Well there is no need to guess anymore as I took delivery of an HCH the 19th. After about 120 miles the game gauge says about 56 MPG. Most of the Vette Hypermiler tricks work with the HCH but they need some adjustment. The 4 banger can't push the car up hills in top gear at 800rpm like the Vette can.

The manual is hard to drive in a way to get the most out of the re-gen. The car must be in gear (of course) but I typically drive just above idle so there is not much re-gen to be had without multiple quick downshifts. I assume the CVT is much better about maximizing the re-gen during braking.

56 MPG should put me on top of the heap as far as HCH MT drivers goes. Did we ever come to an agreement about using the gauge or the pump numbers? My Vette's display was consistantly around 10% higher than the pump calculations so I always used the pump numbers as the gauge was clearly in error. My 1996 Vette's display was always dead on but the 2000's is always high.

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The drive to work is 18 miles and has 3 roughly equal parts. Part one is freeway with a 65/55 mph speed limit that I usually drive between 45 and 60. Part 2 is back roads with a limit of 40 mph that I usually drive between 37 and 49. Part 2 has a couple stop lights. Part 3 is in town with several stops, left turns across traffic, and limits of 55/30. I typically drive part 3 between 70 (down a big ole hill) and 37. 37 is about as slow as the Vette would go in 6th gear. Working second shift helps a lot. I can't touch those numbers if I come into town during the day.


The Hybrid will be great cause I'll be able to use the big old hill for re-gen and not get going so fast. I've been cresting the hill at 25/30 mph and still hit 65-70 by the bottom in the Vette.