How do you drive your CMax?

[Jus-A-CMax]

Just a simple poll to see how the owner/posters here drive their CMax within the following speed range:

0-20mph

21-55mph

55mph+

 

Just indicate your predominant driving, choose multiple if you have to. 

 

Also, if you respond, please indicate your average MPG and what you selected. Be fun & nice to see what the "trending" in the driving technique is here for our hybrid.

 

Thanks.

:) 

 

For me:

0-20 EV

21-55mph, generally P&G

55+ ICE High MPG with eco, sometimes manual when I decide to have fun, P&G, or just eco-cruise.

 

For me, the key is the 0-20mph. IMO, this saves me the most gas.

Edited March 22, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[JulieB]

How do I drive my C-Max? I put my hands on the steering wheel, and...

 

;-)

[BillJ]

My car before the C-Max was a Mini Cooper S coupe. I loved the pickup and responsiveness of that little guy. But my wife and I moved to the big city, and there is just no reason to have a performance vehicle here.

 

The point is, the C-Max has turned me, a veteran "performance" driver, into a hypermiler! Perhaps it is my OCD, but I get a kick out of how high I can get the MPG ratings at the end of a trip. I accelerate slowly, acting as if there were something fragile that might be crushed between my foot and the accelerator. I make sure that I stay in EV mode as much as possible, anticipate slowing and stopping. I can't stand it when I am in the passenger seat and my wife is "wasting" gas by engaging the ICE unnecessarily.

 

Ambient temperatures here in Philadelphia have been in the 30's and low 40's, but I can still get 50+ mph in city traffic. Eco-cruising on the NJ Turnpike yields about 42-43 mpg at these temperatures. If my wife drives, with the heater on high and coming out of every intersection on ICE, we get in the high 20's mpg. (Putting climate on "auto" degrades mpg by about 10-20% at 30 degrees F, even more when the air is colder).

 

To sum up, how do I drive? Like my grandmother used to...

[Tree63]

0-20 - if no one is behind, I'll stay in EV but most times, especially if not in curb lane, I accelerate modestly with traffic to lessen frustration for others behind me.

 

20-55 - I go into EV as soon as I can, for as long as I can,  taking foot off pedal if ICE kicks in and I think I can stretch EV (ie enough battery left, engine temp is ok,, etc)

 

>55 - I am finding eco/cruise to work as well as I can manually - so now I just trust the car smarts.

 

I am so glad engine is silent at stops, stop-and-go traffic and red lights - feels great.

 

It is still cold here so my mileage numbers are average with others up north - but any time weather goes above zero, I hit city and city/hwy EPA numbers easily. 

Looks like warm weather is a month away at least.

Edited March 23, 2013 by Tree63

[Adair]

I would have to say that I use each of them, according to time of day driving, traffic, weather, road conditions, etc, except P and G on the expressway. I don't think I've mastered that well enough to avoid p!$$ing off the other drivers here in MI, plus the roads here are horrible. It's like driving on an obstacle course sometimes to avoid  the potholes  :rant2: 

 

It does seem that I can milk a few more tenths of miles of mpg by doing it manually rather than eco-cruise sometimes tho.

 

Right now, I'm not entirely sure what is contributing to my improved MPGs......weather? engine break in? learning to drive a hybrid? I suspect all of the above.

[Jus-A-CMax]

I would have to say that I use each of them, according to time of day driving, traffic, weather, road conditions, etc, except P and G on the expressway. I don't think I've mastered that well enough to avoid p!$$ing off the other drivers here in MI, plus the roads here are horrible. It's like driving on an obstacle course sometimes to avoid  the potholes  :rant2: 

 

It does seem that I can milk a few more tenths of miles of mpg by doing it manually rather than eco-cruise sometimes tho.

 

Right now, I'm not entirely sure what is contributing to my improved MPGs......weather? engine break in? learning to drive a hybrid? I suspect all of the above.

 

Well pick the ones that apply - hence the multiple options. It's just to see how we drivers are trending, not scientific. May be some new drivers will come along and see something that they can visually take away in the sense that ... "hey, 55+ eco cruise is the way to go".

 

Improving MPG - from what I experienced, I would say 1 and more 3...I don't think new drivers realize how different hybrid driving really is as most of us have driven gas cars that fang 98-100% of our driving lives and to suddenly pull 50+MPGs, that cannot be expected. From what I have seen only those prior hybrid drives like Maximus, are able to extract those 50+MPGs consistently. Even moi still gets the high 30s when I fang but on a normal "day" I get my 47+ 90% of the time. Good stuff Adair...so glad to see you're finally the MPGs that this car has. Oh...as for engine breakin...you got still a long ways to go as my Mammoth Trip 4 thread demonstrates.... :)