Best MPG civic or insight hybrid
#21
04-10-2009, 05:52 PM
Re: Best MPG civic or insight hybrid
From Edmunds.com -
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradv...by-design.html
Better Than Rated
Honda's assistant chief engineer, Hideharu Takemoto, told Motor Trend that in Honda's own extensive real-world driving tests, the new Insight always returned to the Honda R&D center with better fuel economy numbers than the Civic hybrid.
The reason? He said it is because of the Insight's lighter weight (less poundage for the engine to haul, less effort and less fuel consumption to haul it).
Unfortunately, said Takemoto, the federal EPA fuel economy test, which was corrected last year to more accurately reflect real-world driving conditions, doesn't adjust for weight differences (the test is run in a lab, with software instead of real vehicles.)
(This is important....and proves the Econ Mode is not used...because a Computer cannot account for the way someone is actually driving the vehicle USING the econ mode to do so)
http://www.hybridcars.com/gas-mileag...ise-25564.html
The EPA will soon release the results of its lab tests; official numbers on the window sticker may very well be around 40 mpg. But based on the experiences of the following journalists, just about any driver who wants to get 60+ on the highway in the 2010 Honda Insight will be able to.
http://vtec.net/articles/view-articl...&page_number=4
71.3mpg! TOV wins the MPG Challenge!
As expected, there have been a lot of internet discussions concerning the Insight's preliminary EPA figures (40 city, 43 hwy, 41 combined). Certainly Honda knew that these figures could raise some eyebrows, so to emphasize how truly efficient the Insight can perform in "real world" conditions, they hosted an MPG challenge during the press event.
Participation in the MPG challenge was optional, but Honda put up some prizes to make things a little more interesting. A pocket digital camera "grand prize" was awarded for the top recorded fuel economy, and there were Planet Earth DVDs for participants who achieved 60mpg or better. It turns out that Honda had to send members of their event staff out to buy more DVDs because everybody in our group surpassed the 60mpg bogey.
The MPG Challenge was very straightforward: drive the Insight around a pre-defined 16-mile route and record the highest average fuel economy while doing so. A time limit of 35 minutes was set for completing the loop. The time limit was supposed to keep people from "cheating" by driving very slowly; in reality, driving too slowly would have likely hurt more than it would have helped. Wayne Gerdes of CleanMPG.com was involved with hosting the MPG challenge and offered some advice that could be summed up tidily with "keep it in the green". That was pretty much my plan of attack.
To make a long story short, in my only try I managed to log an average of 71.3mpg, which turned out to be the best number of the week. As you can see in the photo of the whiteboard (which, incidentally was taken with the grand prize, a Nikon Coolpix S60), Wayne Gerdes achieved 78.4 mpg, but since he was Honda's hypermiler "hired gun" for the event, he wasn't an eligible participant for the MPG challenge, and my 71.3mpg effort was the number that won the challenge. How did I do it? Well, to be honest, I didn't have to try too hard. I focused on keeping very near the posted speed limits, but would cheat up by 5-7 mph when the roads were level or slightly downhill, especially when I could see I would need momentum for an upcoming grade. On the uphill segments I held the "mood ring" in the green zone for as long as possible, and only started to back off the throttle if the ring began turning blue-green AND there was no traffic behind me. I paid a bit of extra attention to stop signs and keeping the "mood ring" fully green while braking for them, and did my best to anticipate the upcoming traffic light cycles and adjust my speed accordingly in an effort to avoid making a complete stop. Apart from that, there were no advanced hypermiling techniques employed - I simply used the Eco Assist Guide system and some common sense and most importantly (in my mind), did not impede the flow of ANY traffic. The Eco Assist Guide system makes it easy for anyone to achieve optimal fuel economy.
Last edited by CBondHonda; 04-10-2009 at 06:19 PM.
