Struggling to get good mileage

jdmarlow · 08-17-2009, 04:45 PM

Hi Everyone,

Just got a 2010 Honda Insight back at the end of July. So far, have driven about 500 miles in the thing and I'm getting an average of 31.5 MPG.

I live and drive in New York City (Manhattan) and everything is stop and go. I know that the way the IMA system works in the Insight this will actually hurt the mileage more than help. I know that highway driving would probably yield better mileage (in fact, I drove a 7 mile stretch up the west side highway and got nearly 60 MPG at one point). But the overall MPG is so very low.

Is there anyone out there in New York City or other cities that are finding similarly dissapointing results with the Insight?

FYI, I'm driving with EcoAssist on always, with the AC on most of the time (albeit at a very low setting). I coast as much as possible and I do my best to keep the color on my dash green.

jraynor196 · 08-17-2009, 08:01 PM

It takes a bit to break the car in. After 1000 or so miles you should see a bump ~10% in MPG. So I think after that you should see better numbers.

EPA for city is 40 MPG, but if your under a lot of stop and go, I could see less numbers happening.

How about the subway, or is your job related to driving?

jrlnc · 08-17-2009, 08:43 PM

I'm currently averaging 50.0 mpg.

I'm no hypermiler and I drive the car pretty normally and do what I need to do (to prevent being run over or off the road!)

Fill up your tires! 40 psi to start and higher as you become more comfortable with it.
Use pure gasoline! Ethanol gives you a hit in mpg and is not necessarily cheaper.
Drive the speed limit! Stay in the right lane and obey the posted limit. That will help you tremendously.

Just my thoughts, but I think they will bump your mileage up to an acceptable level.

jdmarlow · 08-17-2009, 10:09 PM

Thanks for the replies. I understand that the stop and go could drop the MPG down a bit -- but I'm getting nearly 10 MPG less than even the EPA rating (which most people seem to be able to smoke, like jrlnc).

The one thing I haven't done is check the tire pressure. Are you saying both front and back should be at 40 psi?

Any other suggestions or anecdotes are welcome regarding others' experiences doing city driving in the Insight II.

Purplegate · 08-17-2009, 10:51 PM

I was in New York City last week with my I2 and it did cross my mind that "The City" was not really made for this car... Not only the stop and go is bad, but there was a lot of repairs, major trafic jams, etc. For about 1 hour, we were just moving 10 feets after 10 feets, which led to the engine starting, moving for 10 feets, then ideling for a while before getting a 10 sec break chance to go on auto-stop before restarting for the next 10 feets...

The overall experience was great though. I learned to understand and control my I2 even better. Proof is, I'm on my first tank after the trip now and I average 61.8MPG after 200 miles (MID reading...). Can't wait to see how I will average for the full tank !!

Don't get me wrong, New York is "The City" and it's an absolutely great city to be in, but the I2... might suffer a bit. I hate to say that, but a more "EV capable" car would be more adapted, mostly something like a plug-in to come

(Volt, Leaf, etc).

My advises for the I2 :
- plan your routes to avoid heavy trafic,
- coast to the lights as much as you can and for this, knowing your usual commute route will help as you can "time" the lights.
- be gentle on acceleration. The I2 MPG is sensitive when you floor it.
- get used to the feedback lighting under the speed indicator and stay as much as possible in the green, buth in braking and accel. This will maximize your battery usage and charge.

I usually achieve 55-58 MPG average, but on 95% highway commute. I think the I2 is likely to beat EPA by a high % on highway, but will get hurt on very dense zones like Manhattan. As said in previous post, your MPG will increase a little after ~1000 miles. Hopefully, by getting used to driving it, you will cover the remaining ground and get the 40+ MPG it should deliver.

Let us know how you evolve in MPG

wstander · 08-18-2009, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdmarlow

Thanks for the replies. I understand that the stop and go could drop the MPG down a bit -- but I'm getting nearly 10 MPG less than even the EPA rating (which most people seem to be able to smoke, like jrlnc).

