Actually, I did read the thread you gave me, and tried the techniques out tonight, drove about 100 miles. I drove both highway and city. I hit 50.4 mpgs, and I could not get much more than this. So, I guess I am improving. I am at half a tank with about 150 miles. There is much room for improvement.

 

well, you bettered epa numbers by 0.4 mpg, so yeah, you're getting it (finally).
now you know there's nothing wrong with your car.
keep up the good work.

 

Yes, keep up the good work!

 

After a while, you will do these techniques (I don't use all of them, by the way) naturally, without much of a thought. When I'm in a rush, I still manage about 45mpg indicated.

Yesterday was terrible for me: I averaged 40mpg for the first 3 hours, which were in heavy rain and very strong winds....managed to bring the daily MPG to 45.5 by the end of the day, but that's still 5mpg lower than usual for me: Just remember that your FE will depend a lot on weather conditions. It's the same on other cars, but you probably didn't calculate FE for each tank on your previous cars. At least, I didn't.

 

Also, people have a tendancy to try to use all the techniques all the time when they first learn them. Sometimes a technique isn't appropriate for the situation and can actualy harm your FE. When people get more comfortable and start to realize the right and wrong times to use them they get another boost in FE.

Good luck with your learning. it sounds like you are off to a good start.

 

I have a new 2006 Civic Hybrid with 1240 miles on it.

Today, I made a round trip of 112 miles that included some very steep hills.
The mpg read 62.9.
It takes some time to learn how to drive them but once you do, the mileage just keeps gets better and better. I'm now shooting for 70 mpg.

 

I drive like a grandma and average only about 32-33 lifetime. (about 4 months) I was under the mistaken (apparently) impression that hybrid cars actually got as good or better gas milage with in city driving vs. highway. That was one of the primary reasons I purchased a hybrid. 90% of my driving is stop and go city driving, with average trips shorter than 10 miles. I follow all the tips of keeping a constant speed, very gently easing up hills, coasting. Hell I even roll through stop signs whenever possible! The best tank I've ever had was about 39 mpg (and that was with several longer highway trips).

Granted I'm getting nearly three times the fe that I did with audi, but 32 is a FAR cry from the 50+ I was expecting. Bleck.

 

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1306

 

Craig, I second Matt's link to Tarabell's article. This article has really helped many HCH-2 owners improve their understanding of the car's potential and therefore get much better mileage as well.

However, we're approaching winter and colder days are uppon many of us in the northern hemisphere. The lower mileage you are getting may in part be attributed to this too and if that is the case then it is perfectly normal to get low readings.

Second, the automotive press tends to perpretrate some little inacuracies - in particular the one that "hybrids" get their better mileage in the city. Well, not all hybrids are created equal and the articles often don't take that into account. The Prius in one of the hybrids that gets better mileage in city duty. The Honda Civic Hybrid is quite often the opposite.

It is very hard to get good mileage in stop-and-go city driving with an HCH-2 (I too, drive mosly in the stop-n-go city traffic). Tarabell's article is a first good step but then, you need to develop your own aproach to managing a whole series of elements that are unique to your conditions. Once you achieve this, it is possible to have great mileage in city driving. In fact, better than what most Prius II owners get !!
Give it a shot, it is worth it.


Cheers;

MSantos

 

Hate to say it, but you probably would have been better off with a Prius for that type of driving. Lots of stop and go is the HCH's killer. Still, you should still get significantly better milage than you did in a non-hybrid car on the same route.