a lot of FAS P+G I assume ? I find that's the best way to jack your average up if no one is behind you.

 

No P&G, I find P&G too much trouble and too hard on the car. I do FAS on downhills all the time. Somewhere there is a video of my technique. I think Tom was hosting it..... The only difference between the video run and this tank is better/warmer weather and slightly long off time on the FAS.

 

Know I'm really jealous I was told they did not intend on making a MT for the 2006 so I caved in a bought the CVT. I wouldn't mine taking a look at the video.

 

FAS won't help on the '06, since the valves shut off in no-load situations (or so I've been told).

I sure wish I could get 80 mpg! I'm currently on my best tank at 51.8 with 308 miles on this tank. I've employed all the techniques (drive with load up hills; drive like I have no brakes; drive like I have an egg between my foot and the gas pedal; no A/C; speed 58 - 63; tires at 40 psi). I think I've reached the maximum (at least for a 21 mile LA commute!).

I sure wish I could get Lakedude to drive my car with me observing what he's doing! I can't imagine anything else I could do to get 70 or even 80 mpg on this car!

 

Check out:

http://hybrid.wrathof.com/

Do yourself a favor and avoid the big file, it is the same as the smaller file but of better quality, totally not worth it. Hot Georgia and Xcel also have vids that are worth seeing.

 

Having the skill and determenation along with a MT being able to FAS it helps. Yesterday I managed to drive in the city for close to 4 miles ending at 62.2mpg.(fresh tank of gas) I would simply get the car up to speed and get it in EV mode. This same tank is at over 40 miles now at 55.4mpg. The majority of the driving being on the freeway with no traffic horsing around. I have never finished a full tank over the 48.8mpg mark. The city driving with Los Angeles stop and go along with serious freeway congestion and mountains make it a tough task. The plus side is I'm starting to find routes that work really well for gas mileage.

 

It was a pretty good run with lots of FAS. 50% rural highway 50% freeway with a small amount of very busy 5:00 Atlanta rush hour traffic.

 

With city driving and a lot of EV mode you probably started with a full charge on the batteries and ended up with much less. This would mean you borrowed energy from the batteries to temporarily get high gas mileage, but you'll have to pay it back. This can make MPG look very good over short distances. Over a full tank it will average out.

 

Actually I've never had the battery to much past half way point. There is a weird point with what I'll call hybrid neutral(point were you aren't using any gas, assist or charging) that I coast in once up to speed. Not sure of the HCH I but, it seems whenever it goes one bar past half the car will charge at to the half point again. And I've been using pulse and glide horsing around the city. This is my first attempt at a full tank above 50mpg although I had a mental lapse last night with an Expedition riding me for a time. We'll leave that at I can confirm that the dash is capable of at least 101mph.(it wasn't worth it I killed my mpg going from 54.7 to 51.1 displayed) I also visit San Pedro to visit with the other half often and the mountains kill me. So I take a back route that is alittle easier on MPG. Now in the process of horsing around I managed to Auto-Stop a CVT and coast down the mountain after a stop sign with the Atuo-Stop engaged. I got the car up to 36mph before needing to turn up mountain to the street. Not sure if it was a good thing but, it can be done. As of now I'm at 53.2mpg on 122 miles and just starting the third bar of gas. Tomorrow is a test as I have to commute the 405 from LAX to Northridge(dropping son off at school) and back to Marina Del Rey(work) in the morning.

 

I wouldn't do it. With the engine off and your foot on the brake, I think there is some risk of running out of hydraulic pressure for your brakes. You could have accomplished the same fuel efficiency by letting go of the brake for a second. The engine would have started up but then, since you're rolling down hill with your foot off the gas pedal, you'd have seen the instantaneous MPG go to 100 because the valves would be shut. Your fuel consumption would be zero. In other words, you don't need to shut off the engine (auto stop) in your 2006 to shut off fuel consumption while moving.

Another thing that happened in your Auto_stop scenario is that when you needed to slow down to turn you used your friction brakes because the engine was not turning and you couldn't get regenerative braking. If your engine had been turning you'd have recovered some of the braking energy. So I suspect that what you did was actually less fuel efficient than normal driving.