Electric Vehicle Forums - Metro New York Commute

Quote:

Originally Posted by kristian (Post 164865)

Honestly though, I'm not a huge fan of the HCH in stop and go traffic. When you're stopping, the engine will shut off at 7mph allowing you to coast (with the brake applied) until you hit 0. After you stop, if you let off the brake, the engine comes back on. If you hit 10mph again, it will easily go back into autostop next time you stop, but if you don't get going that fast, the car usually doesn't shut off again. I find this frustrating, but rarely drive in stop and go so it might not bother you at all.

I've been meaning to post a topic on this, but I figured I'd chime in here.

I have been driving my 2008 HCH into/out of Washington, D.C. lately during rush hour. Of course, this doesn't compare to what I remember from growing up on LI and driving into NYC, but it's still pretty bad traffic. The temperatures have been in the 50F - 60F range. My trips have been around 25 miles highway (with stop and go, average maybe around 25 miles per hour and sometimes up to 40 - 55 miles per hour when the traffic breaks up) and 3 miles or so in the city with the lights, etc. I didn't have the AC compressor on due to the outside temps, just the fan on low with the windows closed. I drove the speed limit for the roads (30 miles per hour - 55 miles per hour) when not stopped in traffic and drove smoothly with no hard acceleration, etc. My round-trip MPG during those trips was between 50 and 54 MPG, which surprised me.

I have noticed that if the engine is stopped, I take my foot off the brake to move forward but only go around 2 - 3 miles per hour and then brake again, the engine does re-engage AS reliably/predictably. This happens a couple of times, but then it stays on until I go over ~7-8 miles per hour and apply the brakes again. Here's an excerpt from the owner's guide that spells out the car's logic:

The Auto Idle Stop function activates
if you speed up to over 8 miles per hour
(12 km/h) and brake to a stop.
When speeding up to a speed below
8 miles per hour (12 km/h) and braking to a
stop, it will only operate two times.

Again, I have found my car to operate that way. I guess we'll see what happens when the temperatures get warmer and I turn on the AC and use a higher fan speed.

In general, I have been enjoying my HCH more everyday as I rack up the miles in various conditions. However, I have been wondering how much better I would be doing in the Prius considering what I'm getting in the HCH. Having the HCH's engine stop and start in traffic isn't horrible, but I wouldn't mind a pure EV mode for those situations. I actually don't mind the exterior styling of the Prius and its HIDs/foglights (on the package I was looking at), keyless entry system, bluetooth and hatchback/fold down seat space would have been nice. Too bad its steering was numb and it handled like a mini-van to me. What really killed it for me was that I couldn't find a comfortable driving position after four test drives due to its lack of a telescoping wheel and non-height adjustable seat. I might look at it again after it is redesigned over the next couple of years, especially if Toyota includes PHEV capabilities.

So, aziego, you should definitely test drive the HCH in real-world conditions if possible, you may be surprised by how well it performs.

[UPDATE: Just to be complete, my tires at at 32 - 34 PSI and the MPG readings I cited were from the car's computer that was reset for each round-trip]