I just finished a fantastic vacation in my TCH. Went with the family to PEI. Had fantastic weather the whole time. The only time it rained was when we wanted to stay in Bar Harbor on the way back. Oh well.

Put on about 4500 Km, more than doubling what I had on it. The car behaved beautifully - no problems whatsoever. Really impressed with its quietness and comfort, and power whenever I really needed it. Learned some interesting things about how it behaves with respect to FE. For example, the hilly terrain in New Brunswick kills FE with one of my lowest tanks yet of 33.8 mpg. Yet, the mountains of NH and VT gave me a better 37.7 mpg. My best to date was in the gently rolling PEI with 40 mpg.

Now I have to take it in for its first service with more than 8000 KM on it, some 4 months early.

--My hybrid came home!--
Ottawa owners check in here

Randy

I'm not familiar with the acronym PEI - what is that?

Your neighbor to the South -

Scott

Prince Edward Island. Those wacky Canadians...

I would assume PEI would stand for Prince Edwards Island???
I would speculate your 33 mpg in hills could have some other factors involved like strong head wind, climbing most of the time or high speed driving. I also think keeping exact speed regardless if going up or down would waste more fuel, I usually speed up down the hill and let the car bleed some of that speed towards top, (of course traffic permitting, but most cars, especially heavier trucks would drive like that by nature any way), but it's always nice to have some momentum build up going up the hill. As a matter of fact I always get my best MPG on winding hills, like Blue Ridge Parkway. My own theory is that regardless of the hills, the biggest mpg enemy is my fast 75-85 miles per hour driving and being forced to drive at much lower speeds in the mountains keeps my MPG up, even if the hills make it less efficient.

No speeding involved - typically 90 -100 kilometers per hour on flat highways, and more like 80-90 KPH on hilly ones. I also let the car build up speed coasting downhill and let it slow down on the uphills (unless there's a line behind me trying to drive inside my trunk). Of course, when there's lots of hills all the time, it's much more difficult to conserve momentum. which is what I'm attribituting this to. In the mountains on the other hand, even though I'm burning more gas on the long climbs, there are equally long descents where I'm using nothing (and I get the rarely seen full battery indication as well).

--My hybrid came home!--
Ottawa owners check in here

Randy

Correct. On both counts.

--My hybrid came home!--
Ottawa owners check in here

Randy

Yeah.. rolling hills work the best since you can carry momentum to the next peak.

Mods: EV mod, VVT-i emblem, sport pedals, OEM cargo mat, JDM Prius interior footwell lighting, Sylvania Silverstars 9003ST, DICE iPod kit, OEM all-weather mats, TomTom ONE v2, LED licence plate lights.

Sounds like a great trip!

Will be a TCH owner soon!