greetings! i have just joined the community at green hybrid, although i have been monitoring the website for a long time. it has really helped me in deciding which hybrid to buy. you all are awesome for providing such great information about gas consumption and mileage. it's always so much better to put your trust in real people driving real cars, and not on dealership or government claims, which might accurately reflect the lab conditions, but don't really reflect reality.

i am very excited to announce that i have just ordered a 2006 5 speed honda insight! it will arrive at the dealership in 3-4 weeks and i can't wait to pick it up. i could not believe how difficult it was to find a dealer who could even get an insight. i visited several dealerships who claimed they could not even order one from honda. i did find two dealerships (honda of oakland and honda of san leandro) who are able to get them.

i did have some questions about the concept of hypermiling. i have read through many posts on this and other sites about hypermiling. many posts talk about hypermiling without really saying exactly what techniques a person can do to hypermile. so far, i have failed to really find a good listing of specific things you can do to hypermile. i have gotten a basic gist of the concept, but i would really like to find a list of specific driving techniques. is this information enumerated anywhere?

thanks in advance, and i'll register my new car as soon as i pick it up.

tracey p

 

First of all, hello, and welcome to GH! Enjoy your new hybrid!

As to the answer to that question, it depends on what vehicle you're driving. Each hybrid model handles differently, and has different key techniques to getting fantastic MPGs.

If there isn't an article, I would try looking in the Insight forum for such tips.

 

I secretly wish I had an Insight (If I can beat EPA in my HCH, I'd love to see the numbers I could get in an Insight)... I hope you like it!

The thing I think played a big part in my hypermiler status is not using the AC... but there is no way I'm going to be able to live without it during the hot Florida summer. A lot also depends on what kind of roads you'll be driving on (the speed limit, number of lights/stops, traffic). I don't do P&G, FAS, or anything else that's more extreme.

Good luck, and enjoy!

 

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the Insight!

 

Welcome, and congratulations on your new car! I hope you love it when it comes, especially after going through some exasperation to get your hands on exactly the car you wanted. Good for you for sticking with it and making it happen! I hope that other readers on this forum know that you don't have to wait until you buy a hybrid before you're allowed to sign up or post here. A lot of us are hybrid owners- but other interested people have a lot of questions, too!

As for the hypermiling techniques, I'm not an expert like other people here, but I'll point you to the places that helped me get a handle on what they're talking about, although maybe some of them will post to this thread and make it easy on you. My advice is to start with the browsing the Glossary section of this forum (leftmost link in orange bar)- the terms that they define give you an idea of what techniques are out there, so if someone replies to you with a list that looks like P&G, DWL, FAS, you'll have an idea what they mean. The definition explains how to do it. It's not so very detailed, but I found it helpful.

 

Welcome Tracey! Oh, how I wish I had an Insight.

When I got my HCH back in '04 I had similar problems finding workable tips so I jotted these down for posting:

https://www.greenhybrid.com/learn/ar...fficiency.html

These should also work for your new Insight.

If I could change anything in there I'd comment that it's better to accellerate at the lowest rate that is practical for better economy. I think I explained so many bars of assist for so long etc. Still those tips seem to have helped alot of people. (Even Lincoln Navigator drivers)

Any specific questions? So many of us are anxious to help you.
Glad you're here and please keep us posted on how it all goes!