It occurred to me soon after getting our '06 Civic Hybrid that a significant part of the better fuel economy is due to driver behavior change. Having the in-dash feedback of your moment-to-moment efficiency really helps, showing you what helps and hurts.

When I'm a passenger in a car with a "regular" driver now, I'm often taken aback by how much they mash the gas pedal, rush up to red lights, etcetera, by comparison.

38 mpg, which equates to around 6.1 liters/100 km, is not that out of line. A little depressing, but I think likely that's what they honestly achieved, driving the car "normally".

 

Actually, CR mileage reports are low on their city rating for pretty much all cars. They use a special fuel meter in the gas line to measure fuel used, and run a standardized course for city and highway rating, which they then average. Their city rating for a HCH is 26 MPG--I have never gotten below 35, and their rating for the Prius is 35 MPG. I rented a Prius in Las Vegas, and averaged about 50 MPG with the AC going full blast. Rather than getting upset over individual ratings, you should use the ratings for comparison; the Prius gets better city mileage than the HCH etc.

 

You're now just making things up. CR discusses how they test their cars at http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/how_we_test/ and has more details at http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/how-we-test/ (you might need a subscription for this).

They definitely do not go by the EPA numbers as their certainly didn't mirror them. They've griped about the pre-MY 08 EPA method before. See http://editorial.autos.msn.com/artic...umentid=435406 for example. They also discuss the MY08+ EPA method numbers vs. their tests at http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/c...709_mpg_ov.htm (you might need a subscription to see this as well).

We already discussed how they test fuel economy at https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...94/#post207259. The point is to have a test that's the same across all cars, not to optimize for one car vs. another. After all, let's hypothetically assume they achieved 50 mpg in a 2nd gen Prius. Someone could say, oh, they didn't try hard enough by not learning pulse and glide, using super highway mode, overinflating tires, using an engine block heater, drafting, taking death turns, leaving the AC off, etc. It could go on and on.... Should they learn to hypermile and achieve 110 mpg in that Prius?

CR recently tested the Fusion Hybrid and got 25/40, 34 overall. Surely this effort was crap and they should've hypermiled to get at least 81.5 mpg.

Quote from the last CR URL:

 

If CR's methodology determines a car that gets over 50 MPG only gets 38MPG then CR's methodology sucks and is worthless.

Believe their false numbers if you must. Whatever.

But I don't know how many times and in how many different ways I can say I don't use hypermiling techniques with my Insight. I don't know how many times I can say I simply do the speed limit and use cruise control most of the time before people understand those seemingly very simple facts.

People hear/read what they want I guess.

So go ahead, delude yourself that I am hypermiling. Go ahead believe Consumer Reports crap "reporting". I don't really care. I've come to expect most Americans to accept whatever lousy/bogus information is fed them without any critical thought whatsoever. It's the new normal.

I will keep driving my Insight and getting 54MPG while CR and other corporate media scum convince you it only gets 38MPG and not to believe your own lying eyes.

Good luck with your choice....

 

You miss the point entirely, which sucks for you since you state what you do in your Insight

" I don't know how many times I can say I simply do the speed limit and use cruise control most of the time..."

Uh last time I read this board, these are techniques of hyper-milling! Now granted you may not be doing all the other "hyper-milling" stuff but nonetheless you are doing some.

Personally I wish you would just drop this silly "I hate CR" campaign. Consumers do benefit from their reports. Honestly, people still need to like to car in order to buy it, if the car doesn't feel right to one person, they are not forced into purchasing it just because CR states its the best car for the money!

The Insight can get 38MPG, it can and it will. I know because my first tank got 38.3mpg. Was I pissed off at Honda? No, I knew that this car needed a little breaking in and sure enough the next tank got me 44.1 then 46.4 and up to 50.9.

So really you have some agenda that is aimed to hurt CR...

 

You keep calling these numbers false. Have you bothered looking at other values in their testing?

See http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/c...ient-cars-206/. 38 mpg overall, 29 city, 45 highway, and 46 mpg over a 150 mile trip. Their seemingly low overall mileage is no doubt due to their apparently very harsh city test, in which the best performer so far, the 09 Prius got only 35 mpg.

The mileage was NOT why the vehicle was rated too low to recommend. They even use the words "excellent 38 mpg" and "excellent fuel economy" repeatedly at http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/30/i...nks-it-21-out/.

 

Using cruise control and going the speed limit are hypermiling techniques?

That's really just too stupid to reply to. But thanks for the laugh!

And I will continue to call out CR on their bogus mileage numbers for the simple fact that I am living the real mileage every day. "Excellent 38MPG" is just excellent bs information. Nothing more.

Like I said, accept the bs numbers if you need to. That's what Americans do nowadays. If it's gonna happen anyway might as well lay back and enjoy it, huh?

As for me I will continue to point out the lousy reporting of Consumer Reports not just on this forum but wherever I encounter their bogus numbers.

Cheers....

 

Stop harping on their 38 mpg overall number. That has NOTHING to do w/why the car was scored too low to recommend. They 45 mpg on their highway test and 46 mpg on a 150 mile trip. Those must be bogus too.

Again, they are intentionally NOT using any special techniques or aids for ANY car. YOUR driving habits, commute, length of drives, temperatures during your drive and use of the displays is NOT how they tested the car. It doesn't mean YOUR results must be valid and theirs must be bogus. Did you hookup a device into the fuel line to precisely measure fuel usage?

To state it again, https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...tml#post207096 said it well
I don't have the print version of CR in front of me but from their web site (I have a subscription), they said:
There are far more details in the review.

 

Well that certainly makes things clearer. We certainly wouldn't want to think the cash you shelled out for CR's "reporting" went to waste now. Would we?

I haven't done an actual calculation in a while, but I finished up my most recent $20 and I got 411 miles from 7.5 gal. Let's see 411/7.5....... my calculator says 54.8 miles per gallon.

But wait, I received in the mail, from an anonymous source, this super excellent doubleplus good Consumer Reports special calculator. Let me plug the numbers in... holy crap and I'll be darned, CR's super excellent doubleplus good calculator tells me I only got 38 miles per gallon.

So that's the problem. I've just been using the wrong calculator!

So sorry, apologies all around....

 

You guys are still missing the point! Use the CR mileage figures to compare cars, not to predict what you will be getting. You should be able to best their city rating in pretty much any car, so why go on about it?