#22
04-10-2009, 07:49 PM
Re: Best MPG civic or insight hybrid
I picked up my '10 HIH yesterday. Already almost 400 miles in. The Insight is replacing my '03 HCH1 with the manual transmission. I never drove a HCH2.
I'm taking any first impressions with a grain of salt as it will take me a while to get used to the CVT if nothing else. (I've only went to stomp on the clutch a couple times so far!)
I picked the car up with almost a full tank and drove it on a mix of highways (65MPH) and two lane state roads (55MPH) and have purposely taken routes that include a lot of hills and curves as I want to see how it handles in different conditions.
I'm just about on empty for the first tank and will rack up a somewhat disappointing 400-425 miles. My trip meters (Trip A and B are even, I haven't reset either yet) are at 45.2MPH, but my most recent leg (0 on the MID) is about 60 MPG.
By way of comparison, my best tank on the HCH1 (when it was fairly new) was 57.3MPG and a little over 700 miles. Even now, with the IMA battery degraded I can still squeeze 500 miles out of 10 gallons.
So while I'm a little disappointed with my first tank, I didn't even really try and still managed to beat EPA estimates. It might take a little more re-training than I figured on but I'm sure I'll regularly be getting 50+ MPG before long.
Putting the mileage issue aside, I love the car. I'm getting used to the tunnel view out the back, but the over-sized sideviews make up for it any way. The car handles great around sharp bends and has no problem climbing fairly steep hills. I haven't found much use for the paddle shifters yet, although I suspect they might come in handy in the snow. I haven't done enough econ v. non-econ driving yet so my jury is still out there.
Okay, now the *****ing:
The cup holders suck and it was bad enough when they put the accessory outlet right behind the passenger cup-holder, but whoever moved it to behind the drivers! cup holder should be slapped. They also took away the big cubby that sits below the e-brake handle in my Civic. Now I have nowhere to put change. (I go through a lot of toll boothes). The radio controls are just a tiny bit too far away and the steering wheel audio controls only come with the navi kit. Also I don't yet see a handy place to put my XM radio. (I like an external so I can port it).
But that's all little stuff that I will find work-arounds for.
Overall, after 2 days and 400ish miles, on a scale of 1-10?
I give it a 8.5 with lots of room for improvement.
Bonus Pics!!!
I'm taking any first impressions with a grain of salt as it will take me a while to get used to the CVT if nothing else. (I've only went to stomp on the clutch a couple times so far!)
I picked the car up with almost a full tank and drove it on a mix of highways (65MPH) and two lane state roads (55MPH) and have purposely taken routes that include a lot of hills and curves as I want to see how it handles in different conditions.
I'm just about on empty for the first tank and will rack up a somewhat disappointing 400-425 miles. My trip meters (Trip A and B are even, I haven't reset either yet) are at 45.2MPH, but my most recent leg (0 on the MID) is about 60 MPG.
By way of comparison, my best tank on the HCH1 (when it was fairly new) was 57.3MPG and a little over 700 miles. Even now, with the IMA battery degraded I can still squeeze 500 miles out of 10 gallons.
So while I'm a little disappointed with my first tank, I didn't even really try and still managed to beat EPA estimates. It might take a little more re-training than I figured on but I'm sure I'll regularly be getting 50+ MPG before long.
Putting the mileage issue aside, I love the car. I'm getting used to the tunnel view out the back, but the over-sized sideviews make up for it any way. The car handles great around sharp bends and has no problem climbing fairly steep hills. I haven't found much use for the paddle shifters yet, although I suspect they might come in handy in the snow. I haven't done enough econ v. non-econ driving yet so my jury is still out there.
Okay, now the *****ing:
The cup holders suck and it was bad enough when they put the accessory outlet right behind the passenger cup-holder, but whoever moved it to behind the drivers! cup holder should be slapped. They also took away the big cubby that sits below the e-brake handle in my Civic. Now I have nowhere to put change. (I go through a lot of toll boothes). The radio controls are just a tiny bit too far away and the steering wheel audio controls only come with the navi kit. Also I don't yet see a handy place to put my XM radio. (I like an external so I can port it).
