Rebooting a MT is definately the best way to save gas if you are comfortable with the safety aspects. HG2004 you are doing fantastic for having a CVT IMO.

Cruise might be best on long flat road, I wouldn't know cause there are no such places anywhere around the area I live. Cruise is not a good idea on a hilly road because cruise can not anticipate like a person with 2 good eyes.

A great thing about the MT is that you can take charge of the car and do a lot better than all those silly automatic systems. Take auto stop for example. Say you are going 55mph and a stop sign is coming up. You can coast in or out of gear with the engine running and let autostop cut in at 20mph, or you can just cut the ICE off at 55 and coast the whole way using zero gas. The last way is clearly better.

 

Yes, I wish I could switch to a MT and "use the force" as Starwars fans might say!

 

HG2004

You are less than 2 MPG out of the top spot. With the HCH a MT does not do much better than a CVT. It really is not that big of a deal mileage wise. The CVT Insight is another story. There is a huge difference in mileage between the MT and CVT Insight. I do like the added control of the MT but the numbers are not that different with the HCH.

EDIT

I think you are doing fantastic with the cvt.

 

THE WAY TO MAXIMISE THE EFENCY IS TO ACELARATE AS HARD AS YOU CAN .......THIS MAXIMISES THE ELECTRIC MOTER SYSTEM UP HILLS THEN REGENERATE DOWN THE HILL.....IF YOU BABY THE GAS PEDAL YOU ARE USING THE GAS ENGINE MORE AND NOT THE HYBRID SYSTEM ....... 2001 PRIUS 40000 MILES AND NO PROUBLEMS........SORRY BOUT THE SPELLING

 

Thats kind of misleading. Most people may think they just floor the gas pedel. You don't just floor it. You get to the rpm the engine is most efficient at (anyone ever seen the rpm curve for the 1.3 engine) and hold it there.

 

DANKF6IQL I appreciate the input but I'd have to strongly disagree with your hard accelleration.

Perhaps it works that way in your Prius, but definetly not in my HCH for several reasons.

Thanks Lakedude for noticing.
It's kind of funny how driving this way becomes so normal after a long time of doing it, and the "wasters" in the Left freeway lanes become the "extremists".
At least that's the way I see it.

Our Grand Caravan's last couple of tanks have exceeded 25MPG and I had never expected that pig to do so well.
Really, I owe it to the hypermilers who are willing to share their knowledge to help others.

Thank you, and you know who you are.

 

Most folks around here are gonna disagree with this kind of thinking. Personally I like to use a little assist every once in a while. If you never use assist you might as well buy a regular non-hybird car and save the extra cost and weight of the extra hardware. The people that got the best mileage around here say light acceleration is the best. I'm a fan of medium. I guess it is different strokes. Still I do not think flooring it is the best way to go.

How are is your Prius doing in the MPG department? I didn't see your car in the database.

 

Going up a hill in a Civic Hybrid? I find the best technique is to simply maintain the same speed, leave the cruise control on and let the car lug up the hill. Even if the downshift arrow comes on, I don't downshift unless the hill is so steep that my speed is falling off very fast with no real hope of making it.

Downsihfting increases the power by increasing RPMs (and gas burned) while not increasing speed. Thus, your mpg is reduced everytime you downshift. For instance, I find the mileage lugging up a given hill in 5th gear may be 35 mpg, and if I downsihft to 4th up the same hill my mpg may fall to 20 mpg.

Sure, when you downshiift the engine doesn't strain as much, but you are definitely using more gas per mile.

Of course, the IMA kicks in when it is needed, but the amount of IMA help you get seems to be directly related to how much charge you have in your battery at that moment. The more charge, the more IMA help the HCH compputer thinks it can afford to offer, with a lesser charge, the HCH computer seems to say that it will provide more limited IMA help in order to conserve the under-charged battery power.

If the hill is not so steep, and at my selected cruise control speed I know I can coast over the crest of the hill, I will usually kill the engine and coast Soap Box Derby style over the crest of the hill and use the backside of the hill to regain whatever speed I have lost. This turns what would normally be very below average mpg miles (usually only a few hundred feet or yards) into infinite mpg (or free) miles, thus greatly enhancing my trip and lifetime mpg.

However, I think it is important to the public perception of Hybrids to not let my speed fall so much that I impede traffic, so I try to maintain a decent speed.

 

In my CVT I find that Cruise Control kills my MPG. When driving with a light touch on the gas pedal, I find that a slight change in pressure on the gas pedal that causes no change in speed can change the MPG from 30 to 80. Cruise control isn't smart enough yet to keep testing the possibility of lightening up on the gas. Using cruise control I got about 41 mpg; with the lessons learned from Steve Turgeon [https://www.greenhybrid.com/learn/article/2-achieving-high-fuel-efficiency.html/page2], I'm now getting 51 mpg (and I'll admit, slowing on the up hills). One essential point is that the speed gained going down hill enables you to go up the next hill for "free". Cruise control cannot "look ahead" to see that kind of a strategy.

When my foot starts to ache, I find that I can use cruise control AND keep tapping down on the setting as I cruise along to test the possibility of a lighter touch gaining me that extra 10 MPG. My only concern is that I'm going to wear out the switches with my continuous adjustments - but my thumb seems to be much better at tapping the switches than my foot is at holding a fixed position on the gas pedal for a long time.

 

I'm not sure about
THE WAY TO MAXIMISE THE EFFICIENCY IS TO ACCELERATE AS HARD AS YOU CAN .......THIS MAXIMIZES THE ELECTRIC MOTER SYSTEM UP HILLS THEN REGENERATE DOWN THE HILL.....IF YOU BABY THE GAS PEDAL YOU ARE USING THE GAS ENGINE MORE AND NOT THE HYBRID SYSTEM ....... 2001 PRIUS 40000 MILES AND NO PROBLEMS........SORRY BOUT THE SPELLING
strategy. At least in the HCH, the fuel display shows about 5 mpg or less when accelerating hard. I believe that Steve Turgeon [ https://www.greenhybrid.com/learn/article/2-achieving-high-fuel-efficiency.html/page2 ] recommends about 50% level on the electric assist scale as the best strategy when starting from a complete stop. The objective is to get up to around 40 miles an hour quickly without excess fuel use and then try hard to boost the fuel display (mpg) by lightening the pressure on the gas pedal.