My personal best..

I did something I never tried before on this tank of gas. I only drove the car when the humidity was down to 29% or lower, or if the wind was under 5 mph. Their were some windy/rainy days when I let the car sit and we drove the wife's Ranger pickup to town.

I did find the TCH seems to go into the EV mode a lot easier when the humidity is low. The engine also seemed to be lots more efficient when at 40 mph using the cruise. The daily humidity seemed lowest in the evenings starting around 5 pm when we left for town.

I wanted to see how much gas mileage I could get out here in the new mexico high desert under good conditions. The results were (mfd) 59.5 mpg at 803 miles for the tank; hand calculated came to, 57.68 mpg.

speed 40 mph highway to town, 38 when in town, both using cruise.
chevron/texaco 86 octane gas (13.92 for the fill, till auto shutoff)
michelin energy s8 tires at 42 psi cold (just replaced with the new michelin energy saver a/s tire)
block heater on 1 hour before driving to town
outside temperature, 80 to 93 degrees (mfd readings)
easy takeoffs and coasting in drive to stop at red light or turns.

click thumbnails for full view

 

Congrats...but that sounds like too much work for me.

(I guess I'm your direct opposite. Lately, I just drive and don't pay attention to my mileage.)

You should be proud of your efficiency!

 

I had a block heater installed on our RX, but have left off using it during the summer. I suppose it makes sense to use it in the warm season, too, and maybe even more so since the HV battery is starting closer to running temp. I plotted water temps (via SG-II) w/ and w/o two hrs preheat last winter, and found it shaved about 5 minutes off the warm-up time.
A/C ON and windows up?
Our hybrid is the wife's daily driver. She also just wants to 'drive it like a regular car'. Consequently her milage (by the on-board display) runs around 23-24 mpg, whereas I can push it up to around 40 mpg around town if I work at it. So I make a game of seeing how much I can boost her number when I take it out to run errands.

Benton 28aug09

 

I'm kinda somewhere between Jimmy and Larry. I do keep close track of my mileage...my goal is to try to beat the previous "best" on each tank, but it rarely happens. Oh well! I do drive at or within 1 or 2 mph of the speed limit, rather than way above as I did "pre-Hybrid". Life is too short to drive 40mph on the highway. Although, there is a section of the Interstate near me where construction has lowered the speed limit from 75 to 55, and I do see significantly better mpg during that 15-20 mile section, so I can see how driving 40mph would provide the kind of results Jimmy received. It certainly isn't practical do do so, unless just for a test. I am very aware of both the instantaneous and average mpg displays all the time. And I do drive anticipating the next light, rather than accelerate hard, then brake. Seems I am still waiting at the next light along with the same folks who raced away from the last light. Taking the time and hassle to install and use a block heater? While it might add some small amount to the efficiency, NOPE! not my cup of tea.

I had driven my 2007 TCH over 58,000 miles in three years when I traded it in on a new 2009 TCH in July. Over that 58,000 miles, my "lifetime" average was right about 39mpg. Summers in AZ are hard, so I usualy average 36-38, and winters are very mild, I average 40-42. The 2009 seems to be doing just a tad bit better, but still too new to be sure, or to say why.

Obviously, I am still impressed with the car and the technology. My biggest complaints are still the inaccurate speedometer (reads 2mph high), and the overly pessimistic fuel gauge/low fuel light, and "cruising range" indicator.

Oh! I always wait till the low fuel light has been on for about 50 miles before filling it up, and reseting the average indicator (on the NAV screen). My highest tank was 43.9mpg in the 2007 TCH, and lowest was about 34.

 

Congratulations!

I wish I could get a 800 mile tank but I'd have to get 43.25 MPG and that's if I used all 18.5 gallons. I imagine if I just drove on the highway non stop, I could do it.

 

That's funny you say that, I saw her post in another forum that she likes to sit at a red light, put the car in neutral and then rev the engine. She wants to see how low she can make the numbers!

j/k

 

Yes, it was rather boring driving like I did. I had to pay attention to ever area of road where I knew I could use and extend the ev mode. Some takeoffs on a full charge allowed me to stay in the ev mode sometimes up to 35 mph.

I guess I could say this higher gas mileage was accomplished mostly by the ev mode. I do have a 3 miles section of highway where the engine runs and shows 55/60 mpg.

The block heater don't help that much during the summer. It helps a lot during the 30 degree winters.

No AC was used on the high mpg tank. Temps were about 80 to 90 degrees. With the dry air at 15% to 29% it was cool enough with the front windows cracked about 3". The vent was set to to low fan usually on the second bar graph.

