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Originally Posted by Archslater
Good summation, good luck with the TCH! Post photos.
I wouldn't say getting 32-34 mpg at a 900 mile trip of 82-88 miles per hour is bad. Any car would will decrease mileage dramatically at this speed because of the high amount of wind resistance and friction. The hybrid powertrain has no advantage over a standard gas powertrain at high cruising speeds. I am curious to see how the TCH compaires at highway speeds however, as its gearing and extra power probably is much better suited to higher speeds.
For the record when I drive on the local highways I typically maintain about 74-76 miles per hour and get 42-44 mpg, so you can see that FE drops off drastically at these speeds.
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I recently drove in a '06 Nissan Sentra SE 1.8L on I-40 with a friend of mine where even the 18-wheel trucks exceeded 90mph in some places. At an
average speed of just under 90mph we averaged about 27.5mpg by display -- the same as his lifetime average with similar commute and similar driving style as mine. In the 82-88 range on I-15 we averaged about 28.5mpg.
The Civic Hybrid would still save some fuel at those speeds though in terms of gas, and at least it won't get worse on all-day road trips. but having the enging winding way out is loud/annoying, and doesn't leave much power in reserve for mountain climbing. However, when you get into my friend's similar day-to-day city/highway driving, my Civic Hybrid delivers about 42-44 as compared to 28, a massive difference.
The advantage of the Camry seems to be is that it gets almost the same mileage across the whole range as the Civic, except for hypermile driving, despite being a larger vehicle and having much more power in reserve. Dumping the Camry Hybrid motor into the smaller Civic Body, then adding a plug-in LiIon booster pack would probably be my ideal car -- good, cheap (fuel cost at least...)
and fast.