But that's all little stuff that I will find work-arounds for.
Overall, after 2 days and 400ish miles, on a scale of 1-10?
I give it a 8.5 with lots of room for improvement.
Bonus Pics!!!
#23
04-10-2009, 08:02 PM
Re: Best MPG civic or insight hybrid
I should have added by way of explanation that I took the pictures with the HIH1 today after I spotted it at a gas station. Just a little different.
The guy told me he's still getting 75MPG! Sweet!
The guy told me he's still getting 75MPG! Sweet!
#24
04-10-2009, 08:40 PM
Re: Best MPG civic or insight hybrid
Check these out (especially the full TOV Article at the Bottom)
From Edmunds.com -
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradv...by-design.html
Better Than Rated
Honda's assistant chief engineer, Hideharu Takemoto, told Motor Trend that in Honda's own extensive real-world driving tests, the new Insight always returned to the Honda R&D center with better fuel economy numbers than the Civic hybrid.
The reason? He said it is because of the Insight's lighter weight (less poundage for the engine to haul, less effort and less fuel consumption to haul it).
Unfortunately, said Takemoto, the federal EPA fuel economy test, which was corrected last year to more accurately reflect real-world driving conditions, doesn't adjust for weight differences (the test is run in a lab, with software instead of real vehicles.)
(This is important....and proves the Econ Mode is not used...because a Computer cannot account for the way someone is actually driving the vehicle USING the econ mode to do so)
http://www.hybridcars.com/gas-mileag...ise-25564.html
The EPA will soon release the results of its lab tests; official numbers on the window sticker may very well be around 40 mpg. But based on the experiences of the following journalists, just about any driver who wants to get 60+ on the highway in the 2010 Honda Insight will be able to.
http://vtec.net/articles/view-articl...&page_number=4
71.3mpg! TOV wins the MPG Challenge!
As expected, there have been a lot of internet discussions concerning the Insight's preliminary EPA figures (40 city, 43 hwy, 41 combined). Certainly Honda knew that these figures could raise some eyebrows, so to emphasize how truly efficient the Insight can perform in "real world" conditions, they hosted an MPG challenge during the press event.
Participation in the MPG challenge was optional, but Honda put up some prizes to make things a little more interesting. A pocket digital camera "grand prize" was awarded for the top recorded fuel economy, and there were Planet Earth DVDs for participants who achieved 60mpg or better. It turns out that Honda had to send members of their event staff out to buy more DVDs because everybody in our group surpassed the 60mpg bogey.
The MPG Challenge was very straightforward: drive the Insight around a pre-defined 16-mile route and record the highest average fuel economy while doing so. A time limit of 35 minutes was set for completing the loop. The time limit was supposed to keep people from "cheating" by driving very slowly; in reality, driving too slowly would have likely hurt more than it would have helped. Wayne Gerdes of CleanMPG.com was involved with hosting the MPG challenge and offered some advice that could be summed up tidily with "keep it in the green". That was pretty much my plan of attack.
To make a long story short, in my only try I managed to log an average of 71.3mpg, which turned out to be the best number of the week. As you can see in the photo of the whiteboard (which, incidentally was taken with the grand prize, a Nikon Coolpix S60), Wayne Gerdes achieved 78.4 mpg, but since he was Honda's hypermiler "hired gun" for the event, he wasn't an eligible participant for the MPG challenge, and my 71.3mpg effort was the number that won the challenge. How did I do it? Well, to be honest, I didn't have to try too hard. I focused on keeping very near the posted speed limits, but would cheat up by 5-7 mph when the roads were level or slightly downhill, especially when I could see I would need momentum for an upcoming grade. On the uphill segments I held the "mood ring" in the green zone for as long as possible, and only started to back off the throttle if the ring began turning blue-green AND there was no traffic behind me. I paid a bit of extra attention to stop signs and keeping the "mood ring" fully green while braking for them, and did my best to anticipate the upcoming traffic light cycles and adjust my speed accordingly in an effort to avoid making a complete stop. Apart from that, there were no advanced hypermiling techniques employed - I simply used the Eco Assist Guide system and some common sense and most importantly (in my mind), did not impede the flow of ANY traffic. The Eco Assist Guide system makes it easy for anyone to achieve optimal fuel economy.
