Highway driving..

[nameless00]

I've been on the 401 & 417 in Ontario Canada between Ottawa and Toronto, going about 1800 km ever couple of weeks the last 4 months. I've driven it like a speed demon (well okay, the I2 can get to speed but maintaining it is a different issue), and granny cautious..

My best drive so far has been the following:

Keeping the car at 112 km/h (70 mph)
Turning Eco off
Using Cruise Control as often as possible!
2 small grill blocks on right and left of the front plates

Obtained 4.8L (49.3 km, got as high as 49.7 but idling at light killed it so I snapped this one before it dropped further) in 4 hours 8 minutes - 440 km (273 miles). I also want to retry this for winter with all 3 grill blocks in place, I suspect I should be able to hit 51 mpg easily.

However, once I mixed Toronto traffic driving in there to the next fill up I was back up to 5.0L on the MID, at pump calculations it was 5.062 L.

Also some interesting notes & observations:

1) Eco On driving tended to put the MID on the more optimistic side and fill ups on 1/2 - 1/4 empty tanks produced the worst at pump and MID calculations off by as much as 1 L/100km. While less than 1/4 tank fill ups didn't matter if I got it down to range 0 or not produced a 0.8 L/100km difference

2) Echo off driving tended to be closer to the mid, but 3/4 - 1/2 empty tank fill up produces the worst numbers with as much as 0.5 L/100km difference (rounding?)

3) There's a very interesting power curve that occurs at 95 km & 112 km, they are identical in fuel use when I map out the data from the OBD-II. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this.

4) Paddle shifters on the EX is fun! drop it down one when you want to overtake a car and give it some gas.. The fuel use interestingly is slightly better than leaving it in gear, I haven't figured this one out yet.

5) Engine breaking does not generate more regen to charge the battery!

6) While city driving / cruising shift up (if you aren't in 7 already), this seems to save me a but of gas on the MID and seems confirmed on the OBD-II.

7) To ensure consistent fill ups I used 3 fingers from the front of the nozzle and inserted to that point, filled up until it "clicked".

8 ) Stock tires and PSI used, I wanted a less bumpy ride..

Note: I wasn't able to remove the geo-tagging my cell does for the photos so I didn't post it up. You'll just have to take my word for it.

[buglermcd]

If you can, drive at 60 mph. I've found that you can get about 60mpg on a flat road. It may be a pain to drive that slow, but there's a 5-10 mpg difference between 60 and 65mph.

Sorry, don't know the metric conversion there.

[nameless00]

Originally Posted by buglermcd

If you can, drive at 60 mph. I've found that you can get about 60mpg on a flat road. It may be a pain to drive that slow, but there's a 5-10 mpg difference between 60 and 65mph.

Sorry, don't know the metric conversion there.

That is where the first power curve is, it's about 95 km/h (59 mph), the second is where I noted 70 mph. The odd part is I can't consistently access or duplicate this second power curve unless I'm on cruise and I let cruise take it over.

Also going 60 mph is a but dangerous considering how aggressive folks get, going 65 is about safe.

[cheesie]

i always drive with eco on no matter where i drive
today i drove with eco off on the freeway for the first time
i didnt feel anything diff but only the gas pedal was more sensitive
i feel like i spent more gas cause i would get blue more
will stick to eco on like always

[nameless00]

I typically drive with eco off now, it takes some getting used to but with the hot humid weather I rather like the AC.. However, this suggestion is only for the highway, cruise and eco off.

In the 8 months since I've owned my I2, the best example is the "Eco On" error, my best MID tank ever was 4.6L, but calcualted it was 5.56L (I rejected those pictures if I can't confirm them at the pump). Those kinds of errors are just discouraging.. My fuelly numbes aren't the best but the areas I drive them seem reasonable (41.2 MPG, 5.7L, and calcualted on my spreadsheet is only slightly better), the MID lifetime still reads 5.3L..

But driving it and experimentation is still fun, with the GPS and OBD-II, I have found better routes around my more common driving areas.

[abr]

So what you are saying is that you get the best highway results with econ off and using cruise?

I discovered this a few months ago, but lately I've been questioning if this is the best way for me. I've been experimenting with econ on and off with cruise as well as econ off without cruise.

My highway mileage is suffering compared to my city mileage so I'm trying to improve this area.

[nameless00]

Originally Posted by abr

So what you are saying is that you get the best highway results with econ off and using cruise?

...

My highway mileage is suffering compared to my city mileage so I'm trying to improve this area.

I'm slow at discovering things, cause I tend to log everything and I mess around after I do to confirm, mostly to ensure it's not a read error.. I think it was from you that I attempted to do more regular eco off highway driving.

Since I've been doing the 416-401 (Ottawa-Toronto) stretch often lately, it's been easy enough to demarc points in my GPS and as I pass them change the driving style.

What are your typical mileage numbers for highway vs city? Mine are all over the place with the experimentation and some speeding.. However, I average about, 5.6L (42 US MPG) city, and 5.1L (46.1 US MPG) highway.

[abr]

Lately it's been city 56 and highway 53 mpg on the MID. I live in a flat town. Though I really have to focus and work at it to get 53 (or I think of it as actually 50 real numbers) on the highway. When I do turn the ac on I set it at 77 and then turn it off when I climb some of the bigger hills or getting on the interstate. I drive right at 62 to 63 mph/100 kph. On the way back from Milwaukee yesterday I used cruise with econ off and got 54. 52 avg mpg on the way to Milwaukee where I used cruise with econ on, and also did a quarter of the driving without cruise trying to get better mpg which did a touch.

In town I drive 5 over the speed limit and set the cruise as soon as I hit 25 usually with econ on. In town I have the windows down. I feel the cars sweet spot is suburban driving of speeds 35 to 50

[nameless00]

Those are great numbers, I'm almost jealous, but I haven't been trying as hard, the playful experimentation is just a lot of fun..

Try to stay at 74-75 mph if you use eco off and cruise, this is where the end of the power curve that mirrors 59-65 is, and so in practice you should get much better MPGs since you're using the same amount of fuel but traveling more distance. Should be the sweet spot for flat highways..

[abr]

Originally Posted by nameless00

Try to stay at 74-75 mph if you use eco off and cruise, this is where the end of the power curve that mirrors 59-65 is, and so in practice you should get much better MPGs since you're using the same amount of fuel but traveling more distance. Should be the sweet spot for flat highways..

Thanks!
Interesting because on a drive across the country I did notice I got better gas mileage driving 70 with econ off and cruise than I did driving 63 with econ on and cruise.
I'm going to have to increase the speed and see what happens.