2018 HyCam amateur review and ongoing blog

Well, I'm a little disappointed. 50.8 MPG lifetime displayed minus 4.75 percent is around 48.4 MPG which is awesome in general but the car is rated for 52.

 

I took my first ever highway trip to to valley. Got 58 MPG (displayed) going down to the valley at 70 MPH. Only got 46 MPG on the return trip uphill for an average of 52 MPG displayed round trip.

If the display didn't run a bit hot this would be impressive and in line with what the car is rated but the actual MPGs at the pump are about 4.75 percent less or 49.5 MPGs. Not bad but not the advertised 53 MPG highway either.

I used no climate control at all BTW.

 

51 MPG Lifetime displayed.

My old hybrid was a great car but it was under powered. Now with the new 2018 Hybrid Camry:

 

Tank 4
53.2 calculated vs 55.7 MPG displayed (best tank so far)
or 4.5 % optimistic

Lifetime average 51.6 (displayed)
trip 548.9 miles
10.314 gallons
$24.74




Tank 1 was:
52.7 MPG at the pump vs 55.0 MPG displayed
or 4.3% optimistic

Tank 2 was:
51.64 MPG calculated vs 54.2 MPG displayed.
or 4.9% optimistic

and Tank 3 was:
52.6 MPG calculated vs 55.3 displayed.
or 5.1% optimistic

 

Congratulations Spindifferent! I hope you like your new car. I certainly like mine, maybe more than my nitpicky personality lets on.

 

So a word about my last tank which included a stint of highway driving.

My basis for comparison are my previous hybrid and the EPA estimates.

Compared to my previous hybrid the highway trip in the Camry was impressive. The Camry has a lot more power and got slightly better mileage then the previous hybrid on the highway. The Camry had no trouble maintaining speeds in spite of some steep terrain.

Compared to EPA the Camry was slightly disappointing on the highway. I mean it does great, just not as great as advertised, so far anyhow. We will see what warmer temps do this Summer.

On my regular commute my previous hybrid got much better mileage than the Camry. The Camry is doing fine but I'm using some special techniques just to meet EPA. My previous hybrid got up to 80 MPG (for a whole tank, not just a short trip) using these techniques in spite of being rated similarly to the Camry. Once again we will see what warmer weather brings.

 

Honda Civic Hybrid with a manual transmission. The Civic's display was slightly optimistic so this tank just squeaked past 80 MPG calculated.



Managed 1000 miles on one tank:

 

I'm not sure. I took it in a couple of times for some updates and eventually had to replace the battery.

Yes, lets talk about that. The EPA has changed the way they do things more than once. They made a big change during the time I owned my last hybrid leading to 2 different ratings for the same vehicle, one in the new standard and one on the old.

Now I had thought that they changed the highway test to include higher speed and more accessory use and also that they "adjusted" the ratings (downward) to be more realistic.

Upon further investigation it looks like my assumptions were only partly correct and I'm still not sure exactly how all this works. Now I understand that they did NOT change the highway test but added 2 new tests in addition? I also saw something about a 22% derating?

It actually looks to me as if there are 4 tests, a city, a highway, an aggressive driving and an accessory test?

EDIT: Maybe 5 tests including those listed above plus a cold weather test.

What is your understanding of the current EPA methodology?

 

Looks like maybe 5 tests...


City, Highway, High Speed, A/C, and ColdTemp

Detailed Test Information

Looks like there was a big change in 2008 and a small adjustment in 2017. Maybe a change way back in 1984 as well.

2017 Ratings Changes

 

Hit 52 MPG lifetime! The displayed mileage now matches the EPA combined rating.This would make me happier except the display is about 4.75% high so it looks like 2.5 MPG to go to really be matching EPA calculated at the pump. I'm confident warmer temps will get us there, eventually.

 

Pics? Mileage so far?