Daily motorway driving better than expected

[Roy124]

To a point, but I am frequently tailgated as they seem to think using my braking space will get them to their destination sooner. If they do overtake then they have the truck in front and frequently slow cars in lane 2 as well. 

[Cyker]

Yeah, had that on the way home today! 3 lanes of artics trying to overtake one-another with a delta of 2mph and everyone else trying to get into lane 4 to overtake them!

I just stayed behind a Downton artic in lane 1, auto-cruising at 56mph with the separation set at 2 blocks and watched everyone bunch up in the other lanes. The way some people were cutting in front of each other to get to lane 4 it's no wonder there have been so many accidents on the M25!! There was a national express coach too and they weren't taking any prisoners!! I didn't think they were allowed in lane 4 but oh well..

Got my mpg up to 77 while watching all that unfold  

 

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

Yeah, had that on the way home today! 3 lanes of artics trying to overtake one-another with a delta of 2mph and everyone else trying to get into lane 4 to overtake them!

I just stayed behind a Downton artic in lane 1, auto-cruising at 56mph with the separation set at 2 blocks and watched everyone bunch up in the other lanes. The way some people were cutting in front of each other to get to lane 4 it's no wonder there have been so many accidents on the M25!! There was a national express coach too and they weren't taking any prisoners!! I didn't think they were allowed in lane 4 but oh well..

Got my mpg up to 77 while watching all that unfold  

 

Now you believe my comment from previous post., lorry drivers are racing along all lanes and national express and £1 blue buses are the fastest ones from the big brothers. M25 and M1 are lovely places to watch track and bus racings, what are they rushing for ⛽️ or 🧻😂, there is another group too that are really fast and furious., the van drivers especially these box ones for removal companies, why they drive like on rally when they transport someone’s possession, I can only imagine what happens inside the cargo area 🤭 Camper vans too. Pretty much all vehicles that should drive slower than standard cars they actually do exactly opposite. 

[AndrueC]

Of course I've known HGVs trying to race each other but they are almost never faster than 60mph which is the point I made originally. I'm no fan of HGV drivers who engage in that because of the futility of it. There's rarely much to be gained when cars do it but for HGVs it can't make any useful difference and meanwhile they are jamming up all but the outside lane with their idiocy.

[Cyker]

Yeah, me and Mr Downton were doing exactly 56mph, it looked like the others were doing 57mph and 58mph judging by how slowly they were 'overtaking'  

To be fair, it was one of those bits of the M25 where a 3-laner merges with an onramp to become a 4-lane, so probably what had happened is an artic went to lane 2 to overtake, then suddenly found it was now in lane 3 as the the onramp joined to become the new lane 1. Meanwhile the new lane 1 has its own artics so lane 2 traffic can't move over and tries to pull ahead to get back in to lane 1, and lane 3 is still trying to finish its original overtake...

I guess there's a lot more pressure on truckers as usually the ones in the lefter lanes will yield and flash through the others to unblock the road, but I guess they had deadlines to meet and the traffic was quite heavy anyway...

Still, good for the fuel economy - a three truck slipstream's gotta be worth a few mpgs!  

 

[nielshm]

Milage is still great after more than 2 months. 65 mph seems to a kind of sweet spot, and I can still average 57 mpg on every single tank of fuel. 

If it's low wind, dry roads, low traffic density, I can hit 61 mpg, but it's pretty rare. 

I never stay behind caravans, trailers or lorries, but overtakes them when ever it's possible, without going faster than 75 mph. 

[Cyker]

Isn't it great?? You can have high mpgs, but when you want to overtake it has the instant launch!  

I find mine doesn't like doing sustained high speeds, but it is always able to accelerate immediately and rapidly whenever I ask it to; No needing to take a run-up like I did in the Mk2 - Just see a gap and go!

If only Toyota had engineered all their hybrids like this from day one!

 

[nielshm]

7 hours ago, Cyker said:

Isn't it great?? You can have high mpgs, but when you want to overtake it has the instant launch!  

I find mine doesn't like doing sustained high speeds, but it is always able to accelerate immediately and rapidly whenever I ask it to; No needing to take a run-up like I did in the Mk2 - Just see a gap and go!

If only Toyota had engineered all their hybrids like this from day one!

 

Yes it's great. The funny thing is, if I go slower, it does'nt returns much better mpg's. I spend more time on the road, I feel stuck in traffic, but mpg's is only a few percent better. 

On A-roads 55 mph returns a much better mpg than 50 mph. 60 mph is about the same as 55 mph.

65 mph seems to have a slight drop in mpg, so I choose this speed on motorways, and 55 mph on A-roads. 

In terms of Battery charging or not, it does'nt make much sense. Some days are without charging, 3-4 bars all the way, other days up to 9 bars, even on the motorway. I allways use cruise control, always with the same limits, so it's hard to figure out the difference. 

[AndrueC]

Yeah, 50 is below the sweet spot. I noticed that on my commute which - aside from the urban bits - iswas 50mph nearly all the way. I got better consumption at the weekends when driving on similar roads that don't have the 50 limit.

