I have read about the different driving techniques that I can use to save gas, and I try to use them daily. However, I have trouble getting into the ICE mode, or whatever that is to get my FE to 100 mpg. Can anyone give my some advice on how to do this? Also, I just had to fill up my tank, and I had only driven about 330 miles. I am not accelerating hard, I coast as much as I can, I do not know what else to do. I drive mostly city, but this mpg still seems to low. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Accelerate to about 3-4 MPH faster than your desired speed. Release the gas pedal. When the instant FE gauge is pinned at 100, slowly depress the gas pedal until you get 3 bars of boost, then hold the gas pedal in that position.

Your FE depends on many things. The a/c takes 10mpg right off the top. Other factors include cold temperatures, short trips and rain. My best tip is to drive as if you have no brakes (coast to stops whenever safe to do so).

Good luck.

 

ICE = Internal Combustion Engine (the regular gas engine). The mode you're referring to is EV (Electric Vehicle). Elliot's description on how to get into this mode is correct... but it takes a lot of practice! I find that you can't just go light on the pedal... you need to go light but quick... a little "stab" to get one bar, then you can slowly add pressure from there to get up to four bars. You can do this from as low as 15 mph up to 60 or more. Best if the road is flat... and important to have plenty of room in front and behind you to practice!

Side note to Elliot... how is it possible that you get almost 58 mpg on your HCHII, but only 40 on the Prius???

 

everything you are asking is answered in the tarabell thread i referred you to in your other thread long ago. ya, i know, you read it.

Editing in link to tarabells's post:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1306

 

Maybe Elliot's Prius is the wife's car. I'm still wondering how my wife dropped my awesome FE from Milwaukee. It was at 54.5 mpg at 145 miles getting to the East side of Chicago. I fell asleep and she drove and at the hotel (a mere 30 miles later) it was 51.5 mpg at 175 miles!!! How can one possibly lose 3.0 mpg over 30 miles after the car has already gone 150 miles. Almost like she was driving in second gear at 5,000 rpm with the A/C on. I asked her but got the same blank stare that she was just driving like she normally does. I didn't let her drive the next 450 miles home but I was able to nurse it up to a 53.1 mpg readout at home (calculated as 56.8 mpg though).

 

My wife does well on the freeways... but get on the surface streets and my MPG plunges with her at the wheel. She likes to rush up to lights and then brake! Oh well.

Flash... 3.7 mpg difference between displayed and calculated is huge! The largest difference I've seen was about 2.2 mpg. Is yours always off by that much?

 

Good catch and no, the usual is not 3.7 mpg difference between displayed and calculated. Over the life of the car the average is 1.93 mpg difference or only 3.87% error. One time it was 0.1 and 0.4 and another was 8.2 mpg difference. The ones with the largest error there was when the car was nearly out of gas and limped for a mile on battery alone and no fuel and the display was 45.1 mpg but calculated as 53.3 mpg. Neat to learn little things like that sometimes.

And I prefer the side streets rather than open highway however 90% of my day is probably on the Interstates (or Freeways to you left-coasters). I also like the warmer temps. My rough guess at temperature-per-tank average is 51 degrees for those 14 tanks (only started noting temps at the beginning of October instead of August). Garsh I like all of the number-crunching I can do with this car. So much of a game every day.

 

My wife just mashes the gas at will with little thought of any fuel conservation.
I usually park my HCH 1 out of the way, kind of a hastle to get to.

I keep her Grand Caravan gassed, cleaned and ready right there in the driveway for her. That usually does the trick as far as that's concerned.

Flash, I also use side streets- and leave a few minutes early. It makes for a more pleasant, less stressful drive and increases my MPG by 5-25MPG. (I'll explain that spread if you wish)

Tarabell's article is awesome.
In a nutshell...no matter what you drive- be it HCH 2, Prius, any EX or a big truck- gradual acceleration in the vehicles efficiency band (HCH 1 CVT is the edge of Assist on-off) and slower crusing speeds with lightest cruising foot possible will deliver maximum economy.

 

Yes, my wife drives the Prius! I NEVER let her drive my car!!!

 

[QUOTE=Flash] ...how my wife dropped my awesome FE from Milwaukee. /QUOTE]

145 miles / 54.5 MPG = 2.6606 gallons used.
175 miles / 51.5 MPG = 3.3981 gallons used.

So, 35 miles / 0.7375 gallons used = 47.46 MPG.

Keep in mind that using small numbers (gallons used, here, and 35 miles) limits the assuredness of the calculations, but it's some idea.

Not too bad, really. Especially since she doesn't have the same affliction that you do