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No, it can't be used.
My first tank on my first hybrid (a 2004 Civic Hybrid) was only 38 MPG but I ended up at the end of 28,000 miles achieving 48 MPG lifetime.
You will learn how to drive the car for optimum MPG as time goes by, if you want to do so.
Unfortunately, if you just drive your TCH like any non-hybrid car, not using the instruments and tools and tips from other hybrid owners to help improve your understanding of the HSD system, then you will suffer poor mpg.
That's where the battery technology is limiting us right now.
Learn how to feather the accelerator pedal.
By that I mean accelerate in a fairly normal manner (not like a Granny but not like a Nascar driver either) up to the cruising speed where you want to be and then lightly let up on the pedal just enough that the "real-time MPG meter" will shoot up, then re-apply light pressure again to maintain speed.
This gives the HSD system time to kick the battery on (under 42 mph at least) and the letup will give you a few split-seconds of "mini-coasting" while still for the most part maintaining your speed.
Learning that tip will give you the best immediate results without a big learning curve.
The MFD in my TCH shows about the same when I drove off the lot. It went up some by the time I hit a 1/2 tank. After that it just crept up slowly as my driving improves. If you want to see a big improvement, you will have to drive at high efficiency for a distance to see a big change. THat's just the law of averaging. For example, if you want to see a 30 mpg read out by the time you hit that 200 mile, you will need to drive at 33 mpg for the next 100 mile.
I would not be too concern with your tank ave for this first tank. Use the eco drive level as a gauge instead. I recommend taking it for a longer spin on a somewhat flat highway (be sure to coast...and do what everyone calls the pulse and glide) and then hit a 35 mile zone stretch and keep it on battery about 40 mph. (Dont use the cruise control until you get at least to your 500 mile or better yet 1000m) You should see the analog mpg readout drop to E. The longer you stay at this mode the better. If your eco drive level dont reach the max after 15 min of driving, I would be surprised.
Good luck!
Occasionally I'll find myself not thinking and I'll be going along at 45 mph after pulling from a stop and the instant gage will show 30 mpg. I'll lightly let up, hear the engine go to idle (and watch the FE gage drop and then very LIGHTLY reapply the throttle. My milage will settle out at 40 to 45 mpg and I will lose no more than 2 mph. Once you experience that I believe you will develop the touch than is necessary.
If you intentionally try to stay with traffic, I doubt that you'll ever get over 36 mpg. My worsr milage is at 70+ on the interstate. However when I drive the interstate and allow myself to slow uphill (to say 60) and coast downhill at close to 80 then I have gotten 42 mpg on a 125 mile trip. Granted I don't live in a high traffic area. (Find a semi and follow it)
I realize most don't care much for the difference between 36 and 40 and to tell you the truth it's not that much of a savings ( a little over 10%). Like most of you I came from a 16 mpg vehicle to this. Only my obsessive compulsive personallity drives me to keep maxing it out to what I think is its limits for this terrain.
If you're getting less than 35 you need to keep trying (if you are trying) If you're getting 27 on purpose then I would have bought the Lexus instead.
It sounds like you are getting imporvement! That's great! I dont live in VA but my daily commute do involve driving on a somewhat hilly highway. THere is just no way I can keep the anolog mpg readout to level off at 40mpg or better when going uphill. I feel your pain! I sure envy those midwest folks that are getting ridiculous mpg. Having lived in IA/MN, I can see why!
The Toyota Camry Hybrid's gas tank does not actually expand.
The thing is, the longer you drive a TCH on the roadway, the road itself shrinks, which makes each mile shorter.
THAT is why the apparant MPG improves.
For the people still looking and considering the TCH, if you know you're wanting to really get into this max mpg attitude, then the NAV system is worth it for nothing else but enjoying the energy screens.
Some day I'm going to use the map function.
I have noticed that my mileage on these 90 degree days has been about 3 to 5 mpg less and yet I drive the same route. Several months ago when temps were cooler, I did easily achieve 37 mpg.
I am curious when temps cool down in the fall... if my MPG increases.
We all know that the elements... wind , rain, cold affect MPG... why not high temperature.
