Speaking of FE (fuel-Economy). I just picked up my new 06 HCH II today in Bowling Green Ky. and brought it home.

Miles: 122.5 Distance from dealer in Ky. to my home in Tn.

MPG was: 55.0 M.P.G. Reading when Parked in my Garage. This mileage was the result of my driving under these conditions. There was two Adults in the car and No-Luggage of Additional Weight in vehicle other than her coat and my coat, plus some paperwork in a Folder. (Tire-Pressure-Set-At-44 LBS) All 4
I manually turned off the A/C and set the temperature on the Auto-Climate Control to 74 Degrees. I drove the car at speeds between 30 to 63 M.P.H. I drove on the interestate for maybe 25 miles at the speed of 63 M.P.H. and from then on, traveled on two lane roads. I went through many different speed zones that varied from 30 MPH to 60 MPH posted speed limits. I chose to drive at 53-55 MPH on the posted areas that were 55 or 60 MPH. I was also in some of the towns stuck in stop and go traffic, from stop light to stop light. The auto-stop feature worked well. It will not work if your forced to move up, inch by inch. It will work if you get up to any speed at all before you stop again. You don't have to be going very fast or far for it to work. But it will not do it's thing in a inch by inch crawl. This does not surprise me though, I would be surprised if any vehicle could handle that situation. Note* (Prius) would in this driving situation "inch by inch" do better. It's ability to move with electric motor only would be far more effective in that situation. I noticed that the Avg. FE was dropping while screwing around in the inch by inch, stoplight to stoplight situation. However as soon as I could get back to moving, the Avg. FE Gauge would start coming back up. I chose to not drive at any kind of interstate speeds or even run the posted speed limit on the two lane hwys. I really just wanted to see what it would do with me using moderation on speeds driven and No-A/C. I would have to say that one will have to really pay close attention to throttle position and No-Jack Rabbit Starts Period. I also noticed one other interesting thing. I might change my mind if I had alot of seat time behind the wheel of this Hybrid. But as it stands the Cruise Control and the cars Computer I think does as good a job as I can, taken all things into consideration. I watched the Assist and Charge indicators and it was interesting how the car would vary between the two factors, given a hill climb or descending hill (back-side) and watch the assist/charge gauges as to what they were doing. I think the Hybrids computer is as good as most people in deciding what needs to be done between throttle position and coast position with regard to the Battery pack charge Etc.

I also was very much watching the FE Gauge Avg. and the Instant FE readout to see if anything was going to happen once the odometer got to 65-69 miles on it. The Avg. FE Gauge Readout did not vary any. No-Fluctuation at all. The Avg, FE Gauge in mine reads .1 increment changes to FE.

I think if you were to look for really high FE with this Hybrid you would need to be very cautious with. #1, Speed Driven, #2, Stoplight take off speed, #3, Approach to Hills or Grades with respect to speed climbing them, #4, Coast with little or No-Throttle on back side of Hill or Grade, This car is very sensitive to your foot on the (Go-Pedal) Smooth comes to my mind on use of the throttle in this Hybrid, #5, A/C use I really wonder about, as in regards to FE, I feel as though one would really have to watch their every move in this Hybrid if one wanted to achieve (High) Fe like 55 + MPG averages.

Note * EPA: "City MPG 49" " HIGHWAY 51MPG"
If you wonder if this Hybrid is capable of staying up with traffic flow? Don't even give it a 2nd thought. It Will !!! But your Fe will be out the Back-Door (IMO).

There is alot more I could talk about concerning this HCH II, but I have tried to keep my comments here for the most part just about FE (Fuel-Economy) as that is more what I think this Forum is interested in.

If someone reading this has a question or questions about some other issue concerning this car I will be glad to furnish my comments on them.

Terry
1st Mileage Reading


To Enlarge Pic. "Click"

 

Great Mileage, Terry. If your car is like mine, the FE gauge will be pessimistic over the entire tank by 0.4 MPG to 1.5 MPG. So you may actually be getter BETTER mileage. Of course, other cars may be having different results...

 

Say I did pay close attention to that on going problem with many of the HCH II's not reading right when they got to 63 Miles. And then their FE Instant Gauge would reset and as I remember it would read kinda erratic.

Mine never did anything at all and reads out in .1 MPG Increments. So I hope it does not have that FE Instant readout problem. I guess it would have already been acting crazy if it did have the Problem.

Just went and read the miles on car since I went to work and back home. It is now reading 135.4, so I drove 12.9 miles today back and forth. The instant FE Gauge has not acted funny when it passed the 126 mile reading so maybe I am okey on the Instant reading thing. MPG is now at 52.3 so i dropped from 54.9 this morning to 52.3 now. I will be real interested to see what it does on a daily basis in FE, since i drive so few miles each day and in traffic.

Terry

 

Terry, my car is older than yours and no problem in the 63 miles issue. rest well, chances that yours had it were 0 (nada)

 

The 63 mile reset problem is not seen in the FE instant readout. It is seen in the Trip A and Trip B average MPG readout.

You gave some numbers that give me cause for suspicion. Your MPG over 122.5 miles yesterday was 54.9. Your MPG after driving 135.4 is 52.3. From this I calculate that the MPG for today, when you drove 12.9 miles, was 36.1. Do you feel that's realistic? If not, the reason the MPG suddenly seems so low is that you have the MPG reset problem.

It would have been very hard to detect on a long trip where you consistently drove the same way the whole time. Keep wathcing it.