Fuel Economy and Gas brand
 

I have my 05 pre-owned hybrid for almost 2 months now and I am currently on my 2nd Gas tank. Currently I have about 33k Miles(still under warranty). FYI I am not driving my car that much. I have put maybe 400-500 miles so far

The first gas tank gave me 35mpg Highway or 31mpg Mixed for the whole tank( I was very satisfied with that), however after I filled the second gas tank I saw my milage go to 27 Highway at best or 21mpg mixed. I observed this behavior almost right after I filled up the car for the second time.

This is a MAJOR change in mpg performance. The other thing I noticed is that the idle from a cold start has gotten a little unstable(very slight vibration) which goes away afte the engine warms up. Other than that the car performed fairly good and the IMA seem to be behaving the same way like before.

The crazy thing is that I put the same exact gas(regular) from the same exact gas station. I do not know if this has something to do with the Winter gas blend.

For the time being the only thing I did has to add a bottle of Techron fuel system cleaner.

Has anyone experienced anything similar relating with Gas type.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

Mike

Re: Fuel Economy and Gas brand
 

or bad gas, maybe station has low volume and more water vapor in their tanks. too many variables.

you need to average this out over a longer period of time for it to me anything though.

Re: Fuel Economy and Gas brand
 

You dont have your location indicated so did you have a serious drop in temp in your area between the 2 tanks? Are you using a major brand of gas or a chain store ie sams, kroger etc?

Re: Fuel Economy and Gas brand
 

Sounds like a temperature issue to me

Re: Fuel Economy and Gas brand
 

Could be. I used a bottle of Techron and the Idle shudder seems to have disappeared. I now average 29mpg mixes and I got 35mpg at a 120 mile round trip.

It is also getting colder....

Re: Fuel Economy and Gas brand
 

I do know that they change the gas mixture for the winter in many areas. It is possible that they changed it between your two tanks and that is accountable for your decrease in FE and engine shudder.

Re: Fuel Economy and Gas brand
 

I just bought an 05HAH with 29,000 miles on it. It has been in the 60's and I'm getting 27mpg in a 60 mile work round trip. So with the change to cold weather formula's in my area, will I have drivability issues? My HAH runs really well right now (I came from a 2006 Corvette Z06, so some adjusting is taking place) without any issues. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Re: Fuel Economy and Gas brand
 

I own a 2006 HAH. Gas in my area is oxygenated year round, not just winter and I have never had any driveability issues. I have filled up non-oxygenated gas a few times on my various road trips and change was completely transparent to me.

Re: Fuel Economy and Gas brand
 

2006 HAH, gets 25 combined mpg, which I think is great. The older mpg new car
"ratings" were bloated because nobody got the top estimated number - calculated from a
car driven around an artificial track with no AC, no acceleration, minimal weight, etc. unrealistic conditions. I don't know how much premium gas 5% more up front; whether it would get 5% more mpg? The small differences in mpgs don't make that much difference in the overall price of ownership, which is: Price paid minus price sold later + total fuel costs + repairs and mainenance + modifications + insurance + bank interest minus tax rebates for owning hybrid, which equals about $50,000 - $75,000 for economy cars over 10 years - and the biggest savings is in price Paid (buying a used car), not financing (huge losses if wrecked), and not replacing the car. So the utility and fun/ dependability go a long way - can't wait for the Honda Accord Diesel.

Re: Fuel Economy and Gas brand
 

Over 42K miles, I've been averaging about 30 MPG with nearly 90% city driving. AND! I don't drive like a slouch. So, higher mileage is possible. However, my city driving is with a lot better conditions than say, downtown New York. The streets in Phoenix seem to move pretty well, as long as you stay away from downtown during rush hour. :)