How accurate is Toyota Auris Hybrid dashboard mpg? And is it comparable to non-hybrid Auris dashboard mpg?

[TonyHSD]

Lorries are fastest vehicles on the motorways these days followed by vans and other trades. Nothing slows them down , no speed limits, no cameras, no road works , nothing! It’s insane what is happening, and believe me 56mph they do in 30mph roads in London , they even drive faster than that on North Circular A406. If I record  with camera from my car you won’t believe it I was driving in town, you will think I was at close circuit, Good Wood, Silverstone or similar. 🚛🏁🏎

[Cyker]

1 hour ago, MagicBoy said:

It's a blanket speed limit in any lane of 70mph unless otherwise signed. The old fast and slow lane myth is just that and complete nonsense. Trucks generally have a 56mph limiter on them, but that's no valid reason for poor lane discipline.

Not to go off on a rant, but the number of drivers going slower since fuel prices shot up and bimbling along at 60mph in the middle lane with an empty lane or two on their left is concerning. As is the lack of visible police presence to help re-educate them. I passed my test nearly 30 years ago, and it's not like the rules have changed!

To be fair it was like that long before fuel prices were going up.

I'm almost always in the left lane, even if I'm doing 70mph, and on the M25 especially it's often the fastest lane as, for some reason, nobody seems to want to drive in that lane.

This is all especially true now thanks to the 'Smart Motorways', as often some total smeghead having a laugh in Highway England will just set a 50 or 60mph limit on one gantry for absolutely no reason and I will burn past everyone at the speed limit in a virtually empty left lane 60mph while everyone else in the other lanes bunches up to nearly a complete stop, slamming on their brakes as the people in front slow for the speed limit forcing the person behind to brake more, forcing the person behind them to brake more etc.

<rant>

I swear the people operating these smart motorway gantrys are actually trying to cause more accidents - I can honestly say that because of the way they are operated, Smart Motorways are FAR more dangerous than normal 'dumb' motorways, esp. the all-lane running ones. Whoever's operating them needs to be fired and replaced with people who understand the consequences of what they're doing!

For instance they need to understand that under NO circumstances should they post speed limits less than 60mph unless there is an actual danger - Certainly not just because it's congested!

The reason is, as soon as you post a speed limit of 50 or less, what happens is EVERY SINGLE LORRY will dive into lanes 2 and 3 to overtake all the cars that slow to 50mph in lane 1! And often the next gantry won't have any speed limit or be a 60mph or the speed limit is changed behind so they end up trapped and you have a mix of people thinking the speed limit is different. This just increases the risk of a collision greatly, and frequently does judging by how many more times the 'Smart' sections of the M25 get closed due to a collision these days!

They should also be blocked from setting speed limits with more than 10mph difference between gantrys and it should always be one way and consistent, no 60 50 40 60 40 or 60 60 60 40 60 60 like I frequently see, which just confuses the heck out of everyone.

Also, when speed limits are raised back again, they should be raised at the forward most gantry FIRST and then cascaded back, NOT the way they do it now which is change the speed limit on all of them at the same time or, worse, start from the rear-most one! The reasons why this should be done is obvious to anyone with a brain, which the Smart gantry operators seem very short on.

These are all complaints I've e-mailed to Highways tho' but they really don't give a damn judging by the boiler plate replies I get, if I even get a reply, and how nothing's changed.

 

[trashman1965]

I always thought they were automated based on traffic volume and could be set manually if there were incidents? The varying limits were intended to maintain flow and there is some logic if traffic is or might be bunching amd to prevent bunching by reducing and easing in stages.

[Cyker]

That's how they say it should work in theory, but honestly, I think the sudden surprise speed limit changes are just exacerbating the traffic jams - They turn what would be minor congestion into a full on log-jam as some people panic brake for the signs and lorry drivers try to move around people who are slowing.

This is all subjective, but I feel the traffic flow at busy times on the M25 is actually worse than before it was changed to 4 lanes and 'Smart'. I know this is partly due to more cars on the road, but when it was 3 lanes and a hard shoulder, the section I use was slow during rush hours but 2nd-3rd gear slow, and for it to be closed was almost unheard of.

Now, 1st gear crawls and having to stop is a regular and normal occurrence at rush-hour - The extra lane has done nothing to alleviate that, and whole sections seem to get closed off at least once a fortnight, usually during rush hour. I've been trapped there several times due to the section I'm in being closed because of an incident, and there's never any warning on the gantrys to give me a chance to take an alternative route.

IMHO the Smart motorway system is an utter failure so far - They've wasted so much money on it and as a driver I've seen zero tangible benefit, but a lot of things made worse.

I don't think the system is automated because, if it is, they must be using a calculator watch from the 80's to run it!

The signs often turn on well after they should, and stay on far longer than they should, e.g. Lane closures still being active when the accident was cleared hours ago, and needlessly low speed limits on a near empty roads are common place - These are just training drivers to ignore the signs:

It used to be rare to see someone driving in a lane that had been X'd out, but now it's so common even lorry drivers do it because they've learned it's a good bet it's a false sign and they can shave a lot of time off while the 'mugs' crawl for the fake lane closure.

I had first hand experience of this excessive sign change delay, being stranded for well over half an hour before they even noticed we were there, and I think even then only because of my call to Toyota Roadside, who sent an AA van who arrived, apologetically said he couldn't stop due to there being no hard shoulder and he'd have to call it in to Highways, and drove off! In fact, IIRC the gantry signs didn't change until AFTER the AA man had been and gone, and I saw several lorrys got very close to clipping our car because they didn't have enough warning to fully move over into the next lane.

After they closed the whole motorway (On an Easter Weekend...! ), a Highways 4x4 arrived and escorted us (On the flat tyre!) to the next layby, and even when the AA came back to the layby I could see the signs still hadn't changed back!

And nothing's changed - I still regularly see broken down cars with no gantry warning, or gantry warnings that turn out to be false. It's just an utter failure for its intended purpose - It hasn't improved traffic flow or congestion, actually made it worse, and it hasn't made it safer for drivers, actually mode it more dangerous. But they're still rolling them out regardless - I assume someone in charge is making a pretty penny out of this.

[Nicolai]

My 2013 model is about 5 to 10 percent optimistic in its readings. Seems more accurate post facelift...?

[TonyHSD]

2 hours ago, Nicolai said:

My 2013 model is about 5 to 10 percent optimistic in its readings. Seems more accurate post facelift...?

2010-2012 super accurate, however accuracy depends on how long you drive the car each time. Longer you drive more accurate the display figures will be because the car will have more time to calculate correctly and equalises the results to the actual consumption. My car currently displays 62mpg, actual numbers vary between 60-62.8mpg, so very close 👍