With my gas savings, I bought this! (2000 Honda Insight)

[cowmeat]

Gaaaah!

I averaged 55 mpg on the first tank, which is about the worst of anybody on here with an Insight. So much for the accuracy of the instant read-out, which showed 58.5 at the end of the tank

Then again, I got over 500 air conditioned miles on the tank, and I have to admit it was the nicest 500 miles of work commute I have driven since I've lived in Florida.

Most of the miles on this tank were carpooling miles with my wife, who actually talked to me since the air inside the car wasn't 500 degrees. I assume that brings the mileage down since the max load for the car is like 350#.
Does anybody else carpool theirs? If so, what kind of mpg are you pulling, and should I expect to be able to bump up my mpgs on the next tank?

[cowmeat]

Second tank is starting out a lot better. I actively hypermiled the first day of the tank, and got pretty good results! Now I just need to keep it up for two weeks for a good tank

Seems that if I haul ass up to speed as quickly as possible, then stick it in lean burn for as long as it'll hold, it gives the best results.
I also turn off the AC at any stop, leave it off as I'm getting up to speed, then crank it while I'm cruising at a constant speed in fifth. This also seemed to help a lot.

I'm gonna have to adjust my commute once more, I see. This car does awesome on surface roads under 55 mph, without a lot of stop and start.

One thing I could use some help with: Holding lean burn under 50 mph doesn't seem to charge the IMA much, it'll stay on the same bar for the duration of lean burn. What am I doing wrong?

[cowmeat]

Installed the center arm rest last night. It's awesome, and matches the seats perfectly! Took about five minutes to install it
Got it from Armrestking for a little less than a hundred bucks, if anybody's interested in getting one.

Also, while I was installing the back-up camera last weekend and had the negative battery cable off, it apparently reset something in the computer, because the IMA battery is charging really good now!

[elhigh]

Nice find on the armrest, looks great.

About the dash MPG display: oh yeah. One of my notes on mine: "Wildly optimistic." Reality is about 95% of what's displayed, sometimes less.

My wife and older son and I all carpool together in the HCH. It definitely does better if it's just me in the car, but putting three into one vehicle when we're all going the same direction really, really cuts down our consumption. Over 165 man-miles per gallon, that's tough to beat.

If you don't have one already, get a grid charger to even up your batteries. Mine are so far out of balance I can't get the IMA idiot light to shut off for more than a day now. It might be time to try a couple of deep discharge cycles to get everything back to rights. THAT should be fun.

[MetroMPG]

FYI, of the 8 tanks of fuel I put through my 2000 Insight where I recorded both the calculated and indicated fuel consumption:

+ 2%
+10%
- 3%
+ 11%
- 2%
+ 2%
+ 1%
+ 1%

Where a positive value meant the onboard gauge showed a higher MPG reading than calculated.

Average: +3% optimistic.

[cowmeat]

I don't have any gauges except the one on the car, which is reading right at 65 mpg with 195 miles on this tank. I figure it will be more like 61-62 in reality if the last tank is an indication

[96Midori]

Nice seats! Looking forward to buying an Insight soon.

[cowmeat]

Now that I'm getting used to driving a hybrid, it's awesome!

Here are a couple of tricks that seem to work best for me that I've been prcaticing over the last couple of weeks:

#1 - Getting it up to speed as quickly as possible gives it the most time possible in lean burn. At cruising speed (45-50 mph) on my normal route, it'll hold 100 mpg or better the entire time, so I get to that speed as quickly as possible.

#2 - Turning off the AC before coming to a stop seems to charge the IMA a little better, and leaving it off until I'm back up to speed gives the little 3-cyl a boost, getting me into lean burn a little quicker. Once I'm at speed I kick in the AC again

#3 - A very light sustained braking over a longer period in fifth gear charges the IMA really well. I can now bury the charge light without slowing dramatically, extending the full charging time, and I'm learning to feather the brake pedal as much as I am the gas pedal!

#4 - When slowing to a stop, once I've squeezed the last charging out of the braking action in fifth gear and the charge light goes off, I throw it in neutral, tap the brake pedal once pretty hard at about 25 mph, and kick in the autostop. Then I glide to a stop with the motor off. Of course, if somebody's right behind me I just downshift into second instead, and get a little more IMA charging. Most of this tank I was able to keep the IMA between half to full.

I'm sure there are more tricks I'm going to learn, but I'm getting some pretty good results already. Any other tricks (or corrections to my current tricks) anybody is willing to share would be much appreciated!

[cowmeat]

Woop!

Second 600+ mile tank in a row. I'm getting the hang of sticking it in lean burn and keeping it there. I pulled the EPS fuse halfway through the tank, pretty sure some of the mpg increase was due to that.

Even with a co-pilot riding with me this entire tank (wife) I was able to creep up on 70 mpg. It's a real challenge to get that kind of gas mileage with a rider, but I like a good challenge, and even my wife (who is NOT a hypermiler) is pretty amazed at this point!

Even more important than the mpgs I'm gaining in the Turtle is the fact that we saved the 30+ gallons of gas she would normally burn in two weeks (plus the wear and tear on her brand new vehicle). That's an automatic 200 buck savings a month on top of what I'm saving . . . . . mission accomplished!!!

[nemo]

Congratulations

Originally Posted by cowmeat

Woop!
Second 600+ mile tank in a row. I'm getting the hang of sticking it in lean burn and keeping it there. I pulled the EPS fuse halfway through the tank, pretty sure some of the mpg increase was due to that. Even with a co-pilot riding with me this entire tank (wife) I was able to creep up on 70 mpg. It's a real challenge to get that kind of gas mileage with a rider, but I like a good challenge, and even my wife (who is NOT a hypermiler) is pretty amazed at this point!

Ask your wife to clean out her purse that should get you to the 70 MPG, If hers is anything like my wife's.

Originally Posted by cowmeat

Even more important than the mpgs I'm gaining in the Turtle is the fact that we saved the 30+ gallons of gas she would normally burn in two weeks (plus the wear and tear on her brand new vehicle). That's an automatic 200 buck savings a month on top of what I'm saving . . . . . mission accomplished!!!