Gampa
I think part of the reason for the low winter miles is turning on heat in the car. I was just driving the other night when i got drenched from rain. I was somwhat cold and jacked up the heat in the car. Much to my dismay, I noticed the engine refused to stop even when I was coasting under 20 mph. Apparently, there was no other heat source in the car so the smart computer (ahem..programmer) feels that the driver would prefer heat over the better FE. Erggh. I dont care if my knuckles turns white cause of the cold, but they really should wait till the engine temp is hot enough before kick starting the air blower. Guess I will have to do that manually.
There are some online posting somewhere saying that you get less gallon than reported when filling up at high ambient temperature. If true, that may affect your mileage if you calculate by hand. But that should not affect the eco drive level gauge.
Bottom line, someone more conversant with physics than I am has suggested that the difference between cool and hot fill-ups might be one penny, but it's probably not that much.
I think most TCH users agree that mileage suffers most in cold weather, particularly when trips are short. Hybrid systems seem to need to be a fully warmed up before they operate efficiently. My mileage improved 3-4 mpg as soon as spring arrived even though my trip length didn't change much.
However, I will also note that if I can put cruise on on the highway, I still average from 35mpg to 40mpg depending on how level the highway is. Note that in travelling back and forth between Washington, DC and New York City, my wife and I are both averaged over 40mpg. In fact, one time my wife was driving on the highway at about 65mph and was getting about 50mpg. Unfortunately neither one of us was ever able to do that again; she must have had a good tail wind that afternoon.
The one thing I have noticed is where I get the worst gas mileage is in "rush-and-slow" highway traffic. In stop-and-go highway traffic (and in stop-and-go city traffic), I can keep my gas mileage in the mid-30's easily. Off hand, under those circumstances the worst I've ever done is probably about 32mpg but normally I average about my average of 37mpg for both. The trick is to maximize use of the electric motor at slow speeds and coasting down to a stop.
The problem is that in "rush-and-slow" traffic, you can never maximize the use of the electric motor. What I mean by "rush-and-slow" is that traffic is continually moving but everyone is travelling at a different speed. Think of it as rush hour traffic that is (somewhat) moving. In trying to keep a steady speed and maximize your fuel economy, no matter how slow you go you'll always end up braking behind someone slower when you can get from behind them. Then you always have to speed up once that slow person moves or you get around them. Unfortunately, you are always slowing and accelerating and never using the electric motor.
That type of traffic usually drops my gas mileage down into the low 30's. In fact, for a brief period it actually got down to 29mpg.
The bad news is that I know of no way to avoid the bad mileage of "rush-and-slow" traffic except to avoid it. So if 'rush-and-slow" traffic is what you mostly have to deal with, mileage in the area of 32mpg might be the best you can get from your TCH.
But, to me at least, even averaging "only" 32mpg, the TCH would still be a great car.
One final note: I do find that the "ECO" button raises my mileage about 2-3mpg on average. I would advise that you make certain it is always on.
Someone has to be the leader, might as well be the person who is in the "right".
In fact, I probably do what you do in what you describe as "rush and slow" traffic. And, for the record, I (too) get very good mileage doing it.
When I say "rush-and-slow," however, I'm talking about rush hour traffic (normally) that at certain points just seems to slow down to 40mph and then, after a minute or two, speeds back up to something approaching "normal" highway speeds until it suddenly slows to 40mph again a couple of minutes later. Literally the only way I could avoid that is to travel at a constant 40mph on the highway and, quite frankly, that's something I am not willing to do.
Just to put things in perspective, I am complaining about 32mpg (and once only getting about 29mpg) being "terrible" mileage in "rush-and-slow" traffic when if we were talking about just about any other car of comparable size and quality -- such as a 4-cylinder Toyota Camry LE -- that 32mpg in the real world would be considered great!
I admit that I did not make this clear in my original post but I was really writing in response to those who are complaining about getting only in the "low 30's" in mileage with their new Camry Hybrids. Yes, driving style has a lot to do with it but if they find themselves were they are in a lot of "rush-and-slow" (and again, not "stop-and-go" but "rush-and-slow") traffic, then the "low 30's" may be the best they can do. And while mileage in the "low 30's" is appreciably less than advertised (and what most of us, including me, are getting), on the positive side, however, that is still a lot better than they would get would get in just about any other automobile in such situations.
Indeed, note that I average about 37mpg, all in all. The truly incredible and wonderful thing about our Camry Hybrids is that that 32mpg, while great in just about any other comparable automobile, is still something like 15%-20% worse than what I and most of us have come to expect from our cars.
