Hi...I have averaged (according to the computer on my car) 34.1 MPG. I'm getting 32 on this current tank. I've got about 6,000 miles on the car and try to drive responsibly. I live in TX, so I do have the AC on much of the time....still, that sounds pretty low to me. I took the car on a cool (not a lot of AC time) drive to west Texas in April, and even with cruise got mid-40's. I mentioned it to the service tech who checked in my car for its first servicing, and he kind of blew me off.

Any feedback is appreciated!

 

You might try increasing the tire pressure. When I got mine, it was at 32psi. I noticed a big change when I set it at 36psi.

 

Let me introduce you to the perenial HCH-II bible.

Many HCH-II owners will agree that this is the single most important article that will give you most of what you need for better mileage.

Cheers and welcome !!

MSantos

 

Yes, I agee. This is a must read!!! Cheers & good luck!!

 

A lot depends on your terrain and what your commute is like. I drove a LOT at the beginning...a lot of mixed highway with city, and I averaged about 48-49 MPG. Then I changed jobs, and my commute had a mix of stop-and-go traffic jam for the first two miles, followed by 8 miles of good mileage roads...add in the super short, and very hilly trips when I get lunch, and I averaged around 44MPG for work. Now, I've moved, and while my commute is shorter in distance and time (5.6 miles), the short trips + TONS of traffic lights and hills, and my daily work based mileage is down around 41. Yesterday on my way to work, the traffic was so bad I averaged 36 on the way there...worst ever since I moved. But hey, I take solace in the fact that in any other car I'd be getting 22 on these commutes. I still get 50+ on the highway.

 

Gotta love my highway commute for mileage! Gotta hate it for the fact that it's about 160 miles daily. Oh well, that's what they invented the iPod and Podcasts for.

 

Well, I just filled up my car this am and got 556.3 on this last tank and still had one bar remaining on the gauge and the light just came on. Only took 10.5 gallons of fuel for a 53mpg average for this tank!! I have averaged 48.2 since I have had the car for about 18months now.

 

I find that the most important things that you can do are to drive with an eye on the road ahead and coast when the light is red or traffuic is ahead or the hill is about to end and you're going to be going downhill. None of things are recognized by cruise control (which I no longer use). Practice driving as if you had an uncooked egg under your accelerator foot. Try lifting up you foot 1/4" and see if you can maintain speed. These approaches impreoved me from about 38 mpg to 55.2 on my last tank (616 including Interstate driving for 260 miles)! That was a challenge but I've been practicing for 42,000 miles.. Defroster really kills the mpg on my HCH II as does winter driving (winter gas plus the cold I guess). I also avoid AC. Try measuing your success on cooler days or at night. Watch the FE bar graph carefully.

 

Hey, fdrew --
We're all kind of assuming it's not a mechanical problem, it sounds like. This may be a pretty good check: get your car somewhere with a level, reasonably long (half mile or more) stretch of road with no lights where it's safe and polite to drive 40-45 mph. An HCH II in mechanically sound condition should show *at least* 50 on the instant mpg gauge when you're steady-state driving, on the level, 40-45. In fact, under those conditions the inst. mpg should show a lot higher, like 70-100 -- unless there's a whopper of a headwind or your AC is maxed.

If I was driving my car under those conditions and I couldn't get it to show 50, I might have it checked at the dealer. But otherwise, I'd assume the car's mechanically okay. (Like someone suggested, check your tire pressures just to be sure they're not in the 20s. You don't need to run higher than the factory recommendation to break 40 mpg, though, so I'm betting that's not your problem here.)

I do think if you're running a lot of A/C and not driving with at least *some* care toward fuel economy (if, for instance, you're consistently revving over 3,000 on accelerations, braking hard, not feathering the throttle when possible), a mid-30s number might not be terribly unordinary . . . my spouse seems to be able to make it happen all the time

And if such is the case and you like the way you drive, be happy. In any other car (except Insight and Prius) driving the same way, you wouldn't be breaking 30 or even 25 mpg.

--doug

 

The a/c knocks off 10mpg.

My wife averaged 30mpg in our Prius for a long time (short trips, a/c 100% of the time). She switched routes due to a job change and now averages 40mpg.

I get in her car and typically average 50 with the a/c on and 60-65 without it.

Fuel economy is all about your driving techniques.

I generally drive without the a/c on. On occassion where I have used it, my FE has been in the high 40's. I have had some trips in the 30's with the a/c on. Again, it boils down to your driving techniques.