Well I have had my TCH for just over a year now and although I am getting almost 3 times better gas mileage than my previous Infiniti FX45 (12mpg) I am so jealous of all the others getting 37+mpg (averaging 475miles before the gas meter gets to 0miles). I am still only averaging 32-33mpg on most fillups. My driving habits are not as good as most on these boards but I do watch my fast starts and cruise at 72mph mostly on the highways. Another problem with mine and my wifes driving is we both only work about 7miles or closer to home so from what I read we aren't giving the car a chance to get to its most efficient zone. All our daily commutes also have slight inclines and declines. Never flat roads in our area. Even our highways are mainly through rolling hills.

I was wondering what other TCH owners in the Bay Area California are getting for average MPG. We live in the Foothills of Fremont and our main highway we are on is 680 towards Pleasanton.

Ric

 

I'm also averaging around 36mpg on my 3rd tank, but you're right in that it takes around 5-10 minutes for the engine to warm up the emission control gizmos, and by that time you're at work!

My girlfriend lives about 6 miles from my house, and I always used to drive the freeway the two exits down and average around 38mpg since on the roads near her place there isn't much traffic so I can cruise in EV the last 3/4 mile or so to bring the MPG up. From my house to the freeway, I'm lucky if I get 20-25mpg during warm up.

However, I recently found an alternate road to the freeway (I'm in Sacramento now; it's flat), where I could try out the pulse and glide (Accelerate to 40mph with arrows toward the battery, then glide either in neutral or with a slight touch in EV mode down to 30mph, repeat), and I got 45mpg for the same 6 miles! My other recent trick is, use all your EV on the last part of your trip before you'll park the car. Since your engine stays on during warm up, it may as well put that energy into the battery - if your battery is full when you park, all that gas gets wasted when you start the car again!

The last thing I'm sure you already know about is Bay Area drivers!! The tailgating and speeding is ridiculous! (Ok, I used to do that but not anymore!) Yesterday, I pulled up to a light next to a sporty bright yellow muscle-car, and just for fun, floored it after the light. He beat the pants off me of course, but the feeling of coasting up next to him at the next light while his engine was throwing gas away was awesome! That trip I got 35mpg, which his car couldn't do coasting downhill with a tailwind!

The moral is: it's all relative. Sure, I could drive like Wayne over at cleanmpg.com and get 60mpg with the windows closed, A/C off, peddling through the floor like Fred Flintstone, or I could watch the gauges, play the game, but drive with traffic and enjoy having a really amazing car.

 

One thing I forgot - on the inclines and declines, I read on a Prius board that if you use battery assist on the inclines, then regen (braking or in B) on the declines, that helps stabilize the MPG. A simpler thing to do is to just keep steady pressure on the accelerator up and down the hill; the car will lose speed going up and gain it on the way down by itself, but I'm not sure how this works with the battery.

 

I am on my third tank now and am hovering around 35/36 depending on how I arrange my trips. I do find that I am reforming*, and rethinking some of my routes to see if there is any difference between short and hilly vs. longer but flatter. While I too would like the mileage to be better than it is, I am not doing a "Fred Flintstone" either. ; While our gas mileage might not be as good as others, WE do live in one of the Best Places in the World! ; And we are doing our part to keep the air cleaner too! I haven't tried the B drive yet, mainly because I love coasting down the long hill on Hwy 1 coming into Pacifica and seeing how far I can get before having to touch the gas....

*Oh yeah, last Monday, I had to pick up someone from SJ Airport and was running late. Drove between 65-80 down there on 280 and actually picked up 2mpgs doing it! I LOVE this car!!

 

It depends on how far I drive. My commute is 7 miles, no freeway, some stop lights. Going to work I get about 40-45 mpg, coming home I get 35 mpg due to more traffic. So I average 37 mpg. If I take a short trip to get lunch (1 mile each way) it drops to 34 or 35 mpg, so now I walk.

My wife also has a TCH. She works about 15 miles from home and hates taking the freeway so she takes surface streets. Her first tank was 36 mpg, second was closer to 37 mpg. Now she is on summer break so she is not commuting... most trips are about 2-3 miles so her mileage is about 34-36 mpg.

On freeway trips we get about 38-40 mpg. I've had my TCH for just about a year, at first I was getting 35 mpg and now it is going up... mainly because I have cut back on short trips. I'd say planning and anticipating has paid off, if I have no one behind me and there is a stop light ahead I start slowing up... things like that. I try not to impede traffic or worry too much about mileage but I do sort of make a game out of it.

 

Joystix2,
I, too, have been really bugged by what I consider poor milage with my TCH. I live in Alameda and commute daily to Pleasanton. Milage is rarely above 35 MPH unless I am extremely careful. Then I can get closer to 37. I have wondered if I got a lemon but my dealer (Dublin Toyota) said these cars so carefully spec-ed that they are virually identical. I guess the problem is the Dublin grade I traverse twice a day. Alas...
But I am still open to any ideas on how to improve MPH

Spencer Gross

 

You new guys are killing me. You get 35-37mpg and you are wondering if you got a lemon? Take some time to read the hundreds of posts in this forum, and you will see that you are getting average to better-than-average mileage. Heck, the 2008 EPA estimates on the TCH are only going to be 34mpg.

 

I live in the south bay and my daily commute is about 7 miles over fairly flat (a few overpasses) roads. For the first 5 tanks of gas, my best mpg for a tank was 36 mpg (as given be the mpg gauge). For the current tank, I have been averaging about 40.5 mpg (half tank down). The only change I made was to turn off the climate contol (no a/c, no heat, only the blower with windows closed). I think I read elsewhere in the forum that the a/c was good for about 5 mpg and wanted to try it. Just curious, but does anybody who is getting 40+ with short (15 minutes or less) city driving use the climate control?

(Don't know how much longer I'm going to do this, though, since the car gets a little warm now that the hotter weather is starting.)

 

Hey Flopshot! OF Course, we love our cars! Right now we newbies are just very conscious of stuff that you oldtimers are past! One of the reasons I was happy to pick up my friend from SJC was that I could get gas cheaper. The difference between my normal station in Pacifica and the one in SJ was 10 cents a gallon difference!

Please give us a few months to catch up with you all. I have been trying to read not just the latest pages but some of the older threads for general info and to avoid repeating the same questions. Please forgive because I still have 40 pages of threads to go because you all were prolific typists! LOL!

 

What's getting you is the short commute. When our wife was driving out kid to school every day (15 miles plus errands round trip) she was getting 38-40 mpg. Now that our kid is out of school she's driving much less and her milage dropped precipitously to 32-34. She was complaining to me about it saying "something is wrong with the car." I had to reassure her. Also, you have to be really obsessive about keeping under 40 mph on the city driving, and watching the mpg meter with one eye.

Meanwhile, I'm getting 23 mpg in my Rav 4 that I had to trade my wife for. Sigh.

Benny