The one thing I haven't done is check the tire pressure. Are you saying both front and back should be at 40 psi?

Any other suggestions or anecdotes are welcome regarding others' experiences doing city driving in the Insight II.

Most of us boost tire pressure up, somewhere between 38psi to 44psi; I use 40psi on all 4 tires, but, I drive on glass smooth roads. As I recall, Manhattan is mostly one large pothole, so maybe going to 35psi would be a start

Can you take advantage of rerouting, taking only right turns like the UPS trucks, adjusting your commute times, etc.? Maybe waiting 10 minutes before starting can put you in a different 'pocket' of commuting, and out of the 'peak times'.

Simple to say, I know, but some of this worked for me in San Diego...

jpleong · 08-18-2009, 11:18 AM

My tire pressure is somewhere between 36-38 according to my not-quite-precise-enough tire pressure gauge.

As far as NYC... I hate to say it but I don't know if anyone is going to be able to help you out here unless they, too, live there. The traffic patterns in NYC are unlike any other major US city. Both Chicago and Los Angeles could come close to the level of driving frustration but most drivers in those cities also get nice, long spans of highway driving to help even out the lower speed stop-and-go scoring.

The only suggestions I can really make are to adhere to Wayne Gerde's hypermiling instructions (Beating the EPA - The Why’s and How to Hypermile - CleanMPG Forums and Adapting Basic Hypermiling Techniques to the HCH-II - CleanMPG Forums) to the letter. Probably the most important are replanning your driving routes to the least congested in the city and practicing pulse-and-glide. Other minor suggestions would be to leave your windows down since you're going so slow (I don't know how comfortable weather and safety wise this is this time of year) and to turn off the car if stopped for more than 7 seconds.

Please keep us appraised of the situation, whether you were successful or not, etc... This will be a valuable lesson for all of us!

JP

kt5 · 08-26-2009, 07:46 PM

[QUOTE=jdmarlow;146627]Hi Everyone,

Is there anyone out there in New York City or other cities that are finding similarly dissapointing results with the Insight?

______________

I also live in Manhattan and work mostly in Brooklyn and Queens. My job requires me to travel all day long in stop and go traffic. I just purchased my I2 on Saturday. I filled up today and found that I averaged about 35 mpg. The first day I drove 160 miles which were mostly highway miles. On my way back into Manhattan today, from Greenpoint, Bklyn, I averaged 26.7 mpg (according to the info screen on the dash). Taking into account that the traffic today was outrageous, i still couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the mileage achieved. I've drove the car as efficiently as i possibly could with out pissing off every driver in NYC.

I understand it will take some time for the car to break in, so I'm going to give it some time before i take that reading too seriously. Beside that disappointing mpg reading, I love this car. I've been having a blast driving it. Hopefully the mileage improves with time. I'll be moving to Long Island soon. Hopefully my mileage will improve noticeably.

I will be getting plenty of city driving practice. jdmarlow, if i figure out any tricks to improve my average mpg I will be sure to let you know.

Mikeyt1818 · 08-26-2009, 09:09 PM

I am doing over 45 in South Florida. Myy dad on the other hand bought his I2 a bit over three weeks ago, he has done 1200 miles in the bronx, yonkers and washingtom heights with two trips to queens and one to brooklyn. He is averaging 38.4 MPG with his AC on at all times. Not too bad for New York City driving! he is no lead foot but he is no hypermiler either.

kt5 · 09-03-2009, 05:29 PM

It's been a week since my last post. I am doing much better with my mileage. I'm averaging just a bit over 36 mpg. Again, I am doing most of my driving in highly congested areas with constant stop and go traffic in Manhattan, brooklyn and Queens. I used to drive a Toyota 4Runner and spent about $90-$120 per week on gas. So far in the 2 weeks I have owned this car I've averaged $24 per week.