That extra 0.39" (10mm per tire) of tire footprint ??? (195mm vs 185mm) is probably giving you more tire/road friction.

 

I figured I'd take a little hit, but the sticky sensation was more profound than an extra .39 cm on the tires would ever create. I'd expect a little, but if I had to describe the sensation another way, it was like driving the car over fly paper for the first 3-400 miles. The car would slow down going down hill in neutral. So, I think there's definitely something to be said about new tires. Any 06 owner should not draw any conclusions in their first tank (IMO) - maybe even the first 2 or 3.

BTW, on the good side (and I'll elaborate more when I'm through a few more tanks in a "new tire report"), the handling of my HCH is night and day with the new tires (195/60R15). I don't mean a little better, I mean a profound change. I keep challenging the tires - taking 90 degree T-intersection turns at 25-30 MPH, and I have yet to hear the tires even chirp. Unfortunately, handling characteristics are near the bottom of my "what matters" list, but I've been enjoying a few moments when no one is around.. :-)

 

Every time I got new tires, I always noted a marked improvement in handling. Guess we should be changing tires more often than we do. Especially around here in the NE where the roads are some of the worst in the world....

 

This is my first every post, so lets see how this goes…



First, in response to those of you that gave up “sports” cars for a hybrid, I feel your pain as I traded a 04 BMW Z4 that I loved for a 06’ Civic hybrid.



Second, most of the driving techniques I use I learned from reading the advice of other hybrid owners on this site. So far, I think most of the standard techniques work just fine in the 06. I drive in horrendous southern California traffic and my highest mpg so far is 97.2mpg 272 miles into my second tank of gas. What follows are a couple of specific ideas that I use that may or may not be unique to the 06.



1) I almost never accelerate faster than 3k rpm, and generally try to accelerate at about 1.5k to 2.5k depending on the traffic.



2) I have also (as have other owners on this site) noticed that on level city streets I can max out my mpg meter by backing off the throttle once I reach cursing speed to just at / above 1k rpm. The car seems to be able to function this way from 9mph to 40mph. It can probably go higher but I have not had a chance to test it.



I hope this helps.



General Question: Has any noticed in the 06 Civic hybrid that the real time mpg gauge on the top tier occasionally goes to zero for a second or two and then come back on and reads correctly. I have noticed this happen about 7 times (all at different speeds, times, places). I had the dealer look at the car and they said it was simply “calibrating” itself, but I cannot find a reference to that on any site. Has this happened to anyone else? Am I being lied to? Thanking you in advance for your time and consideration in this matter,



Geophrey

 

You're getting 97.2 MPG over 272 miles?? Or over some shorter distance?

I've only noticed this happen when driving less than 10 miles per hour, and generally only when I'm coming to a stop.

 

The time I was getting 97 plus mpg, I must admit that was due to slightly downhill freeway driving where I could maintain a maxed out mpg gauge. Unfortunately, I am always thwarted by a relative or friend who wants to drive the car and as a result lowers my mileage, or I get in some bad gridlock traffic and watch my mileage slowly drop. Right now, my 3rd tank is averaging right at 70 mpg, but I am sure something will happen to destroy that.

As far as the real time mpg gauge going down to zero and back up again., I have seen it happen when I have the cruise set at 63 mph on the freeway, and without cruise driving 35mph on the street (both on level ground). I know it sounds odd. The “calibrating” rational I received from the dealer seemed a bit fishy, and after some specific questioning, they admitted they really could not prove that is what is going on. Nevertheless, do not get me wrong, the car is amazing.

 

Wow, that's excellent geophrey, but seems abnormally high. Your MPG is better than some of my older cars got per tank...MPT RU sure the display is set to mpg not Km/g??

I'm not 100% sure, but I seem to remember someone talking about the car doing a NO2 purge every so often, which temporarily messes up the MPG readout. But this may only be for non PZEV models.

 

Thanks for the advice ralph_dog and NASAgineer.

Based on your questioning of my gas mileage I have another question to ask in addition to my real time mpg gauge. Have you noticed that it seems abnormally easy to affect your car’s calculated tank mpg seemingly no mater the distance driven. For example, I was driving around last night over 400 miles into a tank and the mpg for that tank seemed to fluctuate between low to high 50mpg. Can this be possible? I would think that after 400 miles that one’s mpg would be fairly well determined no mater how one was driving. Am I wrong? Is there some kind of new math and science going on here?
In addition, I have noticed that when I divide the number of miles driven by the number of gallons used I get a different number form the one on my display. I know that calculation is prone to some degree of error, but I have calculated mph that is both a couple of mph higher and lower. I would think the degree of error would be less than that. Or, again, am I showing my novice understanding of hybrids and how they function?

 

Hi Geophrey:

___The FE should not fluctuate like that after 400 miles on a given Trip meter. It should change over a very lengthy distance by its built in increments. The IMA based hybrid’s FCD’s usually change in .3 and .4 mpg increments. I do not know if your HCH-II is like this or not but you are the third HCH-II owner that has seen large bumps in both directions with hundreds of miles into the trip meter? This sounds like a problem to me?

___In regards to the Trip meter matching Miles drive/gallons filled, they should be close but very rarely will they be exact. If you top off, you know you are placing very close to the same amount of fuel in your HCH-II on every fill. If you fill to first click, you will be all over the map. It will average out over time to accurate but it can be a lot further off then if you top off each and every time. Either way, there is a slight optimistic bias built in to most hybrid’s and I would not expect the HCH-II to be any different. 1 – 1.5 mpg’s in the Prius II, 1 – 2 in the HCH-I, 1.5 – 2 in the AH via TC in the NAVI. The Insight was actually almost dead on each and every time but it had a bias in actual miles driven and speed was ~ 2% higher then actual vs. GPS and other automobiles.

___PS, nice FE so far. Keep it up as there are some HCH-I Valedictorian’s watching your FE climb intently have you been following the EV mode thread by NASAngineer?

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

 

I've never seen mine change by more than 0.1 once it has a couple hundred miles on it. Even once it has 50 or so, it changes slowly (0.1-0.4?).