My current car is a Black Vette called Knight Rider. It is EPA rated at 18/27 and I'm getting around 30. The HCH MT is rated at 46/51, think I can get 55?

Since you are doing a great job with your car, you should do wonders with an HCH.

This is my experience with my HCH:
~45MPG: Wife's trip to the kids school about 4miles round trip, no thought of driving for improved MPG.
~52MPG: Me driving with wife & 3 kids, freeway, some AC...typicl errand drive
~56MPG: Me driving with wife & 3 kids, going for max MPG w/o AC (Cool outside)...typical errand drive
~63MPG: Me driving alone on my daily commute of 90 mile round trip for max MPG.

Purchased a used (4822 miles when I got the keys) 2004 manual tranny HCH. Tidbits fer ya to digest:

After 87 days of ownership: $130.62 spent on gas. 2979 miles driven. Average 34 miles per day. 4.3 cents per mile gas cost. Avg gas price paid with 6 fillups is $1.86. Avg MPG for my driven miles is 46.1 MPG, which is almost entirely City driving.

Trip B computer showed 34.4 as the "lifetime mpg" and I have since risen that to 37.8 with my "more intelligent" driving style.

Have noticed the peak performance on the realtime MPG meter when driving 37-42 MPH.

Getting 30 MPG out of your LS1?? :o I'll assume that is ALL highway milage.

I currently own a '99 Z28 and can only manage 24 MPG in almost all city driving (with some intercounty driving). I once got more than 400 Miles on one tank before but that was all highway (I don't remember the exact MPG, but it was around 30ish). And I drive my car like a granny. I took everything I learned about saving gas in my Insight and applied it to my Z. And Z28 manual Camaros are actually rated a few MPG higher than Corvettes. So unless your 30 MPG is coming from all highway driving, I have to call bullsh*t. Or else you have one hell of a factory freak.

In my Insight however, it was much easier to just annihilate those "inflated" EPA figures. I could average 52 MPG with a lead foot, and 60+ with a passenger and not even trying. I got 65 MPG on most trips. Considering the Civic uses the same system I'm going to have to say it'll be much easier getting 50 MPG out of a HCH than it will be getting 30 MPG from a Corvette.

Personally 55MPG is not difficult for a tank's average in an HCH.
Today with a 10-15MPH head-cross wind I arrived to work today with a trip average of 59 point something MPG which I am happy with...and it took some effort to achieve that.

I sure am glad the cooler weather is about to arrive. (Southern states)

Personally for yourself, you mean? Getting as high as 55 MPG really depends on a lot of factors though. I have had my HCH for about 90 days, and this is the first tank where I have achieved 55+ and I am BARELY over 55 at 55.2 so far. Living in Phoenix, the requirement of using the A/C kills my MPG. This is the first tank I have not had to use the A/C at ALL, and the MPG after 530 miles is looking good. It does take time to learn to nuances of high MPG driving.

My commute is mostly city driving 35-45 mph, about 10 miles one way with two stops, once at the store and once to drop off kids. The PROBLEM is that stopping at the red lights KILLS the MPG in this way: you have to accellerate at a normal pace to get to cruising speed of 35-45 when you leave the red light, and then JUST when you get up to speed you have to start slowing down again if the next light is red. The negative effect of accellerating back to normal speed from a dead stop is greater than the positive effect of coasting/cruising at speed when the distance is only a mile or two.

And you cannot "time" these lights because they are mostly sensor-controlled.

I have noticed that the BEST WAY to get the high MPG numbers is to put the speed at about 36-40 and use the cruise and don't hit the red lights. Great ON PAPER but hard to accomplish. I usually see the realtime MPG meter hovering 60-80 MPG if I can keep the cruise on and speed at that level. But every time I miss a green light, BAM, I'm down in the 20 MPG range again while getting back to cruise speed.

My point is that it is not that easy all the time to achieve 55 MPG.... :(

Yes, I'm sorry for not being clear. I did mean in my own personal experience.
My commute is 90 miles a day: 20 miles of rural country roads, 20 miles of freeway and 5 miles of very heavy city traffic. I head into the city as everyone is fleeing out so my freeway traffic isn't usually too heavy, and I get off and head home at 2:00AM.
With this situation I have a good opportunity for getting great economy.

My wife drives it with little thought of economy......and she gets around 50MPG.
She mainly drives on rural country side roads.

I HATE those sensor lights.
One on my comute used to change just as I drove up.
That was TOO good as now they have a 4 minute delay but it all turned out for the better. The extra delay prompted me to find a better way, which was just around the corner! :)

It sounds like you are doing great given your own situation, also remember the extra passengers also require more fuel.

I think for lakedude, since he is able to get ~30MPG from his Corvette then perhaps he is also in a more favorable driving situation, which the HCH excells in.

Well there is no need to guess anymore as I took delivery of an HCH the 19th. After about 120 miles the game gauge says about 56 MPG. Most of the Vette Hypermiler tricks work with the HCH but they need some adjustment. The 4 banger can't push the car up hills in top gear at 800rpm like the Vette can.

The manual is hard to drive in a way to get the most out of the re-gen. The car must be in gear (of course) but I typically drive just above idle so there is not much re-gen to be had without multiple quick downshifts. I assume the CVT is much better about maximizing the re-gen during braking.

56 MPG should put me on top of the heap as far as HCH MT drivers goes. Did we ever come to an agreement about using the gauge or the pump numbers? My Vette's display was consistantly around 10% higher than the pump calculations so I always used the pump numbers as the gauge was clearly in error. My 1996 Vette's display was always dead on but the 2000's is always high.

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The drive to work is 18 miles and has 3 roughly equal parts. Part one is freeway with a 65/55 mph speed limit that I usually drive between 45 and 60. Part 2 is back roads with a limit of 40 mph that I usually drive between 37 and 49. Part 2 has a couple stop lights. Part 3 is in town with several stops, left turns across traffic, and limits of 55/30. I typically drive part 3 between 70 (down a big ole hill) and 37. 37 is about as slow as the Vette would go in 6th gear. Working second shift helps a lot. I can't touch those numbers if I come into town during the day.


The Hybrid will be great cause I'll be able to use the big old hill for re-gen and not get going so fast. I've been cresting the hill at 25/30 mph and still hit 65-70 by the bottom in the Vette.

..............and many people who don't know better think driving for economy is a boring ride.

In my opinion driving only for gas - and - go is the most boring.
Sure the feel of raw power at the fingertips is great but I seem to be past all of that
.
On the other hand if I resort to only a blank stare out through the window and just let the car do whatever it may regardless of consumption then I go crazy.

Also, staying alert to the ever changing environment and making adjustments help to keep me awake on my early morning ride home. ;)

:D Ah yes, believable then.

I've always thought that was wierd about Corvettes and Camaros. Even though its the same drivetrain as my Z28, I could use 6th gear from under 40 MPH in the 'Vette, where-as the Camaro can only use it from about 43ish, or else it boggs a lot. Either way, congrats on the new HCH!