I have had a 2008 civic hybrid for almost 3 weeks, and I am getting between 30-31.5 mpg. I spoke with both the dealership & Honda, only to be told it takes time, nothing wrong with the car, etc. I would like to know if others have had this experience. Also, I am interested in finding an independent check-up that would tell me what is wrong. Lastly, can it be the battery, is it relying too much on the engine??? Kathryn

 

First of all there is a break in period for any car including the HCH. But there is also a learning curve for new hybrid owners as well. Tell us something about your normal routes & your driving style.

Also try reading these two articles:
Beating the EPA - The Why’s and how to Hypermile.
Adapting Basic Hypermiling Techniques to the HCH-II

 

You've got to give more information than that. How long is your average drive, how fast to you drive, what are the temps like where you live, are there a lot of hills, how quickly do you accellerate???????

There are dozens of factors that influence your mileage and we need to know more about what's going on before any suggestions can be made...

 

Average drive approx 10-15 miles, city driving, 30-40 mph, Spring so far 50-60's, no hills, tend to accelerate fast (although this car is teaching me how to drive more efficiently!!) I haven't done any long hwy trips yet, so I don't know about that.

 

For comparison, what were you driving just before this and what kind of mileage were you getting?

 

First of all there is a break in period for any car including the HCH. But there is also a learning curve for new hybrid owners as well. Tell us something about your normal routes & your driving style.

Normal routes so far mostly to/from work approx 10-15 miles. driving style, tend to accelerate fast (although I'm learning to do this more efficiently). Hwy drive 70-75 miles per hour, but I have not done a real road trip yet. Weather not much of a factor yet No hills. Not sure how to accelerate more efficiently yet.

 

I was driving a 1996 Infiniti G20. Given age I was getting approx 20-25 mpg, possibly 30 on the hwy.

 

I am sure that the other folks here will be able to provide you a lot more information that I ever could....I bought my HCHII in Feb and am still learning how to drive it.

This post from Tarabell is a really great resource on what to do to maximize mileage:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1306

FWIW, my first tank was in the 37 range and as the car broke in and I got a better idea of how to drive it, my mileage went up rapidly.

 

I just thought of something--have you bought gas yet? I would suggest buying gas soon and filling it up until the pump clicks off. When you do that, reset your trip A meter. There may have been excessive idling during delivery or the attendent might not have filled it up completely.

Once you are starting on a clean slate, reset your trip B meter every time you get in the car. For one drive, focus on accellerating PAINFULLY slowly and see how the mileage is for that trip. The compare that to your normal driving and see if it might be the accelleration that is knocking your mileage down.

Tarabell's article that Lawndart linked to is an excellent resource, and there is a lot of other great information about hypermiling on that site (cleanmpg.com). Some of the things they do are a little extreme for me, but basic techniques like driving with load and driving without brakes (not literally) are easy to incorporate into your commute. You should also consider pumping your tires up more--I run 40psi on the stock tires which are rated to 44psi (and many people safely run way more than that).

My first tank was 37mpg (calculated--the car said 35mpg on the computer). There is a break in period for the car of over 10,000 miles, but more importantly, there is a huge break in period for the driver. It is unlikely that there is anything wrong with your car, but just in case, you might consider doing a steady state drive at 50mph for a couple of miles and see what kind of mileage you register. If that yields lower than 50mpg after a few miles (round trip), let us know. Also, depending on where you are, someone from this site who is used to getting good mileage might be willing to drive your car and check it out.

Edit: Since you mention that you don't have any hills, I would be willing to bet that your best mileage will happen when you are NOT using any of the glide or electric assist capabilities of the car. Get to your target speed, let your foot off the gas for a second to let the CVT adjust to a more efficient ratio (this is called false shifting) and then apply just enough pressure on the gas pedal to maintain your speed.

 

Hey there, I grew up in E. Hartford. As far as I know, the speed limit on the area highways is either 55 or 65, depending on which one you are driving on. You might want to try not going over the limit and see if that improves your mpg.
It'll take some practice for you to get out of your habit of quick acceleration and such, but it's worth the effort.
And like kristian said, sometimes that first tank isn't a good indicator. I would try calculating from a newly-filled tank to see how you do.
Make sure your tire pressures aren't too low too.