As much as I hate to say this but I'll have to cut back on my MPG efforts.
The reason is commute time.
I've been pushing 70MPG on the last few tanks but it too has it's price.
This is a close representation of my 45 mile one-way commute:

Ludicrous speed = 40 minutes (Not tried in my HCH)
Super speed = 45 minutes (mid 40's MPG)
Fast speed = 50 minutes (Low 50's)
Traffic speed = 55 minutes (mid 50's)
Saving speed = 1hr ( mid-upper 50's)
Economy speed = 1hr 10 min ( low 60's)
Sipping speed = 1hr 15 min (Mid 60's)
Turtle speed = 1hr 20 min

I've REALLY stretched my last few tanks but am taking too much time.

Today for example to work I let the engine warm up an extra 5 miles (Used the 2nd freeway entrance) but rode the freeway the rest of the way.
I drove a little faster (60-65-ish) and even passed a few people who were going a little slower in the Right lane.
I arrived 15 minutes earlier and parked with 64 on the dash which is still fine by me.

Does that make sense?

 

Hi Hot_Gerogia_2004:

___You already have the second highest FE of any CVT based HCH on the planet so feel free to splurge a little … Just don’t splurge to much or some of us might have to come down to Hotlanta and teach you to drive “Right” all over again

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

Sometimes you've gotta go with the flow.

I think about an ambulance driver. After loading up a victim, the driver slowly makes his way to the emergency room. Their partner looks over and says, "what the $%@# are you doing?!? The driver says, "Oh, I'm just trying to maximize my FE."

You get the point. We can't always take our time in this busy world.

You guys have always been an inspiration, so it's good to know that you're human too.

 

Oooh, That smarts!
That is true, but at this time is only .1MPG behind!
Watch out Kenny, I'm coming up behind!

I've never owned a car that is so useful for teaching, and always seems to renew its challenges.
Tonight I took the 55, 65 and 70MPH limit freeway home and learned a few things.

1. Right off, in the 55MPH zone I decided to set my minimum speed to 60.
To be sure I locked cruise control in at that speed.
Holy Moly my Assist came on hard and came on often, most of the time just under half gauge. I'm used to seeing only 5 bars used very infrequently.
Geeze I'm hopefully taking this car past 300K miles so I had to stop that extreme use and cut CC back off.

2. I was able to pull most hills, letting her speed sag down to 58-60 while using no Assist @ 40-44MPG. A few hills required Assist and it came on just as hard but its use was very infrequent.

3. Because of the light 2:30AM traffic right through all the speed zones I was able to average about 65MPH, low was about 55 and high about 70.

4. I rolled onto my parking pad @ 55 minutes and 57.5MPG.

While the 57.5 is still great MPG it's 13 less than my last few tank trip goals (Turtle mode) but better than I had expected.
I think I could exit the freeway early and get some good, long FAS's to bring her back up mid 60MPG and still get good time.

 

All real-world things being a series of compromises, you just gotta pick the sweet spot between competing interests- in this case, time vs economy (or CO2 or money or...). Nothing wrong with that- everyone operates within their own context and priorities.

 

Since this is about commuting, MPG and speed, I thought my experience this morning was funny. I was cruising along in the carpool lane this morning at about 70 mph (current tank is 47.6/mpg) and a woman in a Prius gets on my tail. When she gets a chance, she passes me and promtly steps on it and does, in my estimation, about 85 mph. Guess she isn't a hypermiler, eh?

 

I still don't know how to go 60-65ish and get 60+ mpg in my HCH. Very impressive there hg2004, and best wishes for you and your 15 year plan. :-)

 

At 55-60 I get 60-63 mpg going with the wind. I can't possibly imagine reaching 70 mpg - also people are total *expletive* when you're driving 60 even in the right lane (I live in Miami)

 

It's good to remember that mileage isn't everything; mileage is just one number. Another, possibly more important number, depending on how you look at things, is total fuel consumption. Going 5 extra miles in conditions that favor high mileage to warm your engine up might get you a higher mpg for that trip, but with the extra five miles, you might use more fuel than a shorter trip at lower mpg.

Another thing to think about is how much of an [effective] hypermiler someone who carpools is. If I drive by myself, I get about 50 passenger-miles per gallon. If I carpool with one other person in my car, and drive the same way, then all of a sudden that's 100 passenger-miles per gallon. A car full of me and four passengers? Somewhere over 200 passenger-miles per gallon (I won't be getting 50 car-mpg so much with that many passengers).

 

Hot_Georgia you should be proud silly; there are hundreds of us here that would give limb (just not gas foot) to be where you are MPG-wise. Besides, the way I see it is this:

HG uses exclusively turtle-paced commute to work.
HG consistently gets to work late.
HG gets in trouble with big cheese, gets the pink slip.
HG can't make payments of next-gen hybrids circa 2010, has to settle for a now-obsolete Suburban, which costs more to fill than it does to purchase now that a barrel of oil costs more than his mortgage.
HG considers mid-6s good, instead of mid 60s bad.

Those like you at the top are an inspiration to all the rest of us looking to do our part!