I Think I've Cracked It!

January 3, 2011

Hi all, I am sooo happy, I felt I had to let you guys in on my experience. :)

I have described my situation in this forum before - I live in Norway on top of a large hill and surrounded by hills, freezing cold weather (ave. around -10C), "sticky" winter tyres fitted, brand new car (not loosened up), quite a lot of short trips and so on (all bad stuff as far as mpg is concerned). :crybaby:

I have now had my Auris HSD for about six weeks. I knew before I got it that this was not an "ordinary car", so I spent the first three or four weeks researching forums such as this and Prius Chat, learning and practicing how to drive a HSD car as efficiently as possible.

I swotted up on how the car really works (warm-up sequences and so on) and learned to trust the car and "let it do it's own thing" to a great extent.

I also learned (through experience) that driving it "like a granny" or trying to keep it in EV mode as long as possible are (surprisingly) bad things as far as mpg is concerned. :blink:

My big breakthrough was about a week ago when I finally came to grips with the whole "Pulse and Glide" thing. Suddenly, I felt like I was "at one" with how the car really wanted to be driven. (Sorry if I sounded a bit hippy there).

I reset my total average consumption readout (which at the time was showing 6.2 l/100km or 45 mpg UK) and started again.

In the last four days I have driven the same hilly roads in the same freezing weather with the same winter tyres on, and achieved an average consumption of 4.7 l/100km (60 mpg UK)! :yahoo:

This afternoon, I reset the trip computer again and drove 5.5km into town and got a trip average of 4.2 l/100km (67 mpg)!!!

(All these figures were taken from the onboard computer.)

Given the conditions this car is dealing with and the mileage it is returning, I am really friggin' impressed! :yahoo:

January 4, 2011

Hi all, I am sooo happy, I felt I had to let you guys in on my experience. :)
I have described my situation in this forum before - I live in Norway on top of a large hill and surrounded by hills, freezing cold weather (ave. around -10C), "sticky" winter tyres fitted, brand new car (not loosened up), quite a lot of short trips and so on (all bad stuff as far as mpg is concerned).
I have now had my Auris HSD for about six weeks. I knew before I got it that this was not an "ordinary car", so I spent the first three or four weeks researching forums such as this and Prius Chat, learning and practicing how to drive a HSD car as efficiently as possible.
I swotted up on how the car really works (warm-up sequences and so on) and learned to trust the car and "let it do it's own thing" to a great extent.
I also learned (through experience) that driving it "like a granny" or trying to keep it in EV mode as long as possible are (surprisingly) bad things as far as mpg is concerned.
My big breakthrough was about a week ago when I finally came to grips with the whole "Pulse and Glide" thing. Suddenly, I felt like I was "at one" with how the car really wanted to be driven. (Sorry if I sounded a bit hippy there).
I reset my total average consumption readout (which at the time was showing 6.2 l/100km or 45 mpg UK) and started again.
In the last four days I have driven the same hilly roads in the same freezing weather with the same winter tyres on, and achieved an average consumption of 4.7 l/100km (60 mpg UK)!
This afternoon, I reset the trip computer again and drove 5.5km into town and got a trip average of 4.2 l/100km (67 mpg)!!!
(All these figures were taken from the onboard computer.)
Given the conditions this car is dealing with and the mileage it is returning, I am really friggin' impressed!

Awesome! Come on, give us a tutorial on how to do it!!

I too learnt something in the last few days from an article posted here: switching to ECO mode in winter causes the ICE to stop at traffic lights (like in warmer times) instead of running just to warm up the cabin - I'm a little colder but richer!

January 6, 2011

My big breakthrough was about a week ago when I finally came to grips with the whole "Pulse and Glide" thing. Suddenly, I felt like I was "at one" with how the car really wanted to be driven.

It continues to amaze me how much the balance of driving style and road/traffic conditions influences fuel economy. Pulse and glide is so much more energy efficient than maintaining a steady speed, and when done well other drivers and even your passengers don't realise you are doing it. After a while you realise that it's just another reinvention - just look around you at nature and there are many examples of birds (flap and glide) and fish (twich and glide) that have evolved intermittent locomotion as the most energy efficient method. If you google this topic you will see many examples.

If you (like myself) get a kick out of the challenge of trying to drive this way (man and machine in perfect harmony), you will find that having a ScanGauge will allow you to get to the next level. You can optimise your pulses (using RPM) and glides (using BTA), allow you to hit Super Highway Mode (SHM). Monitoring engine temperature (CWT) will allow you to maximise efficiency during the 4 warmup stages and also give you confidence when applying 'heat retaining' options like grill-blocking and engine-block heating.

A final point to add was another surprise to me (the information above was all from Priuschat which I found to be true by testing myself). The other option is tyre over-pressuring and it is truly surprising the effect that this can have on fuel efficiency. Pruischat debates the pros and cons of this and other options. Remember that these are not mutually exclusive. Enjoy!