I took my first long trip in my '06 HAH this weekend. I drove from my home in CT to my parents place in PA with some stops in between, a one way distance of 230 miles following I-95, I-287 and I-78. The car had about 150 miles on it when I left and the total trip distance worked out at 506.6 miles. Trip MPG was 35.4. On the return trip, I had the car filled with about 250 lbs worth of books and stereo equipment but still managed to log an average 40.0 mpg for the last 114 miles of the trip. I used the cruise control whenever traffic conditions permitted and kept the speed set to 65-69mph.

So far, I'm really impressed and pleased with the way the car performed. My old car was a 3.0L V-6 Mercury Sable that usually got 25-28mpg highway and barely 20 mpg city. This is obviously a vast improvement and the performance of the HAH is much better as well.

 

Awesome! It's pretty cool to have a car (the size that it is) that'll do 70 mph and still get 40 mpg while doing it.

I just did 698 miles today, and 1,203 miles the whole weekend. My total average for the weekend is 38.0 mpg.

 

In your drive, did you notice any difference in FE with the A/C on or off?

I switched mine back and fourth for different segments of my trip that were relatively flat, and I didn't notice any difference. Of course, I didn't have a "control" group for my experiment, so I don't know if there were truly any reduction in FE with the A/C on.

 

good stuff!! And VMA, your fuel is E10... ~3% hit in MPG, and you're still hitting great numbers!

 

Note: My trip mpg was 35.4 not 34.5 - even better!

I had the a/c on for just about the entire trip so i have no idea what effect that might have had on my FE.

 

VMA-
When we took delivery of our 2006 HAH a month ago, we were told to run it carefully on a "break-in" period for the first 600 miles. Did you get the same talk? Our mileage increased noticably after that time.

We have also had a vibration/rattle problem somewhere between 35-40 mph, does not seem to correspond to the IMA. The dealer took a shot at it and claimed that the moonroof needed lubrication. After a week it seems to be returning. We also have a 2006 V6 with moonroof and have never had a problem with it. Have you experienced any noises from your moonroof?

 

The dealer didn't mention this, but I did read the owner's manual which says something to the same effect. The car now has about 650 miles on it and really has not been pushed hard at all.

No noises from the moonroof and no unexplained noises in general although I can tell when the VCM kicks in to switch from 6 cyl to 3 cyl mode.

 

Good advice for any car is to drive it fairly gently for the 1st 1000 miles. In fact, more or less everything is well-served by approaching it gently for a little while at first.

You should see a large increase in MPG after 1500-1800 miles, to the tune of 2ish mpg, and another 1mpg or so around 3000 miles. Maybe another after the 1st oil change after that, but that may be lost in the tank-to-tank variability.

Another issue is that you are getting used to the nuances of the HAH at the same time, so its hard to separate what improvement is form you the driver, and what is from the car breaking in.

 

Thanks for the moonroof feedback. I will have the dealer take another turn on it as the noise seems to be worsening.