hey y'all!
 

Hey everybody at Greenhybrid, and fellow HAH drivers. I have a question that many of you probably been asked thousands of times before, but I was wondering two things: 1. Current I have almost broke the 1,000 miles mark on my accord, but im still only averaged about 25.1, is this normal? because I hear stories of people averaging 30 on their first few tanks. my second inquiry is that I have the navigation in my hybrid, and I was wondering if the trip computer was more accurate for detecting the mpg or is the dash mpg. But im loving this vehicle, its very fast and the handling is superb, im just coming off driving a Dodge Dakota so its a huge difference.

Re: hey y'all!
 

Your driving conditions and style have so much more to do with your mpg than anything on the car itself, barring serious mechanical problems. Tell us more about your commute, how you accelerate/brake, how fast you drive, does someone else drive it, etc.

Under 1K miles...so your on your 2nd tank or so...ignore the 1st tank if it had test drives, etc on it.

Look in the mileage database to see individual driver's tanks. You'll see a lot of lower-mileage HAHs in the 25-30 range, so no, you are not terribly off the norm.

Feather the gas pedal, and try to keep the eco light on as much as possible. That's the only way to get >30mpg tanks for most people and conditions.

Expect to see a nice increase (~1 or 2mpg) around 1500 miles as the engine breaks in, and again around 2500 or 3000.

There's a raging debate about gage accuracy. Navi gets its distance input from GPS, the dash gage from the wheels actually going roundy-roundy. Both get fuel consumption from the onboard engine computer. Different types of errors abound in all 3 inputs. Pick your poison.

You need to calculate your "real" mpg at the pump by hand for several tanks, and decide which gage you prefer to believe day-to-day. And neither will exactly match your hand calculation. IMHO, anything that is normally within 1mpg of what you calculate is close enough, given all the sources of error. Navi has the nice feature of displaying your instantaneous mpg, though, which is very helpful for adjusting your driving technique. The dash is just the average since the last reset.

Your driving technique will also improve as you read around here and adopt some new methods, should you choose to. That can yield the greatest gains.

Re: hey y'all!
 

Welcome to GreenHybrid.

You will find that your mileage will go up as your driving habits change from the Dodge Dakota to the HAH. I had the same adjustment (took me about 3 months) problem, as I went from a Ford F150 to my HCH.

When one runs a big truck at 70-75 MPH the difference in mileage by reducing your speed to, say, 65-70 doesn't seem signficant -- five to ten percent (though it really is). Driving my truck I would run the left lane, where appropriate, running as fast as I could, to get the drive over as fast as possible, pushing 80 frequently. Now, I hug the right side of the road, run the speed limit (65) and hit 70 on long downhill FAS runs.

My difference in mileage (remember that five or ten percent), boosted my mileage from the low 40 mpg to near 50mpg. Some adjustments in air pressure in the tires, and I now push 60 mpg.

Oh, I added a whole 10 minutes to my 60 minute (56 mile) commute. I can live with that trade off.

Good luck with your new car!

Re: hey y'all!
 

Here's the key phrase in the post that tells me that you need to change your driving style if you want better mileage.

Re: hey y'all!
 

I believe your mileage will increase as the car and driver are "broken in".

And you have to resist going to the dark side, and that feel of acceleration. :)

Regards,

Re: hey y'all!
 

Jeromeee, How long is your avg drive?
I found that, more than anything, short drives, 10 minutes or less, will make your FE suck bad. I have a 40 minute commute, and I average about 32mpg (40 - 50 MPH, few stop lights).
For the first 15 minutes of my commute, my MPG goes steadily down. After that, it starts to climb right up to the end of my drive. I believe if my commute were longer, I'd get even better FE.

On the weekends, when I use the car for 5 minute trips near the house, again my MPG goes down. (it's depressing).

BTW, I have about 1100 miles on the car.

-Jw

Re: hey y'all!
 

Hey thanks guys for the quick reply and really helpful tips, well my daily commute is about 60 miles roundtrip, which isnt bad at all. It consist of about 55 highway 45 street. My average speed on highway is around 75. Most of the time when I accelerate I try to do it as slow as possible, but here in Southbay everybody drives crazy so it's pretty hard to do when somebody is behind you honking. But so far the way i've been driving my HAH is that I accelerate until the 40s before I let the eco kick in, then its playing the keeping the eco light on game. And actually im on my third tank already, when I first got my HAH the mpg was about 22 mpg, and now it improved to 25.1, but it seems to be stuck there. But next time I drive I will definetly keep your tips at heart. Thanks. Jeremy.

Re: hey y'all!
 

75mph is the biggest culprit you have. ECO can barely hold the load on a steady road at that speed, and cuts out entirely at 80ish (85?). Try diving into the right lanes and going 65. That's guaranteed to get you a few more mpg each trip.

Personal example: I have a 65 mile round trip, 80% highway, so take my numbers and adjust for your conditions: Used to drive 70 with cruise control, got 37mpg...dropped to 65with cruise, went up to 39. Turned off cruise and now drive with the load (60-65 range), and now 41 is a BAD day. Even with several 'normal' accelerations, keeping up with the SUV next to me.

Its hard, but also try ignoring the yahoos behind you, especially of you're in the right lane. If they're in such a rush they'll find a way around you.

Re: hey y'all!
 

I don't know how you're getting only 25mpg.
I drive 70 on the highway and still get 36mpg or so.

Maybe your "street" drivining is bring you down. One thing to do would be to find out how you are doing just on the highway. when you get onto the highway, reset one of your FE gauges (I use trip A for this). Then see what the gauge reads at the end of your highway drive.

Do the same for the city part of your trip.

Re: hey y'all!
 

I'm with Navy...big gains in mpg after the break-in point, mine was around 2000 miles. Big gains on the freeway at 60 or 65 mph in eco, but the mpg display just sits there with little gain above 65 mph and almost nil at 70. I can drive 40 miles ramp to ramp on the interstate at 60 mph (very few hills, mostly flat) and pull 44 mpg on the display. Around town in a large city I can easily coax 32 mpg without trying very hard. Average in city is usually 30, which coincidentally coincides with the EPA estimate. No jackrabbit starts and I try to get up to my target cruising speed (the speed limit?) quickly and then feather back to eco.

One strange observation: I few times recently I have pretty much jetted around town with hard acceleration from traffic lights and with disregard for the eco light (late for a meeting without concern for FE), and have noticed suprising mpg of 32 plus. I can't explain it unless I am getting up to the target speed more quickly and just intuitively engaging eco because I'm trained to the way that it feels when eco should be engaged. Subconscious FE? Weird.