Hey y'all:

I'm a new HAH owner, and am curious about the MPG. My average is 25, which is not great in my opinion. I don't know if this has to do with my driving or the fact that it's a V6...but any advice would be greatly appreciated. I love my car, just don't really know how to drive it.


Michelle

 

Hi Michelle and welcome. i am not completely up to snuff on your car however, driving style has the most to do with MPG. After you have had the car for a while you will learn its "happy" spots ie: my prius loves zipping around at 38-41 mph and on a flat road it will cruise in total ev mode (electric batteries) im sure the accord owners out there will leave you plenty of feedback. Good luck. Dean

 

this thread might help you out a bit

https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...mode.3949.html

the goal to seeing better mpg is keeping the ECO light on.

 

That's a great thread. Lots of good info.

Here's another one with some pics of the MPG I've been getting as of late.
https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...6-05.4731.html

Check out the link at the top of the page, entitled COMPARE. Then in the bar graph, click on Accord 2WD Automatic. You'll be able to see what our members are getting for FE (fuel economy). As you'll be able to see, with 62 cars represented, the middle 50% are getting between 27-33 LMPG (lifetime miles per gallon).

So, with 25 MPG, you're not doing bad. And, the FE will certainly improve after you get some miles on the car. Members are reporting various break-in periods. I think I saw a modest increase at around 2K miles, myself.

 

Yeppers. ECO light is the name of the game. Get to the speed you want with reasonable acceleration (no IMA assist usually, keep RPM under 2000) then let off the gas, get the eco light on, and keep it there.

Its hard to tell what you should be getting without knowing your commute and driving distances- this car will easily top 40mpg on highway trips at 60-65mph, but will struggle to even get to the low 30s in stop-and-go and low speed town driving. Below 40 degrees and especially below 30 takes a serious (15-25%) toll on fuel economy too, as in all cars.

You don't need to baby it when getting up to speed, but don't punch it. You should rarely see the IMA assist come on- that means you are using even more power than the V6 can deliver. (But IMA assist with the eco light on is good- you are getting more power on 3 cylinders that way, and avoiding using all 6)

Coast as much as possible- glide in neutral if you can, and simply take you foot off the gas in gear if you know you gotta slow or stop anyway. Conserve your momentum- coast early instead of hitting the brakes later, try to judge distances and traffic so you avoid stopping at all and can roll up just as the traffic in front gets going again. Keeping your tires inflated to 36lbs or higher really helps you coast better.

You will develop a feel in your foot for how much pressure you need to maintain speed but also keep the eco light on. Always be trying to ease up on the gas, and see how light you can get it while holding the speed you want. Best MPG is around 60-65mph, but steady flat 70 will get you decent numbers too. Let cruise control do the work on flat roads, but read about "driving with the load" or DWL and think like a trucker on hills. NEVER accelerate up a hill- be willing to give up some speed uphill and coast down.

Good luck! Read up in the civic and insight forums- similar systems and longer histories, so there are many good techniques. And never let someone laugh at your HAH being not a real hybrid- you get better mpg than any American car built today, and are sitting in leather-wrapped, XM-sounding luxury.

Oh- try to cruise in 5th gear (above 43mph). We have an old-fashioned automatic transmission, and your best numbers will come from being in the top gear as much as possible. We don't have the flexibility of the manuals or CVTs.

 

Thanks to all...after I posted my initial request for advice, I drove home from work paying close attention to the ECO light. I could feel the difference in the way the car was driving right away...something I had not paid attention to before.

I'm living in a little higher elevation than normal, and deal with a lot of low speed stop and go traffic. I'm terrible about "cruising" in the stop and go stuff, I'm too impatient! I'll have to work on letting the car coast more...

Thanks again for all of the help!!! I appreciate it, and look forward to joining those of you in achieving excellent MPG.

Michelle

 

The great thing is that coasting, judging traffic, keeping a little more separation from the cars in front so you can roll in, driving like a trucker on hills- all are things someone can do in ANY car and get about the same MPG benefit. There is very little hybrid-specific stuff to think about in the HAH, simply smart driving that none of us got porperly taught in the 1st place. Well, maybe the filmstrip in driver's ed did, but...

 

* Cruise Control Is Your Friend! Even on the overland roads (assuming you're on a road where it's safe to use it.) The CC is "smarter" at maintaining a constant easy speed on the car, and can make adjustments faster than you can. I keep my CC system on all the time, and click it on as a matter of course every time I get on the highway.

* The Honda hybrids seem to like highway driving better, especially the Accord. While I can get really good mileage on the up-and-down country roads (Cue "Deliverance" theme here) with my Civic Hybrid, the Accord does better when stretching out on the highway and cruising along with the green Eco light on.

* Like everybody else said, ignore the "Charge/Assist" lights (for the most part) and concentrate on the green Eco light (this is the reverse of the Civic where the C/A lights tell you when you're doing it right.) The more you see Eco (you're running on 3 cyl. instead of 6) the better you will do at the pump.

* Break the car in: even though you don't have to "Baby" the car during breakin like in the old days, you'll see a jump in FE at 1000 miles. Mine went from mid-20s to 33-34 at 1,000 miles (this is a combination of breaking in the car AND the tires. Expect mileage to go down slightly when you put new tires on it in a couple of years, until the new tires get broken in again.)

* No jackrabbit starts. The power is there if you need it for jumping into traffic and passing ne'er-do-well's on the road, but for the best fuel performance, easy and gentle wins the race (but don't drive like my dad - Mr. Pokey - who does freeway on-ramps at 45 because that's a safety hazard.)



Find a friend who has a pre-turbo (1981 or older) Mercedes Benz diesel, and drive that for a month. I guarantee your mileage will improve because if you can drive that car (and survive) in and out of stop and go traffic, then you'll know how to launch an Accord hybrid.

The old MB diesels were small (83HP?) diesel engines (picture a Massey-Furgesson tractor motor in a Mercedes skin) with NO ... ZERO.... ZIP off-the-mark acceleration. Once you got that sucker moving, it LOVED to cruise on the highways around 75-80 (if you could stand the noise from the engine) but leaving a stop sign was an exercise in grace and patience.

That car, even more than owning a Civic Hybrid, taught me how to maximize the mileage on this one (actually there's very little driving tips that transfer over from the Civic to the Accord.)

One last suggestion:

*If you're in it for higer mileage (but don't want to get all crazy with it, ie, you want to drive it like a "normal" car) then drive at the posted speed limits. The higher your speed creeps up, the lower your FE will be. (Of course this is prefectly good sense for ANY car, but makes more sense when the goal is higher fuel economy in a Hybrid car.)


Otherwise.....

Drive it like you would a regular Accord, and enjoy about 30% better gas mileage.