Three weeks ago I bought an Insight. An hour after flying to SC to pick it up, I was on the road home to Texas. That first day (180 miles) I averaged 75 mpg. I had no idea what I was doing, just driving. The next day I started trying to learn how to get good mileage and I drove 933 miles and averaged 69 mpg, then on the third day I averaged 68 mpg and the battery went into RECAL. As the days went by I got worse and worse mileage and I got more RECALs until early this week when I could barely manage 57 mpg.
I was constantly finding myself as the source of traffic jamb and unable to keep the battery charged at anything over 35 mph.
Yesterday I found the secret.
I QUIT TRYING.
Yesterday and today I am now averaging 64mpg and getting better every day. I am also less frustrated at my failings. I now no longer look at the charge and assist gages. I quit following the mpg gage. Now I just drive at the speed limit and watch ONLY the speedometer. Occasionally I will note that I am in "lean burn" and I will attempt to hold it there. But that usually causes me to progressively loose speed and go into assist so I abandon it and get back to driving the damned car. The battery is staying charged now and my mileage has greatly improved!!!
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Jim Isbell
2000, 5 speed, 250,000 miles
"If you are not living on the edge, well then,
you are just taking up too much space."
The dash and gauges are like training wheels to help you develop awareness and a feel for things.
A skilled driver will feel when he is in lean burn without needing to look at the dash at all... a skilled driver will be able to tell how fast and and what mpg he is doing without ever looking at the dash... a skilled driver will want to be more aware of the road & conditions ahead of him in order to properly prepare.
If you think you are at that point then good for you
But never think you have nothing further to learn... and can not improve... there is always room for improvement.
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2000 MT Red. Pioneer head unit with iPod direct link. Dead IMA.
LMPG: 57.0mpg over 198Kmi
OMPG: 57.7mpg over 104Kmi
Best tank: 70.2mpg over 633mi
Best short trip: 87.8mpg over 18mi
Best long trip: 70.5mpg over 103mi
Best round trip: 76.1mpg over 46mi
Until 5 years ago I owned a 44' ketch (steel hulled of course) that was named Millennium Falcon.
As to feeling lean burn, I found out why, at least on my car. For some reason, just as it goes into lean burn it also kicks the assist. It gives me a boot in the backside and if I look down quick enough I will see 5 bars of assist just fading out. At first I couldn't figure out why I should feel that acceleration just before going into lean burn and then I noticed that just as it kicks in it ALSO gives a pulse of assist.
"This is the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs" I guess it was the electric assist that helped.
__________________
Jim Isbell
2000, 5 speed, 250,000 miles
"If you are not living on the edge, well then,
you are just taking up too much space."
If you think you are at that point then good for you
But never think you have nothing further to learn... and can not improve... there is always room for improvement.
NO, I don't think I am at that point. The point I was making was that trying too hard is detrimental to success. So I am now not trying as hard. I am just going back to my FIRST method which was, don't try, just drive the car and it will all work out. I think that on-board computer is pretty good at what it does without interference from the driver trying to tell it how to do its job.
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Jim Isbell
2000, 5 speed, 250,000 miles
"If you are not living on the edge, well then,
you are just taking up too much space."
In some conditions it seems like going slowly makes the economy worse. I find myself going slower and slower to try to keep the gauge up over 100, and then notice that I'm grinding up a grade at 35 mph with the gauge on 50.
But if I just blast along at 50, I get up over the same hill with just a short burst of assist and stay up over 75 the whole time...
Exactly. This morning I drove a route that I hate to use, up over the Harbor Bridge over Corpus Christi Channel. Usually I start the bridge at 55 reach the top at 35 mph and I have almost depleted my IMA, but this morning I approached it at 65 mph...a bit over the 55 mph speed limit...and slowly let the speed bleed back to 48 mph, but not trying to avoid assist but keeping it to 5 bars and I topped the bridge loosing only 2 bars of IMA and I regained them by the time I descended the other side. A lot easier to do that trying to minimize the IMA usage.
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Jim Isbell
2000, 5 speed, 250,000 miles
"If you are not living on the edge, well then,
you are just taking up too much space."
Three weeks ago I bought an Insight. ... I had no idea what I was doing, just driving.
... Yesterday I found the secret. ... I QUIT TRYING.
Don't take this the wrong way but it will take about six (6) months to begin to really understand how to use that "new" car.
The "secret" to driving an Insight is experience which only comes with time; these Insights are NOT like the typical passinger cars to be found on the highways these days - these Insights are different - a lot different - and this includes those "immatation hybrids" currently being pushed by "the big three" and others these days.
That you "had no idea what" you were doing when you got the car, believe me when I suggest that such an insight (no pun intended) was and is NOT unique to you. With one or two possible exceptions here, that was the way it was with all of us to; actually we had an idea of what we had but really, we just didn't know what or to put it better, we just didn't know how to drive those little cars to get the maximum (or even close to it) performance out of them. In my case all I firmly knew when I picked up my Insight what that I did not have a racing machine - there were only three (3) cylinders up there! So when I left the dealership, I got into the right hand lane, slowed down and smiled nicely as the much larger SUV and those other gas guzzling "super tankers" shot on by.
If the above doesn't make too much sense to you now, this time next year it will.
Hope this helps some and by the way - Best of luck with the car!
The point I was making, was that "I had no idea what I was doing" ...AND... I got great mileage (75mpg).
When I started micromanaging the car I got worse mileage. I have a 450 mile trip that I take repeatedly, thats 7 to 9 hours of driving. 7 to 9 hours of micromanaging a computer is stressful. I don't need that if the computer can get me 75 mpg all the time. The 7 to 9 hours of driving is stress enough without adding on more. I think that 75 mpg is great and I have no desire to get 85 mpg if I have to spend the whole 450 miles micromanaging a computer and arrive all stressed out over the effort.
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Jim Isbell
2000, 5 speed, 250,000 miles
"If you are not living on the edge, well then,
you are just taking up too much space."
Fred is right. In about a year maybe you'll get the hang of it, I'm at two years and still learning. Once you get used to it, it's more fun and relaxing than stressful. Plus it gives you something to do on those trips. I found it a bit overwhelming at first too.
The Insight is especially amazing because it can teach you to drive other cars more efficiently.
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2006 MT
MIMA w/FAS module
various mods to driver
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An Insight to better mileage
