Here are some proven tips for improving fuel effeciency:

1. Don't turn on any accessories. This means no headlights at night, and disconnect your brake lights: those darn things really suck up the juice.
2. When the light turns green, open the door and push the car. If you have family, they can help, NASCAR style.
3. Inflate your tires to 300PSI. Sure, it's a tad over the max and reduces the tire contact patch to the size of a dime, but the reduction in rolling resistance is worth it.
4. Exercise your Constitutional right to pulse and glide in the left lane on the highway.

These simple steps have raised my mileage from an abysmal 38 to an impressive 39 MPG.

 

There's always the one that takes a joke too far, case in point....previous post

To everyone else, thanks for the suggestions.....

 

This is pretty normal in hot areas. I have had my car two months and have been from Houston to Boise and Houston to Las Vegas. My Boise trip netted 47MPG on a stretch through Colorado and Kansas and 41 overall even through the mountains in Utah. The Vegas trip was about 36 overall. In hot, humid old Houston I regularly achieve 29 MPG. That is real MPG - not the big fat lie the trip computer tells. According to it I am getting 32-34 around town. By actually doing the math and recording my mileage/fillups I am getting 29-31.
Any way you look at it - you won't approach that mileage in a car the size of a Camry without it being a hybrid - so smile.

When the new federal mileage ratings hit next year you will probably see a little closer to reality. Until then - expect high twenties to low thirties when it is hot - low to mid thirties when it cools off. As always - expect some variations. Each car will be different and will even perform different on the same trip.

 

Be sure to use the 0-20w oil. If you aren't doing the changes yourself you could have anything in there. Thicker oil carries a small FE penalty.

 

Freeze : You were doing so well but forgot to mention removing the side mirrors to reduce drag. Removing the paint would at first blush reduce vehicle weight until you factor in the weight of rust.

 

I've posted in a couple of other threads about my own personal (non-hypermiler) views on how I _think_ I get my mileage (just over 1 year now, last tank was about 41.5, current tank is nominal ~43 mpg! previous high was 40.9 nominal!).

In city, first and foremost is warmup period. Watch your battery level and your fuel economy closely--FE will show you start out hosed and have to work to improve from there (warmup burns a bunch of gas, then all your gains after are offsetting that initial deficit); and I often keep a close eye on my battery level to know when I can afford to try to maximize my gas-free driving and when I need to worry about offsetting ideal mileage (aka using no gas at all) vs making sure my battery never runs so low the ICE kicks in and (sometimes) won't shut down even at a stop, because the battery is too low.

Standard suggestions apply: around town, drive to further away destinations first--gives you most distance for warming up, and even if that first leg has crappy mileage it's possible for the rest of your errands to use almost solely electric for great mileage.

It's possible having the chance to do a full stop to EV mode may "encourage" the car to more freely flip between gas and electric--sometimes even when you're sure it should go on electric it won't cut over, and burns a lot of unneeded gas. If this proves out (once the car's warm) it could make a significant difference in gas burned.

And check other threads about mileage. Plenty of suggestions...

 

I sorry I can't grasp anything 36 mpg and above with ac on

 

If I recall, Bakersfield is pretty flat, but if you are driving thru any type of rolling hills while the ICE is warming up the engine, then you will definitely get low mileage. The I4 is barely adequate to move a CamryCE, so with the added weight in the hybrid, it is going to work pretty hard without help of the hybrid components.

 

Brilliant! I scraped those pesky mirrors off today backing out of the garage. Such a good idea!

Seriously, I'm sorry if I ticked anybody off. My points were really about jeopardizing personal safety and sacraficing highway etiquitte to gain a few miles to the gallon. Search the forums and you'll see all sorts of techniques used to squeeze MPG: drafting, P&G, slow starts, coasting...all great if there's nobody else on the road. I believe much of the success (or failure) of hybrids is based on perceptions of others as they see us and the cars.

So, in the spirit of the question, I've found the best and easiest way to maximize mileage is to get the TCH to the desired speed and take my foot off the gas quickly. This seems to 'tell' the car to either drop into stealth mode, or heretical mode, either of which optimizes mileage. In the same driving conditions, slowly removing pressure from the gas pedal leaves the ICE running. Interesting.

 

Yup! I beleive that the heretical mode is the king of the Camry modes! But, about backing off on the pedal, I think quick, not too quickly, and not all the way back to the stop either. If I bring it all the way back the TCH seems to think I am coasting or stopping and goes right to EV mode -- and it seems harder to induce the heretical mode from EV than from a slightly slower backdown on the pedal in the first place.

The other thing I have found is that heretical mode, once you are established in it, can be maintained during small grade changes or speed changes with slight - oh so slight changes on the accelerator so long as the speed is kept above 45 or so. I have been able on multiple occasions to stay in this mode, with the MPG pegged between 60 and 40 for 5-7 minutes at a time -- usually until a stop or until a grade change forces me to slow excessively and I must add enought power to force a mode change. However, it does take concentration to do this for any length of time.