Hi all,


I'm a convert! I couldn't get more than 39 mpg until today! As of today I'm now getting 60 mpg average!!! Let me first profusely thank the super genius Kenny. He is the jedi master of the hybrid driving techniques. I owe him a super duper lunch out sometime.

Here's what I learned today:

I was paying WAY too much attention to the horizontal real-time mpg bar. I was feather touching my way to a 40 mpg deathknell. I'm not suggesting that one should not feather touch. They should. But, I learned that I needed to strategize differently. I was too concerned with 'other people' on the road. I was doing my best to accelerate into traffic (not as fast as everyone else but tried to sort of moderately keep up with others) and THEN try to feather touch to keep myself in 'neutral' i.e. no charge, no assist bars. Neutral is a great place to be but I needed to do more than that. I can comfortably allow others to speed on by me, stay in the right lane and slow poke my way to the speed I want to drive. In street traffic I try to stay between 30 and 40 mph (yes, even in 45 mph traffic). On the freeway I drive 50 mph now, YES, can you believe it? I was stressing out MORE trying to 'get there faster' than now that I am slowly plodding along to my destination. ok, I was anticipating traffic before... but Kevin showed me that I can step that up alot more. I can look farther ahead, look around and behind me for options I can take so as not to touch the brakes. This seems to be the jewel piece of advice he gave me "drive as if your brakes are broken." If your brakes were broken you would do everything in your power to coast to a stop, to coast around corners, to slip back and forth from lanes to avoid stopping or sudden stops at all costs. You would look way ahead of you, know you will miss the light and so NOT try to accelerate to make it but rather coast the long distance to the light, hoping all the while the light will change as you slowly shuffle yourself toward it. Of course, ALWAYS drive with safety and concern/sensitivity toward others but as much as some people can get away with speed demoning down the road I can also safely drive slowly if I wish. Now, when I say slowly I'm not coasting all the time... I'm going 30-40 mpg on the streets and 50 mph on the freeway. I'm getting to where I need... maybe 5 minutes later.

Anyway... I learned to use Cruise control WAY more often. I learned to look 3-4 moves ahead instead of one, like in chess. I learned it's OK to SLOWLY accelerate into traffic. Other people will just get into another lane if they wish to quickly accelerate. I learned the evils of stopping. Stopping kills mileage. I learned to look way ahead at lights and determine if I can coast more slowly to catch the next green or to coast as long as possible to the stop. Why use any gas if the light is going to go red anyway? Wow, I got to a red light 1 milisecond before you. Or maybe, I drove more slowly, and never had to stop at all.

I'm so jazzed! yay!!!!!

My mpg never got below 59 all night tonight! It hovered between 61.9 and 51.8 all night after Kenny taught me the jedi-level tricks.

Kenny rocks!!!!

 

oops, I mean between 61 and 59...

 

Renee
The pleasure was all mine; it was nice to meet another hybridhead.
Renee asked me to drive her car.
First we zeroed one of her trip meters. (Very important.)
Then I drove her car on my morning commute route because I know what MPG to expect.
Then we zeroed the trip meter again (very important) and drove home on city streets.
We got 62.4 MPG on the freeway for my 17 mile commute, just what I'd expect carrying a passenger.
Then we got 59.8 MPG in the city going back home.

Besides the driving tips, I think the main thing to take away from today is to remember to zero that trip meter.
You had 4500 miles on your odometer.
But you also had 4500 miles on your trip meters.
They had never been zeroed so you never really saw much improvement as your driving style improved.
In other words no matter how well you drove yesterday it was averaging with ALL of the driving since the car was new.
If I had not zeroed the meter it would still say about 33 MPG because it would have averaged what we did today with the last 4500 miles.

Now I can understand your frustration when you tried every mileage trick and it appeared to not help.

I suggest zeroing Trip Meter A (by pushing in the button and holding it till you see all dashes) every time you fill up.
This is also nice because when it is time for the next fill up it will tell you how many miles you have driven since the last time you zeroed it.

Then zero Trip Meter B every morning when you start the car.
That way you can see how well you did at the end of each day and know when you are improving.
Remember, the MPG number displayed is the *average* of the MPG since the the last time that you zeroed the meter.

I'm glad that you now know that your car is not defective.
We got the same MPG today that I get in mine, and that 59.8 City was just Killer!

Have fun!
I'll be watching your numbers rise.
Kenny

 

Kenny, you are simply great.
It sure feels nice to help someone so much.

We need more people just like you!

lamu9,
In time you'll learn how to increase that speed and still get about the same economy but until then, keep working on the tools you've been shown!

Sounds like a great gift was given and you are well on your way to great things.

Yes! Another success story.