I get mid forties if I drive 70 mph. The best mileage comes at around 40 to 45 mph and I can get 70mpg in the summer at those speeds. All you need to do is slow down. All the little tricks in the world do not equal the savings in going from 70 to 50. Of course this may not be practical on the roads you travel.

 

wow.



that's some dedication to fe. me, i'll wear as many clothes as I feel comfortable with it gets somewhat chilly here in the mornings

 

LOL, do you drive naked for better mpg? Thanks for the tips. I have the PZEV CVT just like you. I wonder why the PZEV gets worse mileage?

 

Someone want to calculate how much mpg average cloathing steals? I believe the average is 5lbs of clothes per person.

 

today i found a great place to autostop and roll down in my trip, generating infinite mpg i start out and brake enough to engage autostop on top of a small hill in a residential area, then release brake pressure just enough so that the car rolls down the hill while maintaining autostop it's safer than "rebooting the engine" but can only be done on relatively steep slopes and low speeds.

i've never rolled that far in my hch before and was pleasantly surprised to see my trip mpg jump up 0.3 mpg by the time i reached the bottom of the hill. this is probably not a practical mileage tip, but i certainly like it

 

When I said wear lighter clothes I was not thinking so much about how much the clothes weigh.

I am thinking you are less likely to need to open the windows or use AC when wearing shorts, flip flops and a tank top than wearing a suit and tie.

I will say some drivers and passengers SHOULD go on a diet.

 

lol, nice recovery there, Kenny!

b/c 'Less clothing' would have ta go on the top-10 reasons T-shirt, for sure!!

Or maybe for us northerners during winter: hand out gloves, hats and parkas during car-pool commutes and tell everyone your heater isn't working?

 

My work doesn't have a fancy dress code like shirt & tie or anything like that, but not sloppy either.
In the heat of the summer I'll bring my small Coleman 6-pack icecube cooler and an extra shirt.
During the hot drive I'll be wearing shorts & t-shirt. I have a 10" square cotton towel soaked in the cold water and swab legs, arms, neck & head as needed. Fan set to high. Georgia humidity is usually really bad so if all else fails I'll briefly switch on the AC while going downhill.

When I arrive at work I'll change out of the T-shirt and put on the nice shirt that I've brought along.

If I have the family along I'm not so extreme and usually busy manually cycling the AC as needed. "Dad I'm hot" seems to play like a broken record and irritates more than the warm car!
I'll also park in the shade if it is at all possible, even at the very far end of the lot under a tree, the shade of a building etc.

For non-family member passengers I'll set the climate control to about 3:00-4:00 position, after any accumulated solar heat has first blown out of the windows. An additional hybrid plus is the complete "dead car" effect when AutoStop activates and the engine along with the entire AC & fan systems shut down in full climate control. I keep a normal facial expression while laughing hysterically on the inside to my alarmed passenger(s)
MPG will still suffer under full climate control but not as much as uncontrolled maximum AC.

There's alot of great tips on this thread from other members but a few thoughts:
To get great results one should realize that a few careless commutes while in a hurry (etc) can wreck your whole final tank result. Also, what you do (or don't do) during warmup is very important.
A couple of points which I consider most important:

*Tire pressure is subject to preference, and I ride on very hard tires, up to the max cold sidewall pressure of 51. I can just free roll for very long distances, something I couldn't do as well on the spongey, sluggish, soggy smooth Honda recomendation. Lower tire pressure is like trying to ride a bicycle through thick, deep mud rather than on the easier hard pavement.

*Use the FCD as a tool and only use as much fuel as needed for any paticular segment, with a goal of keeping the Instant over the Average MPG.

*Keep momentum, a big part of this is maintaining a large traffic buffer to the car ahead of you and timing stop lights whenever possible.
My family knows those folding ceiling handholds and I'll mention to "hang on" around a turn. And they do!

*Leave the house a few minutes earlier and slow down, give more time to concentrate on what you are doing.

*Drive with the load. The next time you're on a bicycle at the bottom of a tall hill you can experience the extra effort (energy) required to maintain a constant speed all the way up over the peak.
Your "little engine that could" has the same experience.

*Experiment with different routes for your daily commute to find which one(s) produce the best MPG results. Look for ways with less lights, roads that go around those pesky lights or usual traffic congestion problem areas, less uphills etc.
Often you'll find 2 or more roads that are pretty much parallel but one is plagued by traffic, lights that are more difficult to time, long drawn out hills and other things that hurt MPG. Are YOU driving on that problem road? Are you sure? Have you taken the time to check? If not, you could be missing out on much better numbers. (And fuel $$).

*For those who are new to learning how to drive for better FE, please let me tell you that I was once one of "those" drivers who were wreckless at times. I even used to carry a detector and CB radio for truck reports to be a worst offender.
It takes a little time to learn how to drive for efficiency, and longer to develop the skill well enough to be transparent to other drivers and not be a road hog. In my case it was a flash of panic when anyone was within a mile behind me.
Above all, be a courtious, safe & considerate driver.

MajorHy:
"tell everyone your heater isn't working"
That's a good one!

 

BBB, I live in Austin, TX too. I live 4.9 miles from work, so my car doesn't really get a chance to warm up properly during my commute. Nevertheless, on this, my second tank, I'm getting over 54mpg. I got 46.1 on my first tank.

I follow many of the tips I've read here, most of which are outlined in Hot_Georgia_2004's latest post. Over the past three weeks, I feel that I've learned quite a bit about how to drive efficiently.

One thing I've done that I feel has made a world of difference is window tinting. First Texas Honda over on Koenig Ln will do it for $189. They also have a custom-fitted windshield screen that you can put up when you're parked in the sun. If I were to guess, I'd say this has cut down on the time it takes to get my car 'comfortable' by about 75%.

 

after five days of learning to drive with the load, i have some numbers to prove that this works better than cruise control at a set speed

before learning this tip, my normal weekday highway roundtrip drive netted me 47.3 mpg @ 60 mph with cruise control dead set.

(on weekends my drive is on steep hills and short (<10 mi) distances, so that's why my overall average is much lower)

after learning the trick:
Friday: 33.4 mi @ 48.0 mpg @ 58-65 mph
::weekend:: mpg too shamefully low to mention
Monday: 26.4 mi @ 48.8 mpg @ 55-65 mph
Tuesday: 26.4 mi @ 49.2 mpg @ 53-63 mph
Wednesday: 36.8 mi @ 51.0 mpg @ 50-63 mph
Thursday: 26.4 mi @ 52.2 mpg @ 48-60 mph

all these trips begin with 2.0 mi 35% grade descent @ 40 mph and 1.5 mi 15% grade ascent @ 35 mph
in mid-course, there are numerous 5-15% grade hills
and the trips end with 1.5 mi 15% grade descent @ 40 mph and 2.0 mi 35% grade ascent @ 25 mph.

i hope that if i refine/perfect this trick i can bring my mpg up to 55 mpg..perhaps increasing tire pressure from 35 psi - 40 psi wil help..

georgia mentioned that max sidewall pressure for the hch stock tires was 51..it says 44 on my bridgestone b381s..or am i reading the wrong number? i have an '04 sulev-zero evap emissions hch cvt from ca

already i know that warm temperatures (80-90 F) can raise cold tire pressure easily 4-6 psi, so if i pump 40 psi cold, then in warmer weather or longer drives my tire pressure will no doubt exceed the max sidewall pressure