<i>what's the difference between the blue and green bars on the consumption screen?
</i>

Current trip vs Previous trip.

I have a feeling, not confirmed anywhere, that for this highly visible vehicle Toyota may have 'anticipated' the new EPA testing parameters which will be in effect next year, 2008 MY.

Why? On the Prius for example the City # is about 20% higher than the the Highway # at 60/51. Ditto the HH at 33/28. For this Toyota has received a flood of commentary about the 'hybrids not meeting the EPA test values'. As you correctly state there is an explanation why real world doesnt equal EPA.

Rather than have it's flagship vehicle suffer these slings and arrows I have a feeling that Toyota 'adjusted' the tests to conform to the new EPA standards so that now the TCH's values are more in line with 'real world' driving at 40/38 or only 8% difference. Hmmmm.

I am frankly amazed that the TCH does so well at 70 mph. It, having a larger profile, should be hurt even more at higher speeds than the Prius is but it isn't. Double Hmmmmm.

Give me, or any of the current owners here, the same vehicle that was used in the CR tests and I will lay odds that our driving will result in higher 'real world' values than CR obtained. I am certain of this.

Me too. I can very easily get 40+mpg at 70 mph on the highway on level terrain. Judging by the epa estimates I had feared I would get terrible highway mileage, but the opposite has been true. It's the stop and go driving thru neighborhoods that kills the mpg.

Ok, I don't reset the trip milage very often but after reading this thread I wanted to see what I actually get on a short trip into town. Granted I don't live in a "city" but I pulled out of my garage with a "cold" engine (it's 85 right now outside) drive down a steep grade from my house, pulled out onto the highway at 55 mph and drove about 2 miles. I then had a 40 mph strech for a mile and then 25 mph strech for a mile to the store. It's rolling terrain and I had 1 stop sign and 2 red lights going and 3 red lights and 1 stop sign coming back. It's 8 miles round trip and I intentionally went the speed limit but drove "with purpose" other than driving faster than I normally do. When I got back to the bottom of my hill I had 40 mpg showing on the trip. By the time I got in my garage I had 36.5 mpg. (It's very steep and almost 0.4 of a mile.)
That is the same milage I got whem I drove through the mountains of WV and VA last month. It's what I think anyone can get that has the desire to achieve.

I believe most of the posts of people getting less that 36 mpg are from people with less than 1 tank experience or some of the folks who simply state they are happy with 34 mpg and drive the TCH just like a regular car.

A person seeking ultra high FE has to pay attention to their right foot and constantly adjust by letting off as much as possible to coast or simply allow the car to slow 1 or 2 mph over the distance of a half mile or so. I catch myself often driving along getting 20 mpg on the instant reading, notice what I'm doing and immediately I let off the gas pedal to shut off the ICE (or at least idle it) and then immediated "lightly" touch the gas to maintain speed. Many times the speed does not even drop but I'll go from 20 mpg reading to a 40+ mpg rating. That takes time to learn and it takes "attention" to details.

HOWEVER, I've said it before on this board, there is not a lot of gas savings between 36 mpg and 38 mpg so I don't even recommend this obsession for everyone. But I believe anyone should be able to get 36 if they really want to. Practice and paying attention is the key.

I will admit it's part of the learning curve watching the NAV Consumption and Energy screen but even with just the instant FE reading on the non-Nav system you can still learn to back off and on to maximize the FE.

Remember that Consumer Reports got 26 mpg city with the Civic Hybrid (37 mixed). And 28 mpg is not unreasonable with the TCH -- my last two tanks were 32.9 and 33.7, and that's mixed city/highway. There was tons of stopping and in-traffic driving involved in both tanks and that kills mileage.

WVGasGuy:

Do you have the Nav system in your car? If so, are you just resetting using the "Reset" button on the Nav display? If you don't have Nav, this probably isn't possible, right?

Do you have the Nav system in your car? If so, are you just resetting using the "Reset" button on the Nav display? If you don't have Nav, this probably isn't possible, right?

Yes I have the Nav system and I reset the trip mpg calculator (bottom reset button on the right) prior to taking the 8 mile trip. I just started using the reset last week in comparing a common trip my wife and I make where my wife normally gets 37, I got 38.5 several times with her with me and then last week by myself I got 41.5 in the same strech (125 mile trip in the hills on 4 lane). I'm getting a feel for how much difference it makes on segments I drive as to whether I drive the limit, use cruise or practice "hybrid driving".

For non-Nav cars I believe all you can do is watch the instant FE gage.

You've seen some of the pictures of the consumption screen on this posting, it's amazing what one bar of 60mpg driving can do to several minutes of sub 40 mpg driving. It gives you a readout of every minute of driving and if you study it as you drive under similar conditions each day it starts becoming natural to know how to drive for max FE

My first tank was about 32.6. I am about 150 miles into my 2nd tank, and I see a tank average of 34.9. Every trip over the last 2 days has been an "excellent" according to the MFD. I think using your first tank can give you false concern over the capabilities of the car (especially if you are new to the hybrid world).

I have been stunned by the difference between driving around 45 mph with the cruise control and driving about 60 mph with the cruise. I have seen lengthy stretches at 60 mph with cruise on where the instant FE gauge reads 45-50 mpg, while running at 45 mph seems to only get about 30-40 mpg (instantaneous). I need to find a nice uninterrupted 2-lane where I can run at 60 for a nice long time and see if I can get my average up!

I went ut to eat last night, 40 mile round trip, interstate driving at 65 mph and hilly (central WV) and I got 40+. I also take a back road to church and avoid the interstate and 'coast" where possible. Still hilly but I can get about 42 on that 15 mile round trip. Basically I can get around 40 anywhere I want in my area except the steeper mountains and even then it's 35+.

Again, this is driving "with purpose" and practicing all the tricks.

I can't stress enough just how many times when I'm not really paying attention that I'll look at the gage and see I'm getting around 20 mpg. Almost 90% of the time just letting off the gas and lightly reapplying the throttle maintains or barely drops the speed and kicks up the FE to 40+. However every time I hit a grade I have to accelerate and then asap let off again. All the little bits help. Getting that 1 minute bar to 60 mpg makes the last bar at 20 mpg average out to 40 mpg.

I would agree that the first tank is misleading, here are my first results:

1st tank : most of it in city driving, stop and go, short streches of hwy = 34.5mpg for 475mi

2nd tank = 95% Hwy (flat) at 70mi/hour with CC on 50% of the time, the other 5% was 5 different persons test driving my car ( showing off to the family).

I got 39.5 mpg and a total driving range of 553mi

Also, we must all remember that with a new car, you mileage will improve as you put some on. I've seen a difference of 4-5mpg on my previous non-hybrid car- a Subaru Legacy ( 0-6000mi compared to 6000-12000mi).

So, for all of you that are low MPG'ers , I would wait and see, I was also a bit dissapointed with my first tank.

My 0.02MPG

Bob