The one thing that never made much sense to me was the blue acceleration bar. Most of the time it wants you to accelerate like an asthmatic snail, other times (but in the same/similar situation) it's happy to let you go all the way up to PWR. There doesn't seem any logic to it. I suspect it's something to do with the charging function. Maybe it's saying that it'd prefer to use the ICE power to charge the Battery and by accelerating a bit harder you'd delay the Battery getting what it needs? Or maybe it'll have to run the ICE harder to meet the Battery and your needs so it wants you to cut back?

[TonyHSD]

60-65mph it’s the most efficient speed on motorway cruise for sure, but that applies to all cars even those with big powerful engines or electric motors like Tesla and the rest of the Evs. Toyota hybrids like these speeds and what doesn’t like is constant fast driving and keeping the car under load all the time, race with other cars, going long uphills (mountain drive) especially when you had lost your inertia, heavy winds, high rolling resistance from grabby winter tyres or under inflated ones and luggage on the roof. 

[Cyker]

Every car I've had, low-mid 50's was the most fuel efficient speed at constant speed - I credit all the 50mph roadworks I was driving through for the 800-odd miles I got out of a tank of diesel on my old Mk1 D4D!

I find if I run the Mk4 at a constant speed on e.g. cruise control, 56-ish mph is the most efficient speed and I'll easily get 70+mpg. (That may also be because I'm also stuck behind a lorry )

However, I can't be driving at 50mph everywhere, esp. on a motorway, so what I normally do is (slowly) accelerate to say, 70mph without going into the PWR band, so the engine just stays at 2000rpm the whole time, and then lift off so the car switches off the engine and then press the accelerator again, but only so it's just 4-5 bars on the power gauge (i.e. the most you can without making the engine kick in again - Might be a different range on the 'Rollas) - The car will run on electric only at that speed, slowly bleeding off the speed from 70mph, but keeping you going at the higher speeds for longer. I find the MPG goes up as quick as it does at 50mph, and the journey time is a shorter too!  

(This also helps offset the times when I just mash the pedal to get past someone )

I also find I get worse mpg using the cruise control than when I'm driving too, esp. over 60mph! The car tends to use B-mode engine braking too much to slow down, and accelerates far too much to catch up.

[Saxmaniac]

End of the day, MPG isn't much worse at 70 than 60, so you can get past lorries, if you want to tear around 88 to 85 with aggressive overtakes, that will eat the fuel. Just a relaxed style and 70 or a bit less gets you better MPG than a lot of diesels

[Cyker]

I thought my old Mk1 diesel was frugal, easily doing 64mpg on average, but the Mk4 absolutely canes it. I was worried I'd have to drive efficiently to get good mpg, like I was in the miserable Mk2 I had, but I'm not and still getting over 70mpg! This is a damned good car  

 

[TonyHSD]

12 hours ago, Cyker said:

I thought my old Mk1 diesel was frugal, easily doing 64mpg on average, but the Mk4 absolutely canes it. I was worried I'd have to drive efficiently to get good mpg, like I was in the miserable Mk2 I had, but I'm not and still getting over 70mpg! This is a damned good car  

 

I started to see a lots of these new Yaris hybrid everywhere, London particularly and even on the motorways around where usually hybrids are not very popular. For some reason the motorway guys are driving a bit on the faster side, perhaps the similarity with the  Yaris GR in appearance may have its tool 🤣👌. Been a port injection and great mpg I may also consider this model as a replacement of my Auris when the time is coming although I would prefer a bigger car like Prius 👍

[Roy124]

I remember an old lecture about power curves with best perfect 40% or 60%.  The former for endurance/economy and the latter for range.

[Cyker]

6 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

I started to see a lots of these new Yaris hybrid everywhere, London particularly and even on the motorways around where usually hybrids are not very popular. For some reason the motorway guys are driving a bit on the faster side, perhaps the similarity with the  Yaris GR in appearance may have its tool 🤣👌. Been a port injection and great mpg I may also consider this model as a replacement of my Auris when the time is coming although I would prefer a bigger car like Prius 👍

Yeah I've noticed that too - Mostly white ones (And I'm guessing Icon as they seem to have halogens!), but a few grey and blue ones too. Even seen a couple of GRrrr's!  

(I must admit I tried to keep up with one that I was following onto the A1, but no chance!  )

If the fast Motorway one was around 5pm it might have been me...!   The car is just really punchy at all speeds so it's hard to resist! I'm sure CPN will back me up! Right? Right...?

It is quite a shift, as the fastest increasing car I'd noticed before was the Model 3 (Loads of them just started appearing a few years ago, mostly going up and down the M1 but also the A406!), but there seem to be loads of Mk4s already... Even a few people in my street have gotten them, and that's a bit unusual as this street seems to be mostly german cars!

I think the Corolla or Prius would be better for you tho' - The Mk4 is surprisingly cramped, esp. compared to the Mk2 I had before. I think coming from an Auris you'll feel a bit claustrophobic!