From Edmunds.com -
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradv...by-design.html
Better Than Rated
Honda's assistant chief engineer, Hideharu Takemoto, told Motor Trend that in Honda's own extensive real-world driving tests, the new Insight always returned to the Honda R&D center with better fuel economy numbers than the Civic hybrid.
The reason? He said it is because of the Insight's lighter weight (less poundage for the engine to haul, less effort and less fuel consumption to haul it).
Unfortunately, said Takemoto, the federal EPA fuel economy test, which was corrected last year to more accurately reflect real-world driving conditions, doesn't adjust for weight differences (the test is run in a lab, with software instead of real vehicles.)
(This is important....and proves the Econ Mode is not used...because a Computer cannot account for the way someone is actually driving the vehicle USING the econ mode to do so)
http://www.hybridcars.com/gas-mileag...ise-25564.html
The EPA will soon release the results of its lab tests; official numbers on the window sticker may very well be around 40 mpg. But based on the experiences of the following journalists, just about any driver who wants to get 60+ on the highway in the 2010 Honda Insight will be able to.
http://vtec.net/articles/view-articl...&page_number=4
71.3mpg! TOV wins the MPG Challenge!
As expected, there have been a lot of internet discussions concerning the Insight's preliminary EPA figures (40 city, 43 hwy, 41 combined). Certainly Honda knew that these figures could raise some eyebrows, so to emphasize how truly efficient the Insight can perform in "real world" conditions, they hosted an MPG challenge during the press event.
Participation in the MPG challenge was optional, but Honda put up some prizes to make things a little more interesting. A pocket digital camera "grand prize" was awarded for the top recorded fuel economy, and there were Planet Earth DVDs for participants who achieved 60mpg or better. It turns out that Honda had to send members of their event staff out to buy more DVDs because everybody in our group surpassed the 60mpg bogey.
The MPG Challenge was very straightforward: drive the Insight around a pre-defined 16-mile route and record the highest average fuel economy while doing so. A time limit of 35 minutes was set for completing the loop. The time limit was supposed to keep people from "cheating" by driving very slowly; in reality, driving too slowly would have likely hurt more than it would have helped. Wayne Gerdes of CleanMPG.com was involved with hosting the MPG challenge and offered some advice that could be summed up tidily with "keep it in the green". That was pretty much my plan of attack.
To make a long story short, in my only try I managed to log an average of 71.3mpg, which turned out to be the best number of the week. As you can see in the photo of the whiteboard (which, incidentally was taken with the grand prize, a Nikon Coolpix S60), Wayne Gerdes achieved 78.4 mpg, but since he was Honda's hypermiler "hired gun" for the event, he wasn't an eligible participant for the MPG challenge, and my 71.3mpg effort was the number that won the challenge. How did I do it? Well, to be honest, I didn't have to try too hard. I focused on keeping very near the posted speed limits, but would cheat up by 5-7 mph when the roads were level or slightly downhill, especially when I could see I would need momentum for an upcoming grade. On the uphill segments I held the "mood ring" in the green zone for as long as possible, and only started to back off the throttle if the ring began turning blue-green AND there was no traffic behind me. I paid a bit of extra attention to stop signs and keeping the "mood ring" fully green while braking for them, and did my best to anticipate the upcoming traffic light cycles and adjust my speed accordingly in an effort to avoid making a complete stop. Apart from that, there were no advanced hypermiling techniques employed - I simply used the Eco Assist Guide system and some common sense and most importantly (in my mind), did not impede the flow of ANY traffic. The Eco Assist Guide system makes it easy for anyone to achieve optimal fuel economy.
