I'm on my third tank. I use my HAH mostly for local driving, short trips. I have not been able to get better than 18 mpg. Yet, I read posts on this site boasting of mileage in the high 20s, low 30s. Is there a break in period? Or should I have the vehicle serviced?

 

Our mileage database currently hosts 22 Honda Accord Hybrids. Take a look here.

The lowest mileage for any of them so far is 22 MPG. I'd check your tire pressure and oil level. When you say "short trips," how short? If most of your driving is around 5 minutes, there's your reason. Any car you drive will take a significant hit in mileage.

 

In addition to what Jason has said, and i'm sure wayne [xcel] will post in later. I believe wayne has said that his accord runs very rich when cold, and if your comutes are short like mine (5-15 min) sometimes the engine never has a chance to heat up. Also many of the hybrid features (autostop comes to mind) are disabled until the car heats up...again leaving you 'sucking' down the gas. As jason said, i'd check your tire pressure and oil level first (and transmition if you have an auto) and maybe take it on an easy paced trip down the highway to let it stretch its legs and see if that helps anything (not every trip, just like once or twice to see if the milage stays real low). Good luck!

 

Jason, Stevo, All:

Yes, my commutes are VERY short (5-10 minutes). And I live in the Northeast, where it is only now starting to warm up, climate-wise. I will check my tire pressure and oil, but I would be surprised to find them deficient, since the car is brand spanking new.

I must admit that I feel a little misled by the dealer, who told me that the Hybrid technology would be worthwhile for my driving profile (very short commutes in stop and go traffic), because the Autostop feature would save on gas. I have been reading from other posts on this site that the opposite is true...the technology works best on the open road on longer trips.

That said, the car is fun to drive. I just am starting to wonder whether my particular driving habits are going to result in any appreciable benefit from this technology.

 

Hey, Al. Boy, I don't know what to say.... 18 mpg is terrible. OTOH, like has been mentioned, if you are taking very short trips, I guess I could see that.

Even on short trips, I can get in the upper 20's. Anything over 5 minutes, and I'll be in the 30's. My over 36 mpg would not be a fair comparison for city driving, obviously, but if your trips are over 5 minutes, you should certainly be able to get upper 20's.

Caveat: The above assumes you’re making the effort. The HAH has a lot of power and if you drive it aggressively, you’ll get 255 hp V6 type mileage. I won’t bother to go into the myriad of high mileage tips. You can find more than I could remember in the “Learning” section. And I don’t go to near the extremes that are listed there, but I do drive with load and never exceed the speed limit.

As far as tire pressure, I tried 42 - too hard. 40 - too hard. 38 - seems a good compromise between FE hard and comfort soft.

Incidentally, I drove the car “normally” – used the cruise; normal acceleration, let it idle at the post office, etc…, and received 33.7 mpg. That’s with about 65 – 70% hwy miles and the rest city.

My city, however, doesn’t have bumper to bumper traffic. My car stays in a garage that never drops below 60 degrees in the winter and stays in my warehouse at our offices – never drops below 55 degrees. That probably makes a BIG difference on the short trips.

Weather (cold – wind) and elevation changes can KILL your FE, along with giving it incredible boosts.

Also, I don’t remember if you mention whether you have NAVI with the trip computer, but the real time FE gauge helps a LOT. If you have it, use it. It will really help you learn what small – almost unnoticeable – changes can make a large difference in FE.

If you don’t have NAVI, reset your “b” trip for each trip you make. You don’t get nearly the feedback as with the trip computer, but it will certainly help a great deal.

Again, if all your trips are less than 5 minutes, maybe you aren’t too abnormal. Otherwise, you or your car needs some adjustments for better FE.

Good luck!

 

Probably there is nothing wrong with your hybrid, its the short trips. My drive to work each day is 21 miles and depending on temperature not until at least 3 miles into the trip will the mpg be up to 30+ and by the end I average around 37. Some days it hits 41 MPG when I arrive at work. Its totally depends on temperature, distance traveled, no one on your bumper, if a slow vehicle is in front slowing down your momenentum going into a hill or slight evelation, and constantly keeping the ECO light on.

 

As a further clarification, I do not have NAVI. The 18 mpg figure is not a "real time" number, but an average for a whole tank. I am going to try resetting my B trip after each trip, as suggested, as well as some of the other tips, and will report back. For now, though, I still have the feeling that my particular vehicle has something wrong with it.

