I stopped for fuel right off the highway just south of Tucson on I-10, yesterday. I filled up and got right back onto the interstate without having to stop. I hit 60 mph (55 mph speed limit) and set the cruise. For the next 30 miles, I was getting 48.x mpg on both displays!! At one point, it was in the mid 50s. But some slight inclines took care of that. But even so, averaging 48 mpg is WAY above EPA estimates. And I'm STILL not using hypermiling techniques! When I left Tucson, and the speed limit went up to 75, I set the cruise to 70, and the mileage went down to 42-43 mpg. Then after several miles, I set the cruise at 80 mph, and the mileage went to 41-42 mpg.

By the time I hit Phoenix, I had 43.x mpg on both displays. But, I made the mistake of getting off at the Arizona Mills Outlet Malls. The parking lot was hectic! All that stop and go brought me down to 38 mpg. By the time I finally made it home, 30 more miles, I was back up to 39.9 mpg on the dash display. I'm guessing the Navi display is just above 40 mpg, since it reads slightly higher all the time. I didn't look at it when I got home.

I still don't use any hypermiling techniques. Well, with the exception of being smooth on the throttle and brakes. Not slow, but smooth. I still accelerate at a pretty good rate, as not to annoy the drivers behind me. I get the smoothness from racing motorcycles. It helps balance the suspension and affects overall stability. I've never really applied these principles to a four wheel vehicle until I got my HAH. Now I use the same principles in four wheel vehicles to obtain better FE.

Perhaps, the next time I'm back home in VA, I'll have to take a trip up to see GoNavy and enroll in his "hypermiler seminar."

On another note, as I passed Casa Grande, AZ (between Phoenix and Tucson) I saw a Love's gas station with an 87 octane price of $2.159! That's less than what gas cost at this time one year ago! Too bad, Phoenix's average is still around $2.299.

 

Hi Bar10dah:

___Driving 60 mph is driving as a hypermiler As for the rest of it, start DWL up and over those hills, and FAS to stops from speed when and where that technique can be used properly. Holding onto 39 is great. Now let’s get your segments up into the mid 45 range. After that, lets work on holding a tank at 43 +. Once you are there, we are going to get your segments and tanks to 45, and then 48 and then the magic 50! You have the best of temps right now so take advantage of them before next spring when it turns hot and you forced back onto A/C … I know you can do it and you know you can do it. That 48 mpg segment out on the highway has finally shown you the light

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

 

I'm flattered

Not so much the hypermiler these days- I'm slacking into old habits and letting CC do the dirty work more lately, not DWL so much. It's been tough to find a MPG baseline to work against with winter fuel, residual ethanol in the tank (pretty much flushed out now) and continually varying temps. And my commute route doesn't have any light-traffic-guaranteed-stops to enable FASing to any extent. Not to mention a lack of 60mph trucks/draft targets- they all want to get through the DC corridor before sunrise and run like hell for the 200mi between Delaware and Richmond.

Excuses, excuses.

Yes, smooth is the key. Smooth also tends to beget a lighter touch, with fewer momentary throttle excursions to the upper ranges that are the fuel sucking moments. It also lets the computer make shift decisions more reliably.

As long as my tripB comes in >40mpg coming and going on my 33mi one-way drive each day, I'm happy for now. Likewise, my weekend errands and tooling around gets set at 33 or else Daddy is not a happy camper.

 

Update one month later... (12/26/05)

Cruise control set to 70 mph for 40 miles. Some smooth rolling hills. 2000 feet in altitude. Mid to high 60 degrees. This is what I saw:







Then I drive for another 40 miles at 70, and then the next 15 miles at 62. Mostly flat. 1200 feet in altitude. It's past sunset, but Phoenix is always warmer than Tucson, so temps are pretty much near the same.







The car has over 6K miles on it now.

 

Oh, and the MPG indicator read 40.5 when I lowered my speed from 70 to 62. Dropping in altitude from 2K to 1.2K must have bumped up the numbers. FE was slowly climbing the more miles I was putting on it at 70 mpg. Given more road (sometimes, I wish I could just drive right by my exit and keep on going!) I'm sure the MPG indicator would still be climbing!

 

...must be nice to have multiple-hundred foot declines every now and again!

I think many here at GH have proven that if you're willing to DWL on the trip up, you can get better overall FE on hills than on flat, given the right circumstances.

 

Xcel will love this...

Took the same route as before. But this time, we took my wife's Escape! I think I used to get 20-21 MPG on this trip before. But driving it the same way I drive my HAH, I was able to get 26.4 MPG on the way home! That's over a range of 218 miles. Cruise control set to 70 MPH for all but 15 minutes of our trip.

On way down, I got 23.2 MPG after 300 miles. But that's with about 80 miles of city driving through Tucson.

The only driving habit I've changed is rapid accelerations and and flooring it to pass other cars. Now, I smoothly start out from a stop. I wait until there's a rather large gap before passing, so I'm not rushed to do it. And I've dropped my speed from 80 to 70 MPH.

I calculated my fuel savings from this 518 mile trip to 4.192 gallons. At $2.25/gal that comes out to $9.43 that's staying in my wallet.

 

its the magic variable cylinder deactiviation at work. If you use 3 cylinders to cruise instead of 6 your fuel savings will double! I wonder if your lightly accelerating you can just use IMA assist and 3 cylinders hmmmm.

edit: wow you guys have trouble going 60? its not normal over in the states huh... or I'm just so used to enjoying going to speed limit

from time to time all I see is a difference of 5 to 10 mins to my destination, not a big change of time but a big change in mileage!!!!

 

He took that trip in the Escape, not the HAH.

Instantaneous FE doesn't double dropping from 6 to 3, but it does go up well over 1/3, from low 30s (my friend's non-hybrid V6 Accord) to low-mid 40s (mine).

60mph is definitely well under most drivers' tolerable threshold...or so they have become accustomed to believing. I very much enjoy it now, and get a good bit of happiness from ticking off the soccer mom or machoman in the vehicle who screams up behind me then gets stuck for 2 miles waiting for a traffic break to pass.

Sad thing is, a dude in an INSIGHT came screaming up behind me and was pissed to slow down for me like that this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A disgrace to the entire fraternity of Insighters. I probably beat his FE in to DC, though I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was running late for something.

 

I have had my HAH since April last year and I must say I have not been too impressed with the MPG...until recently.

I have about a 40 mile round trip commute on a daily basis, all in stop and go traffic. On average, I've gotten about 25-28 mpg.

But this past Saturday I went to the desert outlets, about an 80 mile one way trip, and went about 75 mph all the way using cruise control. I did the same thing coming back home. To be honest, I hardly use cruise control, even when I am not in stop and go, just because I don't think of it (I know, shame on me). So I used the cruise control to accel and decel if needed on my trip Saturday. And when I looked at my dash, I saw 40.5 mpg!! I was so thrilled I can't even tell you, the most thrilled I have been since I purchased the car!

I have read some posts in the forum about how your mpg can improve greatly by using cruise control. I truly did not realize just how much. I am going to definitely use it more often, even if it's just for a short period of time.

So since Saturday, I have really been trying to focus on getting that green ECO light to come on. The mpg have dropped of course, now that I'm back in the stop and go, but at 29.5 this morning, it's a definite improvement. I will see how it keeps up.

By the way, these posts are so great and so helpful. Thanks to you all!