Hello,

With my '06 Civic Hybrid the guage is indicating around 35 mpg average around town. Obviously that seems low. I read a writeup online and they were saying that the best they could do was about 38 mpg on average no matter how hard they tried. Am I missing something here?(besides a few mpg's )

Also, how long is it possible to drag things out before getting an extended warranty? I realize that it starts from day one once you pay for it but how long can I wait?

Thanks for your help.

My wife does 80% hwy. and is getting 46 mpg. The guage said 42mpg so you may be getting a false reading. Check your gas by setting your trip meter and measuring how many gallons you use.

Warranty question - you have until 6000 miles I believe - check some of the past threads as I believe this was covered.

Mileage question - Is this your first tank? If so - how long are your trips, what weather (temp and rain?), hills or not, etc etc... Give us some more information and we'll try to give some more specific advice. 35 in town for the first tank isn't out of the question if there are a lot of short trips. There is a learning curve that goes along with driving this car - it takes a few weeks or even months to really learn how to drive for best mileage.

Eric

Heh heh... My drive to work is 4.1 miles and has over a dozen stop lights. The absolute BEST I get under those conditions is 41 MPG. But look on the bright side: If you were driving a conventional Civic, your FE "hit" would feel more like a sucker-punch.

I've put about 1000 miles on the car and it's maybe the 4th or 5th tank?? When I bought it I drove from Flagstaff, AZ to Huntington Beach, CA, about 400+ miles. That averaged about 36.7. I reset the guage and around town(including freeway) it's been 35+. On the freeway hitting 70 - 80ish MPH.(So. CA stuff) So a mix of some cruising and trying to push it.

35 mpg is about what I get when there's lots of traffic -- stop signs are easy to plan for but traffic is very difficult to get good mileage with. However, non-hybrids get about 20 mpg in the same traffic; they just don't tell you that since they don't have MPG displays. Remember, NEVER try to compare real-world driving with EPA estimates; a regular Civic would *not* get 30 mpg in traffic.

Also, the trip MPG displays really do seem to underestimate mileage quite a bit. My manual calculations are always higher than what the digital display led me to believe.

EDIT: OK your above post was written while I was writing mine. So in response to it, it's very important to keep your foot as light on the gas pedal as possible without slowing down. Once you reach the speed you want to drive at, gradually release your foot and you may find (at least on level roads) that your speed won't be affected but your mileage will improve. Also, when you need to slow down or stop up ahead, COAST. It's really easy and even enjoyable coasting, it benefits all cars, and it's usually pretty significant.

This car is particularly sensitive to foot pressure and to speed. You can see I average 39 mpg over 11500 miles, and my highest tanks, which were at least 50% highway, were 42 mpg. For example, driving between San Diego and LA, round-trip, at 75-80 mph, usually nets 42 mpg.

This is about what I observe in mine as well. A recent road trip of mine (most of my last tank) netted me about 42 mpg driving average 75mph on freeway, with significant wind. However, the 2006 Hybrid shoudl perform marginally better than mine as well as I believe it's slightly more aerodynamic and has a somewhat more efficient engine in it.

OK, got it. It seems that if you drive it like a regular car i.e. Civic than I can expect the 35+ mileage and if you really work at it then the 40+ is possible. The EPA stuff is definately misleading. Thats my only gripe because the 50 MPG is one of the features that interested me and sold me on the car. This car in unbelievable otherwise

Did you ever get the EPA rated mileage in your prior auto?
I suspect not, if you drove it 70-80 MPH. (And I'm right there with you. Consistently slowing down will be a challenge for me.)

And if not, why would you expect to get EPA (of 50) in this car?

There ARE people getting EPA and better, but most if not all of them are driving MUCH slower and with MUCH more attention to driving techniques that improve MPG than the average driver.

Personally, when I get mine (June ), I'll be thrilled with 40-45 MPG.

Steve

STOP terrorism - Drive a HYBRID

Vehicles:
350 miles a week ------------ 2006 HCH II, Magnetic Pearl, w/NAVI (born on May 25, 2006)
350 miles a month ---------- 2003 Mazda Tribute ES-V6
350 miles a year (for now) - 1986 Mercedes 560SL

It doesn't work that way. I used to have a Jetta that I drove extremely lead-footed, flooring it every time I accelerated, driving 70-80 on the highway, driving very aggressively, etc. I averaged 23 mpg. The EPA combined average is 24. On the other hand, the 2006 HCH driven in a similar manner would get around 30 mpg, 20 mpg less than the EPA estimate.

Different cars are affected differently from aggressive driving. And the difference between EPA and real-life is not consistent. For instance, the regular 2006 Civic was reported by many people to get 37-38 mpg at 80 mph with all highway driving. Its EPA highway is 40, 2-3 more. The hybrid's EPA highway is 50, yet it gets around 40 mpg at that speed, 10 less than the EPA.

That's why there's all the fuss about hybrid EPA values being inflated. They are much more inflated than for regular cars, except maybe the TCH, though of course 40 city isn't realistic.