Honda Accord Hybrid: 50 MPG City - clone Toyota

The comments and results do seem similar. Like myself, I'll bet most on the Honda site are new to hybrids. I picked mine up in late May, and cruised through the summer and fall easily producing great numbers. After that, the weather was the single most negative factor, especially the wind. The difference between car.com results and most everyone else is quite a large difference. Weather does not seem to be a factor.

Unlike normal ICE vehicles, normal day to day driving conditions seem to have a much great impact on hybrid performance. Wind, Cold, hills. Even with the cold, I have no trouble achieving +40 mpg on a longer drive if it's 60 mph or less. The major change is on my commute, which is incline one way, sometimes windy in a major way, and heat is required. Not unusual that my drive in results in 35 - 38 mpg, and the return trip is 40 or better.

Another difference between the Prius and the sedans, including the Camry hybrid, is that the engines don't drone on and on, struggling to go up the inclines and larger hills. I guess in the Prius, you'd call that additional Feedback

Last summer I had no trouble exceeding 44 mpg on long, hilly interstate trips. I didn't baby it, I went 75 mph pretty much the entire way, and back. It would be interesting to guesstimate what I'd get now with the snow tires on and the cold weather, but I have no desire to do another 600 plus mile test trip now.

 

all good points, and on ice cars, you don't think about mpg's or have the readout in front of you at all times. pre hybrid, we new winter mpg's were lower, but you don't contemplate it like we do here!

 

Let's be honest here, most hybrid owners are a little obsessive regarding mpg.

"Oh my god...what's wrong with my car...I only got 41 mpg. "

 

I was always slightly anal about gas mileage, and I've had many cars in my lifetime that got between 35 and sometimes over 40 mpg average. My 2004 Corolla was so consistent, winter/summer, no matter, it got between 36 and 38 all the time. When I beat on it a bit, it would DIVE down to 34/35. The ICE cars for the most part, I've never seen much in the way of a drop in mileage in the winter. The only times were during extensive warm ups, same as any car.

My Avalon had the mileage readout, and it does make you pay more attention. That car got 30-33 on a trip, generallly averaged 26/28 overall.

 

Funny...I had a 1985 Honda CRX that matched what I get in my Prius.

 

the winter summer difference is larger because the ice has to run more often in the hybrid to warm up and provide heat.
but ice cars still have to deal with winter gas and other inefficiencies of cold weather. i can't quantify it, but in our pre hybrid camry's, it was noticeable. most of our driving is local, so the short trips around town are probably more notieable in an ice vehicle than longer highway use.

 

To add to that, while a hybrid's ICE might be at operating temperature the traction battery may still need time to warm up to efficient temperatures.

Also keep in mind the winter hit is in a percentage to efficiency. Even if a hybrid was impacted to the same extant as an ICE car, the percent drop on higher mpgs means a higher whole number one.

 

Have you noticed how most of the rest of the population is totally disengaged, not even aware of what MPG their vehicle actually delivers?

From their perspective, it would indeed be reasonable to use an "obsessive" label for our awareness.

From our perspective, we show a respective disappointment for their lack of concern.

I am left in dismay seeing such a large quantity of people simply not interested, claiming MPG in the 30's is good progress. That makes it even more refreshing when new hybrid owners seek out information, asking questions to learn about what actually affects fuel efficiency. That active participation may be interpreted by some as being a little obsessed. We don't see it that way.

As for identifying "hybrid owners" based on some thread samples and perhaps some random in-person encounters, think about how many their actually are. Of the 102,284 members on this forum, how many actually exhibit the obsession? Most are just quiet owners reading posts. Toyota has sold over 6,000,000 hybrids. How many of them?

 

Television marketing has proclaimed '30 something' MPG as good. They don't even say highway anymore, only 'it gets 31 MPG' , etc...

Big issue is gasoline is not a big enough expense for a lot of people. I'm guessing that spending 30 or $40 a week on gas doesn't phase a lot of (most?) people.

Meanwhile we're having 'extreme drought' conditions in CA and a massive high pressure system leaves us with a smoggy haze on the horizon.

 

all true my friends. time for an increase in the gas tax. anyonehave o'bama's number?

 

422

 

Awww, look at Toyota's signature Baby Blue color for the Camry Hybrid -

 

Bob, admittedly you have more knowledge, resources and time allocated to research this aspect than I. If you feel inclined, it would be interesting to see the 2014.5 Camry Hybrid added to your model.

 

wow ..... less than 1/3 of 1% between the two.
.

 

Another good review by Alex on Autos; 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid Review and Road Test

 

and $7k.