Re: 2006 HCH vs. 2005 HCH vs. prius
 

That's a valid complaint, lakedude, but hopefully the mileage will be pretty close to that 50-mpg tick this time. :)

Re: 2006 HCH vs. 2005 HCH vs. prius
 

Hi Lakedude:

___I haven’t read of anybody with a real world hypermiling knowledge of hybrids that has driven the 06 yet. Looking at the pic, I do not see a 1/50/100 tick. The meter is just dead because the car is sitting in place is all. Look at the fuel gauge with the blocks climbing under the mimic. I bet the FCD is setup exactly the same. The item I am a bit pissed about (possibly) is that the meter appears to stop at 100 mpg vs. the 03 - 05 HCH’s at 120 mpg? It may in fact tick past w/ 1 more block to 120 given the small blank area above 100 but I am just not sure? Who at GH does not think that this was a really dumb oversight if it does not range up to 120 mpg knowing what we know today?

https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/fi...h_Pic_Crop.jpg

___CGameprogrammer, I do not know why you consider FE at 80 - 90 mph representative of real world FE or driving? I just had my chance to take Tbaleno’s CVT based HCH (48/47 EPA) out to my place of work and back (90% highway) the other day and nailed a 72.2 mpg segment out and 78.x mpg segment back not including 1/3 of the tricks I normally use because Tom wouldn’t let me take it to its limits! This did not include the 99.85 mpg - 40 mile - P&G segment testing either! A Prius II has its place but I believe it may offer just the mid - high 60’s at the speed limits, not mid 70’s according to everything I have read.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

Re: 2006 HCH vs. 2005 HCH vs. prius
 

Wayne, you get far better mileage than anyone else I know; you are far from representative of an average driving experience. :) There have been many posts by frustrated HCH owners wondering why they're getting poor mileage, and the general advice given is to let it break in with it eventually possibly attaining an average of 40mpg.

When I had rented it, before I drove it off the lot, the trip odometer was showing 288 miles and an average FE of 33.3. The lifetime odometer showed a bit over 13000 miles. So that car was already broken in, but the previous renters had just got relatively low FE.

Re: 2006 HCH vs. 2005 HCH vs. prius
 

Alright how the heck do you post an image like Wayne did without getting a thumbnail?

Re: 2006 HCH vs. 2005 HCH vs. prius
 

Wayne hotlinked the full-sized image from vtec.net, but that site doesn't allow hotlinking. So the image only shows up for people who already had it in their cache.

Re: 2006 HCH vs. 2005 HCH vs. prius
 

Hi CGameProgrammer:

___Ah $*%^, your right! My mistake … See corrected in a few minutes ;)

___Ok, fixed.

___Lakedude, are you talking about the 20 mpg increments off the HCH’s FCD that are missing? Yes, that is definitely an oversight :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

Re: 2006 HCH vs. 2005 HCH vs. prius
 

I think even the 20-mpg increments were bad. The Prius has two displays for current mpg: digital (i.e. "44") and a bar with 10-mpg increments. I wish the HCH had finer increments. It doesn't even have to more more text added; they could have just put breaks in the bar at 10-mpg increments so it would be easy to see what one is getting.

But on the bright side, at least it's extremely noticeable when driving. :) No leaning over to see the center console display.

Re: 2006 HCH vs. 2005 HCH vs. prius
 

To address a couple of jjdoc's issues:

CA will offer HOV stickers to the first 70,000 Hybrid owners (if that # is not correct someone please correct me).

The Insight, Civic and Prius are the cars allowed HOV access because their EPA rating is 45mpg or above. Since the '06 Civic is also rated at 45mpg or above (I believe someone posted the specs from MotorTrend in another thread), it should still qualify for the HOV sticker.

However, the gamble will be do you wait until after Jan 1 so you can get a better tax break, but risk losing out on HOV access? I've seen published reports on how many registered hybrids there are in CA before, and then how many of *those* are Insights, Prii or Civics, and I remember thinking "Ok I've got some time then to get my license plates in and get the stickers for my car."

The HOV access expires in 2007, and as some have suggested, I too find it unlikely that it will be renewed.

Off topic: JJDoc, I have a '00 BMW 3-series that I'm going to be selling, but after I had it Dinan modded within the first 2000 miles of its life, I regularly got 30+ mpg out of it when doing my normal TO to Burbank commute. Trips to Vegas were another matter! ;)

Rick

Re: 2006 HCH vs. 2005 HCH vs. prius
 

wow-
is that the guage package? I hate it! I was having some regrets about the 06 having better mpg & power than my 05, but the FCG only has a 50 mark and maxes at 100??!?
ouch. I use the 20/40/60 marks ALL the time! and what if Wayne is right and it maxes at 100mpg?
That little dial is going to make it alot harder for new people to learn to drive efficiently because the guage isn't giving you precise enough feedback.
I'm happy with my 05.

supermathis-
anytime you put 3 kids in the backseat of a car for 10 hours- they will kill each other. a van has 2 benches, so you can at least separate them some, but both the prius and civic have one back seat. I put 2 middleschool kids in the back seat of my 05 HCH for 5+ hour trips, and they do fine. we fit 4 bags in the trunk fine. If I had to do a 10 hour trip with them, I would probably just shoot myself ahead of time, so I didn't have to kill them later in the car when I got sick of the complaining. (generic complaining: she touched me, her pencil is on my side, etc etc) good luck!
KLC

Re: 2006 HCH vs. 2005 HCH vs. prius
 

I'll have the Navi on the 2006, will there be a display to show the exact mpg figure (i.e. 50.2 mpg)?

There's got to be a separate display, how is everyone here calculating all of these mpg's unless it's being done the old fashion way (miles divided by gallons put in).