87 mpg is acheivable

[aussieinsite]

After spending several days pouring over the Insight forum I attempted to takesome of the tricks discussed around improving fuel consumption, The tire pressure is 42 (little scared to go higher on long trips) and I removed any excess weight from the car, The tank is 80% full (original tires) the car is polished

The trip is a 100 km (62 miles) return journey on varied quality freeway roads (with a few inclines) with varied speed limits from 80kph (50 mph) to 110 (70 mph)

I attempted to keep to the speed limit, and returned 2.8l on the outbound and 2.7 on the return (87.11 mpg) in Aus we use imperial so that actually relates to 105 mpg! . I find this figure amazing from a car that has done 57,000 km and is a 2001 model.

I also recently completed a 1600 return trip Sydney to Melbourne and returned 3.7 l i travelled at an average speed of 122KPH (75 mph)

Interestingly I found that on the instant fuel consumption gauge that at approx 70, 105 and 120 the consumption hovered around 3.2 as i increased or decreased the speeds around these marks the consumption fell dramatically. The ar also had an extra 120kg of crap and a passenger to add to the distress of disapointing consumption.

One more thing I took the car for a service at new yard, apart from a general botched job by the mechanics, Fuel consumption after the visit increased from an average of 3.4 to 3.9…. I also notice that the battery charge seems to be on all the time, has anyone noticed a change in the performance of their car after a service? have they been upgrading the electronics?

Regards and thanks for the forum it is an invaluable resource

[Guillermo]

When a car goes to a mechanic for regular maintenance service it's very common for the mechanic to check the tire pressures and then change them to 32 psi

[Dougie]

I don't think there's a safety problem with running the tires at the maximum listed on the sidewall.

Also, why are you filling up your tank? If you aim for a 200 mile range, that's only around 4 gallons...which saves quite a bit of weight...

[ghillie]

Another Australian insighter on this forum!

My fuel economy experience is about the same as yours - so if you're a new Insighter that's good going (not that I'm a mad keen hypermiler). A very good trip for me with some suburban traffic lights will return about 2.8 l/100km. Mostly though I average about 3.1l/100km in summer and 3.3 in winter. Mostly I drive in the suburbs with some freeway travel and not much "rush hour" stop start.

I run the original Bridgestone B381 tyres at 44 front and 42 rear. They are due for replacement (not due to tread depth but age as they are now 6 years old) and I am thinking about getting Michelin Energy XM1 tyres to try and get better handling without losing much (if any) FE.

I don't understand your comment about the instant fuel consumption read out at different freeway speeds. If you clarify it I can comment as to whether it is similar to my own experience. On the freeway it's important to keep the engine in lean burn as much as possible but going by the FE figures you're getting I think you must be doing that.

Have you had your Insight long? I was in Sydney over Christmas/New Year and saw a red Insight parked on Darling Point road. Honda Australia told me only 45 Insights were sold in Australia. Seven of those were in the Citrus colour, one of which I saw today driving in the Dandenong ranges east of Melbourne.

I did not drive my Insight to Sydney so I can't compare your average FE on the Sydney/Melbourne trip. But if your average speed was 122kph you must have been belting along for a fair bit so I'm not surprised that your FE was much worse than what you normally can achieve. I doubt that the extra weight made much difference - I think it would have been the speed.

My trip to Sydney and back to Melbourne was done in my Prius. The Prius usually gets about 4.8 l/100km in summer and 5.0l/100km in winter general running around. Melbourne/Sydney got 4.8l/100km and Sydney/Melbourne 4.6l/100km. I didn't try and track average speed but I usually drive a few km/hr over the limit on the speedo so I think the true speed is just under the limit. My guess is that my average speed on the trip (almost all freeway if you go on the Hume) was a bit over 100km/hour. I would guess that at a similar average speed the Insight would also get FE about the same as usual running.

Good luck with your Insight and welcome to the forum!

[aussieinsite]

Thanks for your reply, cannot expand to much further regarding the FC at different speeds just noticed that there appeared to be "hot" points if you like, where FC was about the same regardless of speed. I guess that is lean burn. You have never experienced this?

I mentioned this because belting along at 122 - 140 returned the same FC as at 100K's so i figured if it makes no difference, I also notice that when the battery is more than 2/3 full it stops charging and returns improved economy, I had not noticed this before. . I have to agree now that you mention it in the run down to Sydney from the highlands I reset the guage slowed down and returned 2.4 for nearly 200K drive, I had forgotten about that achievement, low fuel, hot tyres and hot weather, no Aircon just blow thru.

I was getting about 3.2 before the service at the local Honda dealer, which was a disaster. Averaging high 3 low 4's now although my partner is now driving it and has not yet grasped all the concepts regarding this car.

Yes that was my car on Darling Point Road. I understand that it was the last car sold in Australia, and a real looker... I thin I have had him for about a year now. There is another red in sydney with 'eletrc' or such number plates, and one Red one for sale in melbourne.

It really is a pity that the aussie car mags slammed the car - cannot understand it.

I just love this car for it's holistic approach - a very Zen approach to transport - more cars should take such an example from nature.

I hope yours is not the Insight for sale in Melbourne

[ghillie]

Aussie..........

I haven't noticed any "hot" points where FC remains unchanged over a significant speed range.

Lean burn has been discussed at length on this site. If I get my car into lean burn I can run along a flat freeway at about 90 km/hr with the instant fuel consumption read out showing a little over 2l/100km. If the freeway goes into even a very slight incline, extra load will go on the engine even if I don't press the accelerator and instant fuel economy will deteriorate to at least over 3 l/100km. This is the effect of coming out of lean burn.

Even if the engine doesn't go under load it will regularly drop out of lean burn (to purge the catalytic converter I think). If I hold the accelerator at the same point the car will pick up lean burn again after a short distance.

If the battery falls below 2/3 charge the system may "force charge" the battery. I haven't really tracked the effect on FC of this.

Great coincidence your car being the one I saw in Sydney. Congratulations on getting the last sold in Australia! I don't know if there is any way you could confirm this. Build date is shown under the bonnet (mine is January 2001) but this won't say much about sale date. However, as far as I know almost all Insights in Australia are 2001 models so if yours is 2002 or later that would indicate a late sale date. I don't know how many Australian Insights are post 2001 - but black was not available as a colour in 2001 so the black cars (I believe there are only 2 in Australia) were not 2001 models. (I'm beginning to feel like an anorak.)

My car is not the one for sale in Melbourne. I believe it is a car that was for sale in Tasmania about 2 years ago. I enquired about it at the time but the seller was too inflexible on price. It seems to have been reasonably well looked after.

I agree with you about the motoring journalists' attitudes towards the Insight. They mostly seem to be quite unable to divine the character of this special little car.

Happy motoring!