#25
04-11-2009, 06:25 AM
Re: Best MPG civic or insight hybrid
From a post on insightcentral.net called "My mileage not stellar":
"Have had the car for a couple weeks now... Average mileage is only 43.7 as of tonight."
"I've been getting 43 as well on my commute."
"I am getting about 40 mpg on my short commute and is city driving so its not like its doing bad. But I can't wait to get it on expressway this weekend to see if that helps too.?
"Have had the car for a couple weeks now... Average mileage is only 43.7 as of tonight."
"I've been getting 43 as well on my commute."
"I am getting about 40 mpg on my short commute and is city driving so its not like its doing bad. But I can't wait to get it on expressway this weekend to see if that helps too.?
#26
04-14-2009, 06:09 PM
Re: Best MPG civic or insight hybrid
OK, now we're getting somewhere. I just filled my third tank and I'm coming up on the first 1K miles quickly.
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1.../IMAG0020a.jpg
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1.../IMAG0023a.jpg
Trip A was reset after filling up. Trip B will be my permanent record, hopefully. Mid fifties, calm winds, sunny. The first 126 miles was rural, rolling state roads, 55 MPH. I keep it at the speed limit except downhill. Good start to this tank!
Couple notes:
The 52.9MPG is almost all at 55MPH or less. The 5-6 miles I did on the highway at 65MPH the average dropped to about 47-48MPG. I think it will be difficult to maintain 50+MPG at interstate speeds. But I haven't given up.
I've filled up a couple of times now and despite the fact I let it go really empty, that is the low fuel warning came on (which, by the way, scared the crap out of me the first time it happened), the estimated range went to zero, plus I drove a couple more miles, I still haven't been able to squeeze more than 9.5 gal in my tank.
I haven't caught up to the old '03 HCH yet. My best tank average with the Civic was 57.3MPG over 700 miles (with the Civic's bigger 12-13 gal tank). I'm gaining though.
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1.../IMAG0020a.jpg
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1.../IMAG0023a.jpg
Trip A was reset after filling up. Trip B will be my permanent record, hopefully. Mid fifties, calm winds, sunny. The first 126 miles was rural, rolling state roads, 55 MPH. I keep it at the speed limit except downhill. Good start to this tank!
Couple notes:
The 52.9MPG is almost all at 55MPH or less. The 5-6 miles I did on the highway at 65MPH the average dropped to about 47-48MPG. I think it will be difficult to maintain 50+MPG at interstate speeds. But I haven't given up.
I've filled up a couple of times now and despite the fact I let it go really empty, that is the low fuel warning came on (which, by the way, scared the crap out of me the first time it happened), the estimated range went to zero, plus I drove a couple more miles, I still haven't been able to squeeze more than 9.5 gal in my tank.
I haven't caught up to the old '03 HCH yet. My best tank average with the Civic was 57.3MPG over 700 miles (with the Civic's bigger 12-13 gal tank). I'm gaining though.
#27
04-14-2009, 07:07 PM
Re: Best MPG civic or insight hybrid
The 52.9MPG is almost all at 55MPH or less. The 5-6 miles I did on the highway at 65MPH the average dropped to about 47-48MPG. I think it will be difficult to maintain 50+MPG at interstate speeds. But I haven't given up.
I haven't caught up to the old '03 HCH yet. My best tank average with the Civic was 57.3MPG over 700 miles (with the Civic's bigger 12-13 gal tank). I'm gaining though.
I haven't caught up to the old '03 HCH yet. My best tank average with the Civic was 57.3MPG over 700 miles (with the Civic's bigger 12-13 gal tank). I'm gaining though.
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