My Mileage not stellar

[Hybrox]

Have had the car for a couple weeks now, live in a hilly area, commute over the Santa Cruz mountains, and one longer trip my wife took it on. Average mileage is only 43.7 as of tonight. I'm a former insight I owner, and with the same commute got 58.5 MPG/128K miles. I'm pretty good at driving for efficiency... I'm a bit disappointed, when I read of test drives getting 60!. Not sure if the care is optimized for flat roads, I suspect that is the case. Oh well, it gets 20 MPG better than wifes PT which we traded in with the Gen I

I've tried a few little tricks, but haven't found any magical recipe. The battery / electric motor seems much less powerful to actually propel the car on a grade, unlike the Gen 1. For my terrain, I would drive in 3rd gear, and drain down the batt going up the mountain, until I needed second. Then charge on the down hill. In the Gen 2 it never really loads the battery, and the Assist gague never goes more than 20% up. And clearly the engine is working, around 3Krpm (whihc is louder/harsher than the Gen I. at the same RPM)

Also noticed that auto-stop only stays stopped for 10-15 seconds before the motor re-starts, even with even brake pressure. The brake pressure slumps when this happens, and this doesn't seem right.

Anyone getting better than 45 and have hills? Elevation up is about 2200'foot to sea level +-200'foot...

Miss my gen I for mileage, but the Gen II is more "automatic"...

[uhtrinity]

Originally Posted by Hybrox

Have had the car for a couple weeks now, live in a hilly area, commute over the Santa Cruz mountains, and one longer trip my wife took it on. Average mileage is only 43.7 as of tonight. I'm a former insight I owner, and with the same commute got 58.5 MPG/128K miles. I'm pretty good at driving for efficiency... I'm a bit disappointed, when I read of test drives getting 60!. Not sure if the care is optimized for flat roads, I suspect that is the case. Oh well, it gets 20 MPG better than wifes PT which we traded in with the Gen I

I've tried a few little tricks, but haven't found any magical recipe. The battery / electric motor seems much less powerful to actually propel the car on a grade, unlike the Gen 1. For my terrain, I would drive in 3rd gear, and drain down the batt going up the mountain, until I needed second. Then charge on the down hill. In the Gen 2 it never really loads the battery, and the Assist gague never goes more than 20% up. And clearly the engine is working, around 3Krpm (whihc is louder/harsher than the Gen I. at the same RPM)

Also noticed that auto-stop only stays stopped for 10-15 seconds before the motor re-starts, even with even brake pressure. The brake pressure slumps when this happens, and this doesn't seem right.

Anyone getting better than 45 and have hills? Elevation up is about 2200'foot to sea level +-200'foot...

Miss my gen I for mileage, but the Gen II is more "automatic"...

Well, the car is made of steel and weighs 900 more lbs, uses pretty much the same IMA motor as the Insight 1, while only having 2/3 the battery capacity at 2/3 the voltage.

When I did my battery capacity mods I found that the performance in hilly areas and mountain passes was greatly improved. If anything I would expect the Insight 2 to perform worse than a stock Insight 1 in those conditions due to the reasons I mentioned.

[numbness4sound]

I've been getting 43 as well on my commute.

I also have that break pressure slump that you describe.

[E27006]

Do not forget the Insight 1 engine is rather special, 26 to 1 lean burn etc, The Insight 2 has the 1339 4 cylinder engine, I think it is the L13 Dsi 8 spark plug engine introduced in 2002 for some variations of the Honda Jazz, (Honda Fit outside Europe).

I have the Jazz, it is a good unit, idles at 500rpm and gives good mpg, but not comparable to the Insight1

[Willie Williford]

Be patient. As with all Hondas, you will see a definate improvement in MPG when the vehicle gets around 5K on the odometer.
This is something that has been discussed and proven on prior INSIGHT 1 threads.
I experienced the same serenio on my 07 Fit. back in 06.

[jj2]

Thanks, Willie that is good to know.

I am getting about 40 mpg on my short commute and is city driving so its not like its doing bad. But I can't wait to get it on expressway this weekend to see if that helps too.

[civicdream]

good new info.. im sure it has something to do with your type of commute. I will update with my mileage as soon as i get some data.

[icdc]

I'm new owner of ZE2. No experience on ZE1 so I can't chime in with much useful info.
However, so far I made nearly 400 miles after I got the car for 4 days, and I avg at about 46-48 mpg on mixed roads (freeway, jammed freeway, locals), and mixed speeds (utilizing cruise control and cruised at anywhere between 65 and 75 mph)

The best I have experienced was when I was following a slow 18-wheeler on freeway at 50-55mph, I got 54.x mpg.

[hitoshi92]

Ive had my 2nd gen for about a week now and I live in a pretty hilly area of southern california , but i manage to average 55.2 MPG. this includes a good 10min portion of extreme up hill.
Maybe its just your driving technique.
i really couldnt say.
But just today i hit 78.5 before "the hill".

[Marimbaroach]

are you guys talkin' instant mpg or average?
I haven't been able to break 45mpg (Average).

Also -- i heard that you shouldn't use cruise control or drive faster than 75mph until after you've put at least 600 miles on the car...