I'm one week in with my 2007 HCHII and having a blast. I've been reading the board for a while and found that it helped me know what was going on with the car and what to expect. I live on the southern Rhode Island coast and commute to Boston. The round trip is just about 160 miles, mostly interstate but with a mix of in-town driving, state highway with traffic lights and the inevitable stop-and-go traffic. The AM route is slightly longer as I take a loop road (I-295) around Providence, while at night I'm late enough so I can go straight down I-95.

Some initial impressions in no particular order of priority:

• Our grandparents were right -- a trip really can be uphill (and into a head wind) both ways! I'm just waiting for the snow! I've made this trip for several years and never noticed that there were longish stretches of uphill grade until I had a FE gauge to watch. Somehow it seems there are more uphills than downhills or at least the uphill climbs are steeper than on the downhill side.
• The last couple of days has shown me the correlations between temperature and FE. The RI-to-Boston trip on Thursday was done at 55 degrees with minimal wind and I got 50.1 MPGs for an 83 mile trip. Same trip yesterday was at 20 degrees with a 25+ mph wind coming from 10 o'clock and the FE fell to 42.9 MPG. The trip home last night was at 25 degrees but with wind at 4 o'clock and the FE was 46.2 MPG.
• There was an earlier post on the impact of wind on FE and based on yesterday I would say can be significant, comparing yesterdays AM and PM trips in similar temperatures but with the opposite winds. One thing I noted with the head wind was that it made gliding more difficult as I lost speed more quickly and had to use acceleration earlier. As a positive, I did not feel like the wind was pushing me all over the road as has been my experience in other compact cars.
• Important for long rides, I find the driver's compartment comfortable. I'm not small (6'+ and 270 lbs--I know I need to diet to increase FE!) but I find the seat comfortable with good pedal position. By way of comparision, my knees and feet get sore driving our Grand Caravan because of my leg/foot position.
• One thing I'm not that crazy about is that the FE gauge "covers up" the engine temperature guage. I've always preferred guages to "idiot lights" and worry that I will miss an engine problem until it is too late.
• I wonder how much overall FE would increase if every car had a FE gauge and/or drivers followed simple rules such as gliding to stops. Before getting the HCH, I was renting a Kia Spectra and was getting about 28 MPG. After reading here and using simple tips like gliding and capping my speed at 70 MPH, I was able to get the FE to 32 MPG.

Some questions for the GreenHybrid gurus:

• I'm hesitant to increase the tire pressure with snow season on the horizon. I figure I need as much tire surface on the road as possible. Any opinions?
• Does the battery charge during gliding put any drag on the engine? The car seems to coast less freely than I am used to and not sure if that is a function of the CVT or the charging process.
• When the Auto Stop is active, I've been allowing the engine to come fully back to the idle RPM before accelerating. Is this the proper way to use the feature? Is there a way to maximize Auto Stop, i.e., is there a way to get it to kick in during the end of a glide to a stop or have you found it takes too much brake pressure?

Again, thanks to all posters as reading the board in advance of actually driving the car helped prepare me for the experience.

 

The drag of the engine is much less than other cars-- but you have it backwards, the drag that exists is used to charge the battery, one of three ways the car generates and stores electricity.

 

"Does the battery charge during gliding put any drag on the engine? The car seems to coast less freely than I am used to and not sure if that is a function of the CVT or the charging process.
When the Auto Stop is active, I've been allowing the engine to come fully back to the idle RPM before accelerating. Is this the proper way to use the feature? Is there a way to maximize Auto Stop, i.e., is there a way to get it to kick in during the end of a glide to a stop or have you found it takes too much brake pressure?"

In a "glide" you're not charging the battery. If you let off the brake you are coasting/charging. Gliding is when you put your foot back on the gas pedal just enough until the charge bars disappear but you're also not using any assist...you'll also notice the MPG will be 100. When coasting, your car will slow down faster than in a glide.