Ok on Benton's wife not getting good gas mileage. I can understand that. The biggest factor in improving gas mileage is acceleration from a red light. In a large city you have no choice due to the traffic behind you. I live in a small town were traffic usually drives the speed limit or slower. The traffic usually thins out after 7 pm.

It took me a year to learn how to use the ev mode where my mpg picked up. One was learning to drive below 42 mph. At 38 I found the car would auto drop into the ev mode when the road condition allowed it.

I started driving for gas mileage when I was in my early 20's. At the time I was a city hot rodder with a hand full of traffic tickets. I wanted something to do while driving so I decided on gas mileage. I had a 57 chevy and found I could turn the ignition timing up to around 43 to 45 total degrees at 3200 rpm. (66 mph) The chevy usually got around 18 mpg when stock. After cranking up the timing the highway mpg jumped to 21 to 24 mpg. My highway record on that car was 25. I had 50 psi (unsafe) in the tires when on trips. It knocked like hell if you pressed the gas peddle over 1/4 inch.

I had a 2003 Corolla out here in southern new mexico that got 42 combined. Later a big car, Ford Five Hundred V6 that got 31 combined out here. I had the gas engine driving down pretty good before I bought the TCH. The EV mode threw me for a good while.

My wife for some reason started driving her '99 Ranger pickup (V6 3.0 engine) at 45 mph to town. She gets 25 mpg even when using the AC during the hot part of summer.

I break in my new cars mentioned here by driving about 300 miles on city streets. Many easy starts and easy stops. My wife and I would take turns driving. That would include some of the 32.66 mile daily loop to town. After a few weeks the car would be broke in. I noticed with the TCH the gas mileage was rather high for a car with a tight engine.

I was surprised I got 46 on my first tank when the car was new. That was encouraging after being doubtful about paying extra for the hybrid.

I thought why not once I found the lower humidity seemed to really help the gas mileage. I started this last tank on July 11th and the refill on August 28th. The car remained parked a lot due to rain, high humidity and on windy days. I think this will be a one time deal. Not much good when you can't drive your car everyday.

Lots of my mpg success is due to where I live. The highways are smooth 4-lanes, including the main drag in town. The highways and country roads are very level. Many summer days the winds are 5 mpg or less. The daily humidity is usually in the 20% which make the engine more efficient and the ev mode comes on more often.

 

The 40 mph I drive is on a divided 4-lane highway to town. I only drive the 40 mph to town and back as their is not that much traffic when we go and then come back later at night.

Driving on a trip I like to drive 60, but the wife says no, drive 65. I get 47 highway in southern new mexico or west texas.

The block heater don't help very much during the summer. I saw a mpg boost though using it in the cold winter. I would have to leave it on for 2 to 3 hours depending on how cold it was outside. Other than mpg being able to use the car heater in a half mile to 3/4 mile was nice.

The block heater itself cost about $39 from the dealer. If toyota installs it they quoted me around $179. If I had factory ordered it with my new TCH I could have got it for about $50 to $60.

All speedometers are off unless your driving a police car. Those are highly calibrated.

The car manufactures do that to boost mpg without your knowing. Most are 2 mpg off at 60. You drive 60 and are actually going 58.

The TCH being a gas mileage car they seemed to have overdone it. I see when i'm driving at 40 it's actually 38 by my (gps) radar detector and corrected scan gauge reading. At 60 I think my TCH is reading 2 1/2 or 3 mph fast. That was two years ago and I forget the exact reading.

I use a scan gauge to help me get improved gas mileage. It includes a digital speedometer readout if you activate it. You can add or lower the reading in increments, giving you a correct reading using the mile marker poles and a stopwatch.

 

While your statement seems to make sense, you will find if you check your GPS that the odometer which is the basis for mpg is off the other direction.

There are two different reasons for this disparity. The speedometer is off on the high side so that Toyota doesn't get heat when you get a speeding ticket since you have to exceed the speedometer by a larger number.

The odometer reads high so that Toyota does not get sued on a warrantee issue.

I found the odometer to read high by ~1%, which means that if you use the odometer mileage divided by the gallons you will be low on mpg by that amount. I find that the MFG reads high by 1.2 mpg but if you compensate for the odometer being off, it is only high by 0.6 mpg which is pretty darn accurate.

 

I don't know how much tread is actually lost, but I calculated (roughly) that if the diameter of the tire changes by 1/2 inch (assuming 1/4 inch road wear difference between a new and well worn tire) comes up to ~1-1.5 MPH difference. I know some like precision, but it's virtually impossible to have an exact number if the distance traveled per rotation can vary to a fair degree with erosion.