Someone asked me how I got a 95 mpg US tank (2.5 L/100 km) in my Insight

[SpeedyCorky]

Yeah i've been following your Insight shananagens for awhile now; and myself having recently purchased an Insight....I feel strongly that I hypermile daymn near to the max; yet i've often wondered how on earth you pull such good numbers... granted i've only driven my Insight about 1500 miles, its fairly stock; I regularly average ~80mpg on my 20 mile commute - I can now see how you are getting such good numbers....

your 2 big advantages are:
1) long trips. not too hard for me to break 85 or even 90mpg when i travel over say 40 or 50 miles, sometimes i can even get mid 90's mpg. consistent, long trips like that is HUGE towards good MPG numbers. short trips to the hardware store or whatever - KILL overall mpg numbers.

2) your route is boarderline cheating! its on flat, deserted backroads where you can legally and safely go 50mph (or BELOW!)... my commute is 85% freeway, and i gotta keep at least 50 to 55mph or people are loading their guns behind me, and I live in California!!! bad enough some of the big trucks pass me like i'm standing still! so the ability to cruise at 45 to 50mph is a major major factor with your numbers.


if i had these 2 conditions to my favor, i'm quite confident i could do 90mpg tanks consistently; maybe a bit more. I average about 80mpg on my route to work (best was 90mpg, i did it ONCE), but i also use the car for shorter trips, so that brings my overall tank average down to usually around ~75mpg.

So folks, realize that MetroMPG has some seriously ideal conditions going for him. his numbers are not replicateable in the real world - under real world driving conditions that 99% of us face. i'd say any 70mpg tank average for the Insight, under normal, real world conditions - is pretty respectable; 75mpg daymn respectable - and anything beyond that is entering either sub-human, or at least semi-cheating (not real world driving conditions!)


and of course Metro, no ill will intended w/ this post. just wanna put out there more explanation of your numbers, and what should be possible/expected with more normal driving conditions. cuz for awhile there i was pretty disappointed I couldnt average 90mpg. i was like WTF is he doing that I'm not!??!?! then i started looking into your route, and then read this posted and it all confirmed what I had suspected - very ideal driving conditions! Even so tho, ~96mpg - even with ideal conditions - is some gosh darn tootin' hypermiling!

[Xist]

I remember someone arguing about his mileage and that plenty of Insight drivers got better.

He drove 35 MPH to work, an hour each way.

[MetroMPG]

I've always urged people (especially those getting really good numbers) to post details of their driving/environment. Context is everything!

Originally Posted by SpeedyCorky

2) your route is boarderline cheating! its on flat, deserted backroads where you can legally and safely go 50mph

Don't overestimate the benefit of flat terrain. Hills could return even better numbers, provided the engine is off in the descents.

Where I drive it's not exactly the prairies - I regularly kill the engine going down hills.

The worst would be something in between: gentle hills that aren't steep enough to glide down the back side at a reasonable speed. (Of course the more you mod your vehicle, the faster you can glide!)

Also: I wish people would quit saying this type of driving environment isn't normal, or "real world". It may not be *your* world, but huge chunks (a lot more than 1%!) of the population live in areas like this: small cities/towns where there's an option of using secondary rural highways (instead of busier, high speed freeways) to travel away from/ in between them. Not everyone lives in a metropolis.

EDIT: and from your description of your driving environment, I'm sure you're right - you could easily be doing 90+ mpg if you drove where I usually do.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by SpeedyCorky

So folks, realize that MetroMPG has some seriously ideal conditions going for him. his numbers are not replicateable in the real world - under real world driving conditions that 99% of us face. i'd say any 70mpg tank average for the Insight, under normal, real world conditions - is pretty respectable; 75mpg daymn respectable - and anything beyond that is entering either sub-human, or at least semi-cheating (not real world driving conditions!)

~96mpg - even with ideal conditions - is some gosh darn tootin' hypermiling!

Actually his trip (excluding distance) is similar to mine, but my car can't exceed 73mpg!

My car has
1. Brake drag (no idea how to fix )
2. Suspension & Alignment issues (of the non-standard kind)
3. EGR issues bleh cleaning time

I really need to take the time to take this car out of service for a month to do all the maintenance, grid charger, MIMA and Calpod like it deserves, but its just so much fun getting 60-70mpg despite it being a beat up beater.

[MetroMPG]

rmay - you should put it in your garage!

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

... My car has ... Brake drag (no idea how to fix )

You most likely already know about these, but just to be sure:

A are the brake pad return springs for a recent Civic, but they are pretty universal and you could probably even make your own set with some spring wire, a wire cutter and a pair of pliers.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

Actually his trip (excluding distance) is similar to mine, but my car can't exceed 73mpg!

Is lean burn working? I'd be getting around that mileage on these trips if mine wasn't.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Is lean burn working? I'd be getting around that mileage on these trips if mine wasn't.

Lean burn works fine, I have to coax mine to enter it and usually can't stay in it forever because it slows down too much.

I will say this relates to
1. Brake Drag
2. Alignment
3. EGR
4. Plugs
5. missing front plastic inner fenders
6. Craptaskic Ecosomething 185/60r14 tires

I turned my tank average up to 74 mpg today from it sitting at 64mpg yesterday, warm temps help a lot.

However even with the temperature business I would guess I should be able to consistantly turn high 70's on my boring flat nearly stop free slow route.

Ah well. Maybe the brakes will even out (I replaced them, they were dragging before and also dragging after)