I see your current city mileage.
Again, I would like to tell you the HSD vehicle has a lot of possibilities to improve the city mileage.
Remember that Dan and his team achieved 110mpg(83% better than EPA city) by Prius last summer.
http://hybridcars.about.com/od/news/a/100mpgrecord.htm
Such record can't be achieved at highway speed.
Hope you'll learn how to drive TCH in city and achieve better mileage.

Ken@Japan

The EPA highway test isn't done at highway speed, it's done between 24 and 60 miles per hour, averaging 48 miles per hour. It's meant to simulate a trip through suburban Ann Arbor, MI. It's not meant to simulate interstate driving.

BTW, most of my driving is done on the highway. City driving is 30-50% of each tank.

Do you know the Prius 42 miles per hour threshold?
I don't now about the TCH threshold, but Prius is a completely different animal between below and above 42 miles per hour.

Ken@Japan

The Camry can stay in electric-only mode up to 42 miles per hour. Who cares? The OP reported getting 31.5 mpg with surburban driving and posted asking why. I told him. You're getting way off the subject, Ken.

Back to the original post ... sorry, I can't enlighten you (I think the others have done a pretty good job) but I can commiserate. I've experienced the same thing in the same kind of traffic. Yesterday it poured in Houston as I was driving to work, and I had bumper-to-bumper-stop-and-go-freeway-crawling traffic for 18 miles (took well over an hour). I think the ECO drive monitor indicated I got about 30 mpg for that trip. I think I actually "made up" some mpg once I hit downtown since Houston actually has its traffic lights synchronized, so I can do a lot of battery-powered driving, coasting, and mild braking without actually having to stop.

That said, I find comfort in knowing that if my TCH got "only" 30 mpg, then my previous car would've probably gotten 20 mpg.

I've got about 350 miles on my TCH so I haven't had to fill it up yet. I'll be interested to see what that MPG turns out to be vs. the computer tank average.

I believe this thread is very important among HSD(THS) vehicle drivers.
Many people, including you, experience the city mileage is worse than the highway's.
However, the EPA mileage shows the city mileage is better than highway's among the HSD(THS) vehicles.
For example, Prius is 60/51 and HCH is 49/51.
Above 42 miles per hour, the ICE on the HDS(THS) vehicle is always spinning and almost no advantage from the conventional vehicle including Honda hybrids.

I would like to say to all HSD(THS) divers that please try to learn how to drive your vehicle in city(below 42 miles per hour).
You drive your car, you are not driven by your car.

Ken@Japan

As one who achieved 80+ MPG for about 16 minutes (about 4.5 miles of driving) in the city with about a dozen starts/stops, on my TCH's first tank of gas, I can safely say there is room to boost your 31ish MPG average.

However, with that being said, most of the time I'm getting 36 to 40 MPG in the city. I've found that the biggest difference between my getting GOOD mileage and GREAT mileage is the technique I use. Most of the time, it's just not worth my trouble to get the extra MPGs.

Still, my first tank average was 36+ MPG, and my second tank is currently averaging over 40 MPG. There is a learning curve. I enjoy seeing how much of my driving time can be accomplished on batteries alone. However, when I have a passenger with me, I save them the agony of my miserliness and just drive like everyone else.

Steve Villatoro
www.stevenvillatoro.com
“An enlightened guide to small business mastery.”

EPA also "shows" the Accord Hybrid losing 4 mpg by getting a sunroof, but that's not true at all -- it's just a sign of the inaccuracy of EPA testing.

I have driven Priuses, Civic Hybrids (2005 & 2006), the Accord Hybrid, and the Camry Hybrid. Believe me, HSD gets better highway mileage than IMA with all else being [more or less] equal. Perhaps you should drive the vehicles you talk about, but I bet you haven't driven the Hondas.

City driving is not "any speed below 42 miles per hour". I have achieved well over 40 mpg many times, but only on the rare occasion that I can take a long commute where there's very little traffic. When there is traffic, 35-37 mpg is the absolute best I can do, and I do better on the highway. That's because traffic often stops unexpectedly, so I can't always coast, and I'm certainly not the kind of person to make traffic much worse by holding it up to accelerate in EV mode. That kind of practice pisses everyone off, including me. The Prius accelerates fairly acceptably with electric power alone, but the Camry usually does not (the threshold when the engine comes on seems to vary).

Of course, driving in Japan may be different?

As one who achieved 80+ MPG for about 16 minutes (about 4.5 miles of driving) in the city with about a dozen starts/stops, on my TCH's first tank of gas, I can safely say there is room to boost your 31ish MPG average.

How do you calculate the 80+ MPG in 16 minutes? My non-NAV display will only show ECO drive level up to 40 MPG.

However, with that being said, most of the time I'm getting 36 to 40 MPG in the city. I've found that the biggest difference between my getting GOOD mileage and GREAT mileage is the technique I use. Most of the time, it's just not worth my trouble to get the extra MPGs.

Pulse and Glide? Can you point me to some of these techniques so I can study up and practice? (Remember - I'm a newby )

In order to maintain consistancy from tank to tank, how do you fill your car?

Do you add gas until it automatically turns off at the pump the first time? or Do you add several times, topping off to get the tank to the maximum?