Also, has anybody tried to replace the factory steel wheels with aftermarket or even factory alloys to see if MPG improvements can be achieved?

 

Don't over-inflate your tires. For comfort run 36 psi cold in them. To improve your gas mileage try 38 psi cold. If they are michelins you can run 40 psi cold and they will ride smooth. Being a LE hybrid, your car may have come with the michelin 'saver' tires. If so they are great at improving your mpg.

I found if you drive 43/44 using the cruise the auto-EV mode will come on more often. Again if you drive at 39/40 mph on level roads or slight downgrades, the car will stay in the EV till the battery runs down and engine restarts. I proved on a lonely paved road I drove 25/26 mph with cruise and drove 8.8 miles while on EV. The traction battery was full at 85% before this attempt. It was at 9 pm at night, about 75 degrees.

You can drive between 45 and 50 and the EV will come on occasionally but is not as efficient as when driving 44 mph or below. These speeds will get you high mpg. If your see your traction battery full or half full on a level road driving at 44 mph or slower, pull your already set cruise stick down one-time. This will usually stop the engine and will then be in the EV mode sometimes for a few miles.

With normal driving, try less acceleration enough to accelerate while staying in the EV mode. This can be done with a full or half full traction battery. Try long coast to a red light.

Make sure you have your ECO button pressed-on. Look for the ECO indicator to stay lit just above the hybrid system indicator.
I hope your using a gas from the http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html list. This will also help give you slightly better mpg, performance and keep your engine cleaner.

Look for the mpg improvement after break-in when you have around 4000 to 5000 miles on your new LE. If you live in a rather cold climate or rainy area this will pull your mpg down.

Good luck and let us know your outcome or improvements in mpg.

 

More than 1 month into my ownership and about 2800 miles logged in, I have finally noticed some slight mileage improvements. Remember, I live in Southern California where the weather right now is averaging between 65-78 degrees. I travel early in the morning when the engine is cold so I know that the engine has to heat up first so I see my average on those to be 30 mpg because the engine has to kick in to warm up and then I drive the freeway for about 12 miles so there is really no time to hybrid.

This weekend however, I would say that I have averaged about 39-42 mpg in combined driving applying techniques such as pulsing,braking a little early and slowly, coasting to the traffic light, and just trying to let the EV mode run as much as possible. And yeah, I just use my local warehouse club gas such as Costco or Sam's Club (Wal Mart owned).

My tires are still inflated at about 46 psi running on 16" Steel rims with hubcaps and Michellin GreenX tires.

 

3 days shy of my 3 month anniversary for this 2012 TCH and this is what I can tell you.

I live in Southern California where people normally drive 75-80mph in the freeways and have some ground differences. At best I have gotten at one point was 38mpg in one tank full! Now there are some driving sessions wherein I have gotten about 60mpg but that is far and few and in short jaunts to the store or something driving on inner streets and not highways or freeways as we call it here in Cali.

Realistic driving for me per tankful has been about 35-36MPG only on combined freeway and inner street driving. And that is mostly driving without any heavy load and driving about 60% just by myself. The rest of the percentage is with my kids and with my wifey. So the EPA ratings for this car seems to be "in a perfect condition" and is bogus for me.

As for anything else, well, the car is still a great car, quiet, smooth, has qood torque, and still satisfying. The only few complaints I have right now besides the poor MPG are the squeaking of the front passenger handle on the roof, the heat this car takes in and retains in the passenger cabin is unusually hotter than my previous vehicles(and I had this car tinted with Limo tint), and only 1 cigarette lighter! C'mon, only one lighter for a car that I thought was ready for the future electronics?

 

Now on my personal wishlist to happen to this car? Nice rims. Anybody replace these pesky steel rims with nice aftermarket ones and still retain MPG. What tires were used? What size and brand? Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) tires don't go up to 19"?

 

I don't have a Costco or Sam's Club here where I live unless I drive 85 miles to another city. I did fill my tank 'once' at Walmart back when they were using Murphy gas from Phoenix. My then gas-car was hard to start, poor acceleration, some pinging and lowered my gas mileage. It took me 3 tanks of Chevron and I added in a bottle of techron and finally got my car back to normal. I see now our local walmart is using another unheard of brand of gas. I won't take that chance again and will stick with the Phillips 66. My favorite others like when on a trip are 76/Conoco/Phillips 66, Chevron/Texaco and Shell which are on the top tier list.

I ask a discount tire worker one time about the steel rims vs the factory alloys. He said they can feel the alloys are somewhat lighter. I'm with you, about the exra rotating weight. It would be nice to weigh each type wheel to see how many pounds difference that would be.

Your 46 psi seems rather high pressure for the michelin's. Could be your sidewall tires show a 51 psi maximum pressure. I really like the michelin tires, they seem to ride good and are usually long lasting.

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