DrFill
Hybrids certainly are most efficient under certain circumstances, and an owner would definitely maximize these instances over an EPA tester.
I would expect a leadfoot to get low-30's, and a practiced owner to get 40MPG, eventually. 34 MPG may be a good split.
DrFill
Also, what is the first 3 letter of your vin? Mine is "JTN" which means its assembled in Japan. Is yours "4T1"?
Having said all this, any advice on how to improve my mileage. By the way, the best I ever got was 34, when all conditions weather-wise were perfect.
Thanks!
I think these guys are reading the NAV unit only, and not going by miles driven per tank.
I notice if I am down on the flats [like Kansas or Florida] and check the NAV there, it averages up to 36 mpg, but I am leading the parade a lot with my coasting.
On freeway, I tried the cruise control at 65 mph and it is significant - in gently rolling terrain, I can show up to 40 mpg on the NAV unit.
Here is my conclusion. They say 40 mpg - hogwash. No one can get that on a full tank with short drives around town. They say 36 on the highway, and with going a bit slower, I can do better.
I have talked with several TC owners without hybrid, and they all say they average 21-24 mpg.
So coax it back up 30-32 in combo driving, and enjoy a great car. Pays to read the early threads here on how to drive he TCH as a reminder. I printed them out and keep them in the car to read as I coast to a red light stop.
By the way, the ride and lack of noise in the car make this a pleasure to drive on long trips. Love the car so far.
Thanks
Best tool you have is the FE or Mileage Consumption on the far left. My constant goal is to keep it above 35 as much as possible. I drive relatively short trips in California, and they love stop signs and lights here - so very hard to get high mpg around town.
On flat terrain I can spend more time on 60 than above 20 but those pesky lights always get in the way of optimal results.
One thing I noticed again tonight was that my E-mode does not kick in until after I have traveled about 1.5 miles, but 60 is pretty close to e-mode.
As for combo - city and freeway - I can get up to 35 mpg by cruising a bit slower on the freeway. Remember, the time saved by driving 70+ in about 15 miles over 64 is about one minute. Not worth the expense or the ticket.
Anyway, thanks for the info.
Every car manufacturer advertises the highway milage which is seldom met in real life. In my past vehicles I've typically averaged near the bottom EPA number. Sure I've had good tanks on trips but the AVERAGE has always been on the lower end. I've quit bragging about my TCH because it never fails someone will say "well I get 34 mpg". Then I followup with questions like, how did you check that? Did you average that on a tank or just a trip? etc....
You can't educate someone that really is not interested so until someone is ready to understand you're wasting your time trying to persuade them.
Rules for high mileage:
1. Take no trips less than about 10 miles. Short trips, 2-3 miles especially, prevent the hybrid system from fully warming.
2. Move to a warmer climate. Cold weather hurts mileage.
3. Drive only on rural roads where you can maintain a speed between 35 and 55 mph, and take care to select roads with few stops.
4. Limit freeway driving speed to 70 mph tops. Lower is better.
5. And of course, always drive conservatively.
If you find some of these conditions, offered only half in jest, impossible to meet, well, I'm afraid you'll probably have to settle for less that optimal mileage.
Some people insist that driving technique will deliver high mileage. That is, if you learn to back off the gas pedal at the right moment and then gently reapply pressure, the engine will shut down and the battery will power the car for as long as those optimal driving conditions exists. Will this help? Yes. But only you can decide if it's worth the trouble.
Seriously, I've tried it all. When driving under the right conditions, 40 mpg+ is easy. When driving under bad conditions my mileage sinks into the low 30s, no matter what I do. I've learned to adjust to this disappointment with the aid of an psychoanalyst who specializes in the new specialty of "hybrid neurosis."
Good luck.
Your post is so funny! Thanks for the laugh. You get in the low 30's in bad conditions??!!! I am jealous. I am at 26 right now with extremely hot weather and a/c all the time.
Very clever post.
Always use the Eco mode when the AC is on. Yes, you will suffer on hot and humid days. But, hey, what is more important high mpg or your comfort?
Turning them off might increase your mileage by about .0003 mpg.
Seriously, if you're averaging only 26 mpg, you must be driving under the worst conditions imaginable, and doing it aggressively, I'd guess.
What happens if you take it out on a level freeway at 65 mph on cruise control? You should average near 40 mpg, assuming you aren't driving into a heavy headwind. Your situation doesn't make sense.