Here in Phoenix I haven't seen auto stop durring the day in quite a while. The worse part is the engine side of the AC compressor isn't working all that great at idle speed. It's fine once you get going, but sitting traffic it does get a bit uncomfortable. BTW, I think the car's outside temperature display maxes out at 119.

As far as mileage, my last tank came in at 37mpg and the current one is probably going to be about the same. This is primarily in city traffic with a good bit of idling. The few times I've been on the freeway lately it went back up in to the lower 40's. Also recently took a trip to Vegas with 3 friends and the trunk packed to the top, still averaged 40mpg. At least I know it's still more efficient than anything else, but I am starting to get a bit of Prius electric AC compressor envy.

Rick, I sugest you try to maintain a good state of charge for your IMA battery. Based on my experience and that of many other HCH-II hybrid owners, it is possible to run your AC effectively with the electric side of the compressor only. All we have to ensure is that the IMA battery charge level remains high enough to sustain the automatic climate control in the warmest of days. If we do it right, it will have an almost negligible impact on your fuel economy too.

I believe the key is to avoid using the IMA for assist as much as possible (at least moderate its use to no more than 2-3 bars of assist). Also, minimize the urge to kick the vhicle into electric mode only. And finally, maximize your regeneration opportunities whenever possible (dont force them).

I believe a Prius is not completeely invulnerable to the same issues, so in the end it is a matter of maximizing efficiencies when driving in challenging weather.

Regards;


MSantos

The car will not auto stop, even with a full IMA charge. It says it right in the owners manual that it won't do it if it's over 100 degrees outside. I can have a full IMA charge, have the AC switched off and it will not auto stop when it's this hot. Then the AC keeps working off of the engine side of the compressor, which is not that good at idle speeds. The advantage with a fully electric AC compressor would be that it could run at it's own independent speed as needed to keep the air temperature. I wouldn't really mind if my Civic just created a series charge to run the electric side of the AC compressor while sitting there.

I do know how to drive efficiently, I averaged 64mpg over the lifetime of my Insight, that's not the issue. I should say the 37mpg in the Civic was in pretty un-ideal conditions. They're doing some construction to the freeway onramp I drive by every day so it's often down to one lane getting across which turns a long wait to an even longer one, plus I'm doing very little highway as of late so there's just lots and lots of idling happening. I was actually a bit suprised the mpg didn't dip lower than it did.

I am in Phx. I had an '04 and never noticed a difference from winter to summer but boy does my '06 suck in the summer. My milage has dropped and I put the A/C at 86 and my battery runs to empty almost daily. I cannot use the auto button on the a/c even at 86 or the battery will not recharge even after a 30 mile drive home on the freeway. I sort of miss the '04.

Same experience in Houston. The auto stop works intermittently above 90F +. Typically I have 4-5 bars showing, but at times it will drop to one very quickly.

With Illinois hitting reaching around 100 this past week, my mileage was terrible too. Auto-stop rarely works at these temps. With AC on auto/78, the engine driven compressor sucked the life out of my mpg. Went from ~50 to 43 over 80 miles. Going to have to work hard to pull that up now that it is "cooling off".

I'm wondering if the "hot weather blues" are worse for the Gen 2?

It has been around 100 every day and I'm loving it! My car seems completely normal at these temps and the mileage is fantastic.

Depends on how you use your AC. If it's hotter than 100 degrees, my MPG really suffers.

When it was in the high 90s/low 100s a few weeks ago, my mpg stayed around 50, but I would only set the AC on when driving home if necessary.

What is this AC you speak of?

lakedude, it is definately worse in the gen 2. I had both and the gen 1 worked the same all year around but the 2 is rotten in the extreme heat.