As for the autostop at the end of a glide, I've noticed that if you glide all the way down to ~10mph the gas comes back in. I figured out that by the time you get down to that 10mph, if you put your foot on the brake just slightly it will glide all the way to 7mph and then obviously shut off. I do this a lot

 

OK let's see how much ground we can cover in this answer:
1- When driving in snow and ice please ensure that you have a good set of Winter tires on your car. The OEM tires (typically Dunlop) are often defined as low rolling resistance tires which are - bluntly speaking- dangerous in Icy conditions.
2- Always ensure that you have good tire pressure even during winter conditions. Traction in snow and ice is best when the tire pressure is set to Max tire pressure (or close to it). Flat or slighltly under inflated tires are very bad for traction in snow, slush or ice and are a common cause of winter time accidents.
3- Charging the battery (commonly referred to as regen) induces significant drag on the vehicle. This regen is not a function of the CVT, although the CVT does play a role in facilitating the regen. The regen is induced by the stator motor which at that time is progressively acquiring more electrical charge for the battery.
4 - It is a good idea NOT to punch the gas after an autostop, particularly during the freezing winter months. In following this rule on a regular basis you'll be prolonging the life of the CVT driveline because you are giving it ample time to accomodate the optimal shift ratios. These times are longer during the colder winter months. You can force autostop if you wish to extend on what the HCH-II system provides. If the conditions are right, the auto-stop will engage at 12km/h (~7.45 miles/h) but not before that. Please note that when coasting the cylinders are de-activated and the engine is not consuming any gas, so technically the engine is already "stopped" even though the crankshaft is turning. Again you may wish force an autostop but that is not recommended for safety and relative efficiency reasons.


Cheers;

MSantos

 

I've driven the 06 HCH for almost a year. I've applied different techniques. My conclusion is that it's impossible to prove the effectiveness of most of the techniques, due to the fact of constantly changing variables that make up the FE equation. For example, FE could go up 2 MPG after pumping up my tires to the max. But how do I know it wasn't because of warmer temps, different driving pattern, etc. It's all theory until scientifically proven.

I'm sure my previous paragraph will be disagreed upon vehemently by the so-called experts. So before all you engineers disagree, I'm just summarizing my experience and it should be taken with a grain of salt.

Let the IMPG gauge and Trip B "train" you how to achieve the max FE possible. Reset Trip B before you go anywhere. Psychologically, it makes me try to achieve the max MPG on every trip. Personally, I've found that extended periods in the 75ish range have yielded greater MPG that maximizing the time in 100+. Your experience may be different. That's the fun of this car, IMHO.

Some questions for the GreenHybrid gurus:

• I'm hesitant to increase the tire pressure with snow season on the horizon. I figure I need as much tire surface on the road as possible. Any opinions?
• Does the battery charge during gliding put any drag on the engine? The car seems to coast less freely than I am used to and not sure if that is a function of the CVT or the charging process.
• When the Auto Stop is active, I've been allowing the engine to come fully back to the idle RPM before accelerating. Is this the proper way to use the feature? Is there a way to maximize Auto Stop, i.e., is there a way to get it to kick in during the end of a glide to a stop or have you found it takes too much brake pressure?

Again, thanks to all posters as reading the board in advance of actually driving the car helped prepare me for the experience.[/quote]

 

Hello RI-Brid,
I am a fellow Rhode Islander and have had my HCHII almost a year now. I got it in January. I have averaged 48mpg since owning the car. I have 24k miles on it already as well. I commute from N. Prov to Newport on a daily basis and put about the same mileage per day as you do. I also do a 700plus mile weekend trip every 5 weeks or so to go see my family in DE.

I just wanted to let you know I have pumped my tires up to 42psi and have had no problems. I have the Dunlops on my car and did not encounter any problems in the snow last winter. But as you well know last winter was a light one. Maybe we shall see this winter. What color is yours and where did you get your car?

 

Thanks to all for the info. I'm learning more every trip. Mikey758, mine is the blue/silver. I live in South Kingstown and travel 95 and 295 Monday through Friday. Will keep an eye out!