My spousal unit's family dropped in for a visit today.
Of course they wanted to drive in my new hybrid.
We are talking 5 occupants - average weight is . . . well . . . these are not light people (myself included)

It took several minutes to get them to all fasten their seatbelts - the outer two had to get out of the back seat.

Then they insisted on seeing how well a hybrid accelerated (on a cold engine BTW )

At the end of the trip (thankfully a short one) I got 32 MPG.




Dang! I was doing very well on my second tank too.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Have YOU ever had to do stuff that killed your MPG?

 

It's a small price to pay to promote the hybrid technology!

 

I'm pretty sure once I get my HCH i'll be doing multiple demonstrations just like when I got my Element.

2 things killed my MPG in my Element. Once was a few months ago, we went on a whitewater rafting trip up north near Tahoe and I had my Element loaded down with 4 people and all of our gear (about 800 pounds or so). We left late at night from Los Angeles to get there early in the morning and we drove at around 80 - 90 mph on average the whole way there. Needless to say I only got about 16mpg (when I currently averaged about 20mpg).

The other time was when I was working on set and they needed someone to go pick up cables and distro boxes and some other electrical equipment... I volunteered my E and ended up transporting over 1500 pounds (the Element is rated 675lbs). The rear end sagged by nearly 3 inches and there were creaks all about the car...

http://e-shen.com/element/loaded01.jpg
http://e-shen.com/element/loaded02.jpg
http://e-shen.com/element/loaded03.jpg
http://e-shen.com/element/loaded04.jpg

 

This weekend I took a trip about 150 miles one way. I left friday evening in fair weather about 40 degrees F. When I reached my destination I had averaged 65 MPG over the entire 150 miles driving at about 60 MPH the whole way. After reaching my destination I checked my tire pressure and found that two of my tires were low on air about 4 psi each. I then aired up all four to 40 psi. Today for my return trip home weather was a little colder about 30 degrees and it was extreemly windy. There were wind advisories for several of the bridges in the area and one bridge was completely closed. My car was pushed back and forth the whole trip due to the wind and I believe that the extra air in the tires did not help. The wind resistance was def. must greater on the return trip than the trip down. Most of the trip is fairly flat the whole way and the roads down and back run parallel. The first part of the trip back I noticed no matter what technique I used or no matter how hard I tried or how slow I drove I could not achieve good MPG. I could not even stay in EV mode. Most of the trip I averaged about 38 MPG. At this point I decided to say the hell with the mileage and drove. It was too much work fighting the wind for nor return on mileage. From there on I drove about 70 MPH and changed my average MPG readout to the Odometer to keep from looking at the poor mileage. At least it was better than anyother non-hybrid vehicle. 3/4 of the trip is driving east to west or west to east. The other 1/4 is driving north to south or south to north. Returning home once I changed direction driving north and out of the wind I was able to greatly increase my mileage and managed to avgerage 46 MPG for the return trip.

 

been killing my mpg for the past month since i've had my girlfriend and family visiting me. i have to drive with the A/C on with them and drive places i dont usually go (very hilly) not to mention drive faster than usual because i can tell from the looks on their faces (and from their comments) that i'm "driving slow." ah well, only lost a few mpg luckily, i just try to distract them by keeping them talking in my car, and thankfully most of the driving i do with them is highway driving.

 

kenny

Ive had friends and family driving my new EX from day two. It would seem the new Civic in all trims is a car of intrest to many. Couple that with my over all abusive driveing,, ive only got one good tank out of it so far IMO.

I hope it gets better.

 

Yep. Road rage. Some idjut decided I was not getting on the freeway fast enough and passed me on the right where there was no lane, kicking up dust and debris , only to be slowed down by the truck in front of me that he didn't notice. I entered the freeway "early' and passed him before he could get around the truck doing about 85, then exited as he was trying to catch up with me and "show me" back. Knocked me from 51.4 to 51.0 for this tank...worth it NOTE: I do *not* advocate this style of driving!

 

Hi Everyone;

Man is this a "Fun" Thread to read. Exciting and different.

Enjoying;

Terry

 

Driving with wife to our land closing, 2 hours away and was a little late leaving. 75 mph kills milage.kevin

 

Adam's plight sounds a bit like mine recently. Took my HCH in for its 20K maintenance on Friday (everything OK). When I got home, the tires looked low. Sure enough, the service techs had deflated them to 32 psi after checking the alignment & rotating. After waiting a few hours for the tires to cool down, I aired them back up to ~40 psi.

That was followed by another Arctic blast over the weekend. Not only did temperatures plunge into the mid-30s, but my commute home from work was into the teeth of winds that gusted to 40 mph. Not surprisingly, the MPG gauge bled down from 57 to 53. (Actual MPG based on this afternoon's fillup: just over 50.)