-2005, 08:24 AM
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Ridiculously Active Enthusiast
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Real Name: Larry S. Singleton
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Hybrids: 2007 TCH and Loving It !
Posts: 1,427
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Re: Driving Style and MPG
Well, here's some more truth:
If you drive a Hybrid "like a regular car" and DO NOT take any actions to try to maximize your MPG, you will not get EPA numbers, and you will not be pleased with the car's MPG performance.
The beauty of these cars is that they "give you the tools" to modify your driving habits in order to best take advantage of the technology.
If you are not interested in "playing the game" of trying to see how high you can keep your tanks on a consistent basis, then a hybrid is probably not for you.
Anyone can slow down, take a different route, accelerate more slowly, and all that stuff, in ANY vehicle, and their MPG will improve. But in a hybrid, you have instruments you can use as tools to help guide you to discovering the best MPG under certain circumstances.
And you can certainly drive the speed limit in a hybrid and get good MPG. Just this past Saturday, I was driving 40 miles per hour in a 40MPH zone and the realtime MPG meter was registering 80 MPG.
The thing that TOO MANY people do is "zoom zoom zoom" from traffic light to traffic light, in a hurryhurryhurrygottagettherefiveminutesago style, and that KILLS your MPG.
I love my new Hybrid driving style, and I am still learning my car after almost 15 months. 
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