 

I doubt it's that your dealer lied to you. It's more likely that he, like too many others, simply doesn't have any first-hand knowledge and is ignorant about the technology. Any car suffers from short trips. As far as stop-and-go driving, numerous publications claim this is the best condition for hybrids, so it's natural that he would think so.

You want the truth?

Today's full hybrids are optimized for speeds around 35-40 MPH. Real stop-and-go traffic, though, means you likely won't average 35-40 and you'll be kicking that engine on to scoot up fifty feet only to brake and come to a stop. The reason I'm at about 46 MPG instead of 50+ is because of the traffic at my school.

Mild hybrids, like conventional cars, do better on the highway versus the city because they can't drive in all-electric. Most articles don't even mention that Honda makes mild hybrids.

You're likely still receiving better mileage than you would with a non-hybrid, so I wouldn't be too disappointed. Perhaps it's 18 MPG versus 14.

 

It’s definitely the length of your commute (or lack thereof) that’s the primary cause; you may have a little bit of a lead foot, but we can work on that with you.

I’m in a colder climate too (Northern IL), as opposed to some of our AH mileage champions (lots of TX, AZ, and OK folks here, apparently ::waves:: , so my experience may be similar…

First 5 to 8 minutes, depending on temperature, you’ll have no VCM, and no auto-stop. I did notice this afternoon, with an ambient outdoor of 68F, per the car's sensor, that I gained auto-stop almost immediately (after one stop and about 2 minutes' time). With a higher temp, you'll get quicker engagement of auto-stop.

VCM, however, doesn’t come on until the engine’s fully warmed up. For me, this occurs about 3-4 miles down the road, on average – in the morning, I come out of a 25mph development straight on to a 55mph two-lane – not the best for my engine (but it’ll warm things up a little faster than if I were going 30). By the time I hit my first slowdown / light a mile or so down the road, I’m at about 14-15mpg, and more often than not, unless ambient temps are 60F or better, I’m not getting auto-stop at that light. Rebooting (turning the car off ) isn’t an option at that point, because that defeats the purpose of getting the car to operating temp so that you can get VCM & IMA functioning fully.

After that light, the limit changes to 40mph; if I’m lucky, I’m doing close to that, and not crawling. Most mornings, about 2 miles after that light, I see VCM activate (the ‘Eco’ light in your dash). At that moment, I’m at about 21mpg, give or take a few tenths. Your mileage will begin climbing rapidly after that point, especially if you are fortunate enough to have a road that’s not congested, with few stops, where you can drive a steady speed. About 5 minutes of this would put you at about 29mpg, easily. From there, you’re set.

Your goal, as far as not having an instantaneous FE gauge (like in the Navi cars), is to:

a. Accellerate a bit smoothly and slowly from the light – to the point where many cars will pass you as they’re getting up to speed. Never mind them – you’ll be catching up to them shortly.

b. When you’re at your desired speed, keep the minimum pressure needed on the accelerator to keep a set speed. Do not vary this with changes in elevation. It will be a bit stressful on your ankle the first couple of days - hang in there!

c. Maintain a bit of distance – it gives you more reaction time to avoid starting / stopping unnecessarily. Maintaining momentum will help you greatly. Your (literally in your case) biggest FE killer is your starting / stopping.

Now…if you are stuck with a sub-10mi commute, it’s like Jason said – there’s no hybrid car in the world that will help you, because all of them require time to bring themselves up to operating temperature, just as any ICE does. You’d need a full-electric vehicle (and for someone like you, range wouldn’t be an issue with one of those, although temperature might).

Finally – I’m not going to be charitable about your dealer's salesperson. Auto-stop does help, and is important (if you doubt me, watch your trip mpg decrease by .1mpg every ten seconds when you’re at a light sometime and it's not engaged - you'll be looking to shut that ICE down, if you're like me these days).

However, and I don’t say this lightly – he either doesn’t know his product, or he out and out lied, if you told him your driving profile was short-trip (especially *that* short a trip). Either way, he did you a disservice. Again, with your driving profile, even a Toyota hybrid isn’t going to help you unless you drive farther on your average trip. However, in your type of driving, I *would* recommend a Toyota over a Honda, as much as it kills me to say that

 

Let me just add that it is commonplace for the Prius to receive less than 30 MPG during the first 5 minutes of the trip unless the car is already warmed up. I can't speak for the other hybrids, but that's closing in on half of the Prius' average fuel economy.