Well, I hadn't planned on buying for another few months, but I went ahead and did it after a tractor trailer decided to practically demolish my trusty '00 Ford Focus ZX3 (no injuries thankfully, just me in the car, though it was a scary grind down the thing's front bumper, leaving little untouched all down the driver's side).

Anyway, I drove off with my white '07 HCH-II this past Friday and drove it to work for the first time yesterday. It's approximately a 150 mile round trip and I started my Trip B meter when I got onto the highway - after running some errands before heading out.

By the end of the day, after I was pulling in my driveway the average read about 53mpg. I used cruise control on the highway both ways, set it to 65mph and just let it do its thing. I was rather impressed since I didn't think I'd get above 45mpg or so using cruise control. In the morning I used the A/C most of the way, but in the afternoon I didn't.

Aside from thinking the CC revs up a bit too much when it gets a more moderate hill it seems to work really well - and it keeps me from speeding and having to worry too much about driving for fuel efficiency. Still learning how to drive it for higher FE on roads closer to home with less traffic, but I don't want to find myself staring at the gauges too long on the highway until I get a better feel for the car.

Overall, pretty impressed so far. Now I just need to perfect how to drive it in other situations, using Glide, EV-Assist (or not), and Pulse and Glide (haven't read about that yet). Looking forward to it.

One question though, under what circumstances would the car NOT go into auto-stop? A couple of times I've stopped at a light or an intersection and it hasn't gone into auto-stop. I'm thinking it might because I'm hesitating on the brake and possibly letting it up a little as I press it which I'm guessing cancels the auto-stop. I guess if you're going to stop you need to be very definitive about it!!

Anyway, can't wait to learn more about the car.

 

Cool--congrats! The auto stop doesn't kick in if the engine is cold, but otherwise it's just a matter telling the car what you want it to do with your foot. Like you said, you're probably letting up just a little and it's turning off (on?). You'll figure it out.

I think the cruise control is under rated. If you are on flat roads, it does a better job of keeping the car efficient than I, and as a bonus, it doesn't seem to spend as much time regening on CC. I usually hit the cancel button when I'm approaching a big hill and will let the car slow down as the hill builds and try to keep it below 3k.

Enjoy!

 

Auto stop won't work if the A/C is on...or the defroster....make sure to manually set your climate control so these are off if you are not using them.

Congrats on your new baby -- it's a great car!!

 

Sorry to hear about your wreck, glad your OK...but you'll love your new HCH.

Great job on the mpg!

 

Yeah, I've had the A/C and climate control completely off since I started driving it. I'm out early enough in the morning that it's not unbearable, though it does get pretty steamy in the afternoon - I'm usually headed to the gym immediately after getting back from work though, so it doesn't generally bother me. Granted, it's only like upper-80s/lower-90s in Central Virginia at the moment so it's not like I'm in some of the hotter areas of the country.

I noticed it always happened when I would come to a stop where I wasn't sure if I was going to have to completely stop, so I think it's a matter of me just being tentative on the brake. Couple that with my habitual "reach for the clutch" instinct (this is my first non-manual car) and I'm probably just keeping it from going into autostop by not being assertive enough when I'm going to actually stop.

 

You can have a light touch on the brake, but you must at least be on it a little for autostop to work. Depending upon conditions, autostop can sometimes "kick in" at 7 mph and you'll coast a bit (foot still lightly on the brake). Once you stop, though, the coasting fun is done. Once you start any motion (like if you're on a downhill), the engine will restart. Same goes for rolling backward on an uphill.

I sometimes do have trouble keeping it in autostop on an uphill traffic light. I come to a stop and unless I push the pedal a bit harder at the exact time of the stop, the engine sometimes kicks back on. I guess wheel sensors are telling the computer there's still some motion, and it's best to keep the engine running (thus cancelling autostop).

A bit tricky, but you'll get used to it. Try mashing down a bit on the pedal just as you completely stop. That'll help.

Occasionally, if the engine restarts... I can get it to autostop again by just pulsing the pedal a bit. Don't know if it's the pulsing actually doing anything, or if it was going to reactivate autostop all by itself... but the pedal action makes me feel like I'm doing something!!!!

 

To clarify, the car *will* autostop with the A/C on -- that's what its tricky two-stage compressor is for, so it can run on a "low" stage with just electric power.

But it won't autostop if the A/C compressor is facing high demand -- as in, it's 90+ F outside, the car interior is at 80, you have the temp control set to Low, with the fan cranked. Under conditions like that, the A/C compressor might need both electric and gas stages to handle the load, so no autostop. When I'm running the A/C reasonably on Auto (in the 72-76 range) and the temp is below 95 F, most of the time it autostops -- in fact, even when I wish it wouldn't because of battery SOC.

That's the other limiter: SOC on the battery: if you autostop with your A/C on, you'll notice it draws down the battery at about the same rate as a couple bars of assist do while driving, so if you roll into a light with 4 bars of charge or less, the computer might elect not to autostop -- or if it did, and it were a long light, it might restart the engine to keep the charge from dropping too low.

In defrost the car is using both the A/C *and* the engine heat, so it's less likely to find it okay to autostop, especially in temperatures below 40 F that are hard on the battery and bleed off engine heat more quickly. (But it's less likely to autostop in bitter cold anyway.)


cheers --
doug