*****EPA 56-57 MPG CVT? How Come I don't Get That???***

[Skuits]

Hi all, I have a 2001 with a CVT and just under 80k miles. I have yet to get what the EPA MPG states I should be getting, and I don't know why?

I try to hyper-mile and drive conservatively, but the best I've gotten on the highway was 54 mpg. I get an average of 51 in town and my lifetime is about that, I do generally make short trips. I live in California and attributed my mpg's to hills etc. but am not sure I am that hilly, don't really have anything to compare it to. I can say confidently that's it's not flat like Texas around me

I was wondering if I should be concerned with my mileage and/or if someone had some tips on how I can get those extra 5 mpg.


Thanks in advance for the help!


Mark

[boogetyboogety]

http://www.insightcentral.net/KB/faq-quicktips.html

[Dougie]

EXcept not the "accelerate at full throttle" theory. I think this has been thoroughly debunked and should be removed from the FAQ. Pumping loss in the engine isa lot less important than tire hysteresis loss, drivetrain friction loss, etc.

[Skuits]

Hi all, I do follow those tips as closely as possible. It doesn't appear that I have a problem or issue I should be concerned with but just keep trying to tune my skills at driving.?



Mark

[Skuits]

Anyone know how the EPA estimated MPG's are calculated?

thanks,
Mark

[red1dr]

Originally Posted by Skuits

Hi all, I do follow those tips as closely as possible. It doesn't appear that I have a problem or issue I should be concerned with but just keep trying to tune my skills at driving.?
Mark

My sister manages about 60mpg in her 2005 Insight CVT, and she lives in Moraga near Berkeley (lots of hills).

I think your big problem is short trips. Each time you start from cold you pay a gas penalty to warm up the engine, and averaging that out takes quite a while.

A few suggestions:
(1) slow down (getting comfortable doing this takes time, may be a bit intimidating at first) - right lane on divided highways - but try to maintain the speed limit on smaller roads
(2) bump up tire pressure to the number on the sidewalls (probably 44) or higher if you feel comfortable - don't use gas station gauges, get your own
(3) set up the dash so you use one of the tripmeters for your daily mpg (resetting every evening), and try to build this up by working the instantaneous bar at the bottom of the dash - I use the other one for my tank mpg.
(4) visit c l e a n m p g [dot] c o m (remove the spaces and brackets) where they specialize in this sort of thing

[Dougie]

The EPA mileages are measured by putting the car on a roller and then "driving" it through various tightly specified cycles. There are a bunch of them, but the two most quoted ones are the "city" and "highway" cycles. The driver has to follow the acceleration and speed requirements very carefully for repeatability, and all cars use the same cycles.

The main complaints about the system are that it doesn't take into account aerodynamics and that the speeds are unrealistically slow. The driving cycles were defined in the 1970s when speeds were low (due to high fuel prices!). I forget exactly what they are but the highway cycle has a (brief) top speed of around 60 and the city cycle has some unrealistically long segments without stops. Today's driving conditions, with speeds in the 70s, strong acceleration expectations, and real city traffic jams make it so that the EPA numbers end up being low compared to most real world experience. There was also a "correction" factor applied a couple of years ago to try to compensate for today's driving conditions, which I think it stupid because we're going to be back to the "drive 55" rules here pretty soon anyway. Because of the correction factor you have to be careful when comparing recent EPA numbers with older.

There are some other cycles that include harder acceleration, A/C, higher speeds, etc. Sometimes you can find them by searching around.

The EPA numbers are good for making comparisons. You have to have some sort of standard, and that's what the EPA numbers provide. You can easily get EPA or better results if you drive like it was 1975.

[uhtrinity]

What tires do you have on the car and what psi are they set at?

[Skuits]

Hi all, thanks for the replies. I have the stock RE 92's set at 50 psi. I do use the instantaneous MPG readout like a video game, constantly try to keep it up above 50. As it is now, I've considered putting a warning sticker on the back of my car in hopes of keeping people from getting so uptight on how slow I am going

What would resetting my trip meter daily do for me? I keep it running from the time I fill up the tank.

I can't believe someone is getting 60 mpg's in a CVT doing hills etc. I need to find a job farther away from my house.

"Today's driving conditions, with speeds in the 70s, strong acceleration expectations, and real city traffic jams make it so that the EPA numbers end up being low compared to most real world experience."

Did you mean the EPA numbers were high? With your description of today's driving conditions (which I agree with) doesn't lend itself to being able to achieve the EPA numbers very easily based on your description of how the EPA arrives at the numbers, there by making them a high standard to achieve.?

Thanks,
Mark

[red1dr]

Originally Posted by Skuits

What would resetting my trip meter daily do for me? I keep it running from the time I fill up the tank.

I use Trip A for the tank MPG and Trip B for daily MPG, and have it set to show Trip B most of the time:
(1) You start off with a clean slate each day.
(2) When the mileage in the average gets high, the average is damped so that it's very difficult to get it to change at all. If you are averaging over a distance of <100 miles, you can see better how what you do affects the average. You can also use the FCD button, but I find using the tripmeter easier.