I get 31.5 with ECO on and around 70. I look at others on here and I seem to be the lowest MPG person here. What am I doing wrong? Did I just get bad luck with my TCH?

 

Don't sweat it! just have a easy foot. Don't do hard acceleration. Try using cruise control. and coast (move slowly) to traffic lights.

You will be amazed how much you will improve your economy.

 

What am I doing wrong? Did I just get bad luck with my TCH?

I'm guessing there is nothing wrong with your TCH

It's "attitude". It's an "Ah Hah" experience. That is you either don't care and drive it like a regular ICE only car, OR you just have not experienced the "touch" necessary to maximize FE. ONCE you get it, you will get it; and then practice will make you better. I summarized my comments on edmunds forums and a few others have added there as well on "TIPS" to driving your TCH.

 

Don't know what to tell you, my milage has been as high as 43.6 and as low as 40 and the gas i have used versus miles so far averages out at 42.6 in which i am very satisfied, as far as driving it may take a few miles but you can feel this thing go into what i cal an effortless mode and just feather the throttle and does well. I never throttle hard from a stop, just let it pull. SK PS, I have three other vehicals and since driving my TCH i drive those the same way and the milage on those has also picked up consideratly.

 

Hey RCommander, your signature takes me to MY TCH and not yours. Did you find the link to do this on one of my threads? If so you'll need to remove the 4 digit number for my car and put your there. That is unless you just like looking at my milage

 

First the driving environement has a lot to do with it. Als attitude. I was an agressive hard driver, but getting the TCH has me more relaxed. What kind of driving do you find yourself doing most of the time. I find hightway or sustained speeds of 45-60 is where this car shines. Frequent stop and go hurts MPG on this car especially if you accelerate hard. Learn to caost more, and also learn to look further ahead to anticipate the traffic so you can coast more. And how many miles on your car, my mileage has been steadily climbing due to 2 factors, first the engine breaking in and then my learning how to get more MPG out of the car. I know there are some that are proabbly driving obsessed with MPG and driving like grandpa on a sunday stroll, I am trying to find the balance of calmer driving with decent MPG while not driving like grandma. I also found the car MPG started to get much better up around 1500+ miles. And while it may not be a huge impact I am a big beleiver in certain brands of gas, I love high quality gas such as Chevron, I have always found my cars seems to give their best with Chevron. Years ago I had an engineer from Toyota and another from Mazda swear by Chevron and their Techron. Maybe it is some bs, but I am exclusively back on Chevron.

 

Other posters have good advise. My mpg goes up during the week when I commute - 70 miles round trip. Stop and go traffic doesn't hurt too much. I often take an hour to do the 35 miles, and sometimes over 2 hours. Park out of the sun. A/C takes a hit on the mpg if it has to cool off a sun baked car. A/C usage otherwise is only a 2 or 3 mpg hit if you use ECO and recir.

Avoid slow starts. Accelerate normally, and a few mph faster than you want to go. Then back off and feather the gas until you can maintain your speed. I often see the instant mpg at 55 to 60mpg doing this. On level or down hill grades, slow starts on battery only are ok in stop and go traffic. Slow uphill, EV starts drains the battery quickly and doesn't help your mpg.

I get about 42mpg at 70, 44mpg at 65, and 47mpg at 60. I tried keeping my speed close to 55mph for a few days on a new tank and racked up 51mpg (tank avg reading) over 180 miles.

Avoid 40 to 50mph unless coasting or slowing down gently. The TCH mileage seems poor between 40 and 45mph.

Drive with the load. By this I mean let your speed drop 5 mph or so as you crest a hill, and gain 5 mph or so as you hit the bottom of a hill. Let your momentum work for you.

Look ahead - avoid braking hard - or stopping completely in stop and go traffic. Be safe and stop if you need too! Anticipate traffic slowing and coast/run on EV when possible.

Hint: If you are going between 35 and 40mph, the TCH will almost always immediately drop into EV mode if you take your foot of the gas for a few seconds. If you know you will be coasting or going under 35mph for a while, speed up to 35mph to "ask" for EV mode before coasting. Otherwise you might only see 35mpg or so when going 15 to 20 mph.

I drive the last 1 1/2 miles home on EV. I accelerate to 43 mph, coasting down to 42mph, dropping into EV and gradually slow to 35mph and maintaining it. It is a very slight uphill climb, but by slowly loosing speed over the distance, I only drop the battery 1 bar doing so.

Hope you find this helpful!

 

I'm a hard driver I guess, I will work on these tips. thanks

 

You're ok. I'm a lead foot and I get between 31-33MPG (depending on mood and road conditions).

 

Some time we just can't help where we live too... I live in CO and so far I am getting in the low 30's because most of my roads to work are 40 mph roads with mild hills and people are always tailgaiting..... I figure if I just drive normal - I'm still doing a lot better in the city then a standard Camry - I just really like the design of the car - TCH or not!