Thanks for the response, Kenny. Definitely food for thought.

Jeff

 

I'm another novice, never been in an HCH I. But I think you've got a lot of it captured in this question. I don't think it's just EV, I think it's all of the technology that's in the engine that makes the difference. It's a part of why Kenny gets great mileage at 53 mph, IMHO, though I believe ANY car would get much better mileage than normal driving as he does. (btw, I don't have the patience for some of the things you do, Kenny, but I admire your ability to stick to your driving beliefs!)

I was surprised, after a little practice, at how easy it is to keep the IMPG up between 50 and 100 most of the time in city driving. On the freeway I don't have as much luck, unless I either drive 50-55, or draft trucks.

When Honda came out with the car there were several articles floating around that said they would get closer to EPA estimates than their last version. I think there was technology behind that statement.

 

Kenny, what PSI are you running in your tires?

 

40 PSI on both HCH1 and HCH2.
I check it about every third week.

BTW sometimes I take corners a little fast because I don't want to give up inertia if I over estimated the speed needed to reach the turn.
I never hear screeching in the tires though.

I agree that being willing to go 53 is key to my MPG.
Very few are crazy enough to do that, especially on LA freeways.

Again I'm not arguing that all those other techniques are not valid.
I just feel there are a zillion things you can do to increase your MPG and some give you more bang for your buck than others.
MPG drops with speed.
We all know that.
But I think people don't realize how quickly, and exponentially, it drops as we go over 45 MPH.

I suspect if someone lived where they could always drive it at 45 MPH and use all techniques this car could do over 75 MPG.

 

Question... when you draft a big truck, just how close do you have to be to get the benefit? Also, aren't you worried about rocks and debris flying off the tires of trucks when you're so close?

 

You have to be fairly close, in my estimate. And yes, there is a concern about rocks and such, as well as the fact that you're definitely tailgating, which is not safe and probably not legal in most states.

It is not a safe thing to do - I should not have recommended trying it. Sorry. I'm going to go back and delete the post. Thanks.

 

I must say that I like to see the road ahead and get early warning of any problems! Your life is worth more than the saving of a few cents worth of gas.

 

you can still leave space behind and still get the draft, just not the full effect. but some is better than none!

 

Personally, I don't draft trucks and have done pretty good in my '04 model.

But I will follow one at a good, safe distance.
It's truly a great blessing for me to be driving in...say a 70MPH limit and find a double deuce lumbering down the road at 55-65MPH.

For instance today is Easter and all five of us piled in my HCH to visit "Grandma and grandpa".
For the 80 mile trip there, mostly fighting a head or cross wind arrived with 54 on the dash.

On the return trip right away I got behind one of those big double-trailer trucks and followed around 400 feet behind for about 35 miles before I exited onto another freeway.
The benefit is getting away with a slower speed while folks see a slow truck, not so much the slow little car.

By the evening time the wind had calmed down quite a bit but still had a slight tail wind and parked with a trip of 162 miles and 61.8 on the dash.
Pretty good for a family of five- and had we piled into the Grand Caravan would have burned about 2/3 more fuel.

 

I also basically just let the car do the work, and I'm averaging almost 52 mpg (lifetime with 7k+ miles). My daily commute is 28 miles each direction, about 90% freeway. I try to stay on cruise control @ 60 mph as much as possible. While good driving technique can improve your mileage, I think the biggest impact comes from:

- Driving distance per trip (longer trips help cancel out the 'warm up' effect -- My own tests suggest that if my commute were just 10 miles longer - all else being equal - my average would be about 55 mpg)
- Terrain
- Temperature (I'm averaging 55 on my current tank; the only thing that changed is that the sun has finally come out after months of cold, rainy weather)

I also follow Kenny's common sense techniques; keep speed down as much as possible, avoid brakes (it's the speeding back up that kills you), coast as much as possible (when off freeway), avoid short trips. The car does a pretty good job all by itself!