Welcome New Insight Owners

[lenwardus]

Don't forget us oldtimer Insight owners know a thing or two about maximizing your mpg.
So don't hesitate to check out the 1st Generation Insight MPG threads.

Happy Motoring!

[Brezel Fan]

Originally Posted by lenwardus

Don't forget us oldtimer Insight owners know a thing or two about maximizing your mpg.
So don't hesitate to check out the 1st Generation Insight MPG threads.

Happy Motoring!

Does using non-ethanol gas help your mileage at all with a hybrid? Or is it even detrimental since most cars are made to take gas with 10% ethanol added?

[bgreene]

just bought an 01 insight manual with 72,000 miles. I have spent 30 bucks in car washes i love it so much thus negateing the purpose of "saving money". Any information would be helpful as I know nothing. One thing I am curious about relating to this thread is using a fuel detergent such as "sea foam". I usually use this in all of the older cars that I have purchased about every 3 to 5k miles. Does a great job cleaning the injectors and eradicating carbon build up. Will this be ok? Also, i would like to upgrade the air filter and and do anything else to keep my insight running tip top. like cleaning the EGR or ECR or whatever that thing is. Also why does the auto shut off work some times and not others

[InsightC]

Keep in mind I drive ALL city. I have a ton of stop and go and I do not drive far. My mileage has set at 38.7 MPG. I have only had my Insight II for five days. It will be a week this coming Friday night at 9 PM (When I drove my new car home)

I want to post MPG so we can compare, this is wonderful.

Gas used was from dealer, I am not sure...but sure it was 87. I personally love Shell gas for my hybrids, but I am willing to hear others preferences of course.

Total miles on Insight II as of 4/1/09 is 60 LOL.

[Hybrid-Battery-Repair]

The cool thing about an Insight is that you can experiment and see measured results. For example, everyone who has tried any other model or brand of tire has seen a loss of mpg.

So get some baseline numbers to determine "normal" mpg for your car (and you the driver) and then try some cleaner and see if there is a difference. My bet is that you will not see any difference.

Originally Posted by bgreene

just bought an 01 insight manual with 72,000 miles. I have spent 30 bucks in car washes i love it so much thus negateing the purpose of "saving money". Any information would be helpful as I know nothing. One thing I am curious about relating to this thread is using a fuel detergent such as "sea foam". I usually use this in all of the older cars that I have purchased about every 3 to 5k miles. Does a great job cleaning the injectors and eradicating carbon build up. Will this be ok? Also, i would like to upgrade the air filter and and do anything else to keep my insight running tip top. like cleaning the EGR or ECR or whatever that thing is. Also why does the auto shut off work some times and not others

[dewjam]

202 commuter miles San Jose to San Luis Obispo Ca. with only driver on board.

22 miles freeway stop and go, then 130 mi @ 65 and 50mi @70. Both 65 and 70 MPH with cruise control on, also all miles were with the econ on. About 100 MI was with a tail wind.

This is not the actual mileage just the dash computer.

I'm going back to driving my G1 since it has HOV stickers, don't know when I'll have a chance to do an actual mileage check.

Mark

[ptmac]

I received my Insight Monday night with 66 miles on it. I have used it to commute to work the past 4 days, along with a few short trips. The work commute is 95% highway and 45-50 miles one way. As of today my lifetime miles are:

477 miles
46.9 mpg
42 mile range

The above is on the original tank of gas. I am averaging 50 mpg for the work commute. The lowest mpg on my work commute was 44. The highest has been 56.2. Thursday was great. I averaged 55 miles round trip (95 miles).

One of the major causes of variation in mpg has been the strong winds we have had in the region (40+ mph) gusts at times. I have been getting angry with the wind on the way home when my mpg won't rise above 44 lol.

I have never tried to maximize mpg until driving this car. Do any of the Insight I owners have any tips? thx.

[jkbrushaber]

I have had an Insight since last summer, so I'll give you a few tips I have found to work well. Search around this site for lots of good advice as well.

-air up the tires. I keep mine at 50psi. Harsher ride, can be "dangerous", but she sure rolls better.

-accelerate up to speed fairly quickly, then use minimum throttle to maintain speed. If you accel. too slowly, you will get low mpg for a long period of time. If you accel. a little faster, you get even lower mpg, but for a much shorter period of time. You have to find the sweet spot between the two.

-watch your mpg information carefully on the dash, it will teach you alot. Both instantaneous and trip information will tell you what is working, and what is not.

-buy a scanguage. It will help immensely for my last two suggestions. While the mpg numbers it produces for the Insight1 are off, the relative numbers are still very useful. I find the (TPS) throttle position sensor is the best "guage" to watch on mine. With it, you can make sure to mantain the minimal throttle required to maintain speed. For example, I can maintain 55 mph on a flat road with no wind at a throttle position of 17 or 18 or 19 or 20; however, I will be getting best mpg at 17. Even a TPS as high as 23-25 will only VERY slowly increase speed, but does a much better job at decreasing mpg. By slowly, I really mean slowly, like from 55 to 56 or 57mph in 20-30 seconds. In fact, just by using the scanguage on my Subaru Outback, I was able to go from usually about 25mpg to 35mpg (measured on an entire tank fillup).

-coast as much as possible.

-use regenerative braking as much as possible. Begin light pressure on the brakes well before you have to actually stop. The heat you release from your regular brakes is nothing but wasted gas.

-maximize use of auto-stop. Learn how and when it activates so you can get it to work for you when you want.

-(for manual Insights only) Maximize use of Lean-Burn mode. Get the engine into this mode as quickly and often as possible. Once in, keep it there by minimizing throttle changes.

[InsightC]

I do not know if this is needed to know but I found that the stop and go driving that I am forced to do on my way to work was making my mileage no where near what I felt it should be So I did this...

I took my car on the interstate for 10 or less miles and drove it at the speed limit. I saw the gas mileage go up to 41.6, and on the way back from the drive it went up again to 42.8. Well all this week driving to work it has remained at 42 mpg. I think that driving this car on the interstate just once a week will maintain the 42, but we shall see.

Does anyone else drive Stop and Go. My work is 5 miles total a day (back and forth) I take side roads and stay under 35 most of the time, but still have to stop at 3 stop lights and 2 stop signs. I have learned my car though, and can keep it at a nice pulse and try to not go over 2,000 on the RPM's.

What other tips does everyone have? I want to find someone that has a short, very short commute and all city to compare.

I plan to keep a log. Oh, and I do notice one thing, I traded a 06 hybrid civic and miss how big the tank was...this one seems even tho I am getting better mileage, the tank goes quicker due to it being smaller But over all I love my car....!