I'm on my 30th tank and my lifetime average is still going up.

Does anyone know when it levels off?

http://www.greenhybrid.com/compare/m.../car/1900.html

Need fewer troops to support.
Drive a hybrid.
Best tank 71.65 MPG.

Before this car I spent two years learning hypermiling on my 2004 HCH1.

It's going to climb if your first few tanks are the worst....or stated in a postive sense, your tanks get better and better. It will level off unless you start doing a number of things to increase it a lot more such as slower speeds.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Kenny, are you bragging? I'm just joking with you, keep up the good work!

My average is rising still too, I'm at almost 4500 miles. The last couple have been about the same though, its only rising becasue my first few were horrible (compared to the rest of mine, not comparing to anyone else, so no one get offended! ).

I'm guessing your recent climbs may be due to warmer weather? Just a guess. I wouldn't know, you'll have to provide what you're doing and what the conditions are!

Kenny,
Do you know what you need? You need cold & snowy winters and somebody else, without hypermiling desires, to share your vehicle with you.

LOL nice. I am glad not to have the sharing part...That would be bad...When I decide on who's my other half I will have to find someone who nurtures my hypermiling habits.

My average would be higher (cause I drive slower than heck) but at least 75% of my miles are transiting from one side of the Appalachians to the other....No, they are not the Rockies, but they still aren't very conducive for great FE. When you're going down a mountain you can only charge your battery so much, and you can only gain so much momentum before the cops pull you over...I'm getting better now at knowing when the next mountain is and how steep it is, which allows me to slow down to 30 or 40 mph, or slower, thus preventing the waste of potential energy coming down the mountain. However, even with good planing like this doing all those climbs will never balance be able to be balanced by the decents...

My wife actually isn't that bad, but she doesn't push it like I do. She still does pretty good unless she's got a passenger. Then she doesn't concentrate at all and kills my tanks. I wish I could keep a whole tank to myself and really bust out some good numbers, but it is usually wasteful to do so.

I hear ya on the mountains. If you have to use your brakes on the way down, it is too steep and it's not the best for fuel economy. (I don't drive in the Rockies much.)

Kenny,

You've been at this a long time. Many of us are still learning to tweak our driving and to be patient. My tanks are going up now, BUT - I'm sure they will go down in Sep or Oct when the cold nights start up again (Buffalo area).

I still don't understand how the HCH II can be "stuck" at a lower overall MPG when for a clear majority of USA drivers the temps are up. I've been comparing the Prius II and HCH II for overall MPG for over a year and 1/2 now. It used to be only a .5 or .6 differential. For the last two or three months it's been more like a 1.5 MPG differential. The Prius has gone up and the HCH down. I don't quite understand this.

Don
Best tank 67.5 mpg (555.5 mi.)
Best trip 91.5 mpg (42.2 mi.)

The answer has three parts:

1. The vehicle drag has been minimized
2. The tank-to-wheel efficiency has been maximized
3. The operator uses 1 and 2 to maximize performance

Vehicle drag is minimized by wheel alignment, tires, lubricants and where possible, aerodynamic improvements. This is helped by understanding the relationship between speed and drag.

The tank-to-wheel efficiency includes using a higher energy fuel, engine maintenance, improved engine heat management, improved intake and exhaust efficiency, and transmission efficiency. Knowing the specific fuel consumption of the engine as a function of ICE rpm helps. The ICE rpm is also a strong function of the transmission characteristics. It also includes warm-up and cool-down characteristics. It also includes energy storage using kinetic and battery energy management.

The last part is an informed operator and where possible, systems and driving patterns that make efficient driving the default. Route planning is an important part when it includes ICE warm-up, efficient cruise and efficient cool-down.

It takes study and understanding the engineering:


So it is just a question of understanding the basics, eliminating the unknowns and application to your vehicle. This takes time and once the current vehicle is mastered, it is time to get a new one with new characteristics.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

I believe the reason the HCH2 is getting the same MPG as the HCH1 on the database [It should be 2 or 3 MPG higher] is because of the poor design of the HCH2 climate control system.
(I owned one of each, a 2004 and my current 2006 for about a year and a half.)

Even when the HCH2's climate control is NOT in the AUTO mode the air conditioner turns itself on when you wouldn't expect it to - and you may not even be aware of it.

Example: In my 2006 HCH2 if my temp is set lower than the outside temp and the whole system is off and I reach for the fan dial you'd think I am only turning on the fan (not the AC).
But the AC DOES come on, even though the display displays nothing.
Plus, you'd think the display would read "AC ON" when it turns the AC on.
Also, unlike my 2004 HCH1, there is no green AC LED.

I know the AC must be coming on because the car gets very cold.
Then if I hit the AC button and the AC goes off, which is proven by the air coming out of the vents is no longer cold and the display reads "AC OFF".

Stupid design.

If I ONLY want to turn on the fan I have to turn on the fan, THEN turn off the AC. Duh!

I believe many HCH2 owners are driving around with their AC on and don't even know it.
I only figured it out because my temp is set to the lowest possible.
I think many people have the temp set closer to the outside temp so they would be less likely to notice the AC came on.

Need fewer troops to support.
Drive a hybrid.
Best tank 71.65 MPG.

Before this car I spent two years learning hypermiling on my 2004 HCH1.

My last 10 tanks in my HCH or so have been fairly consistant, so I guess you could say I've leveled off. Now I've got to learn how to drive my Insight.