Quote:
Originally Posted by F-U-Jimmy
I owned a Ford Escape Hybrid for 3 years it was supposed to do 33/36 mpg but I never got more than 25 mpg and I guess unless you drive at a constant 56 mph on a flat surface with no stops and starts one would never obtain those figures. I wonder how you would need to drive to get 300 mpg, Driving at 56 mph is not realistic at least if you want to live here in San Diego.  |
let me guess, you're one of those hybrid owners that think they can drive 80+MPH and get EPA gas mileage? You have to use a little logic, anything with regenerative braking it PAYS to coast and lightly brake into your stops.
in my civic hybrid I just got back from a 130mi round trip doing the speed limit the entire way (70) and came back with 47MPG without trying hard, there were some spots I was doing 75 just to get my ass out of the way of traffic but coasting off my exits make up for that.
what you see of the EPA number you basically have to average around 50MPH wherever you go and this is true with ANY car. In my civic driving 55MPH everywhere I can get close to 60 MPG but even knowing that I say FUCK IT! doing 70MPH for a solid 500-550 mile stretch I set the cruise at 70MPH and averaged 50MPG and this included driving THROUGH chicago. From Kalamazoo, MI to minneapolis, MN is about 550miles.
I've been stuck in bumper to bumper traffic plenty of times in about every city you can think of from chicago, detroit, Atlanta, Tampa, Orlando and about every decent sized city in between... As long as you use coasting and light acceleration you can keep good gas mileage. Its the drive fast just to slam on the brakes types that will always be extremely disappointed in a hybrid because you really do have to drive differently to take advantage of them. They reward you for better driving habits.