50+mpg trips

[mtb9153]

I hear you on the buttheads on the road, but it is possible to get good braking scores even with them.  My strategy is to keep a few extra car lengths between me and the car in front of me and to try my hardest to anticipate in advance of when I am going to have to brake.  I've personally always been that way, I watch all the cars around me and try to figure out what they are going to do, even when I was a more aggressive driver I was watching out for the buttheads.

 

If I even have an inkling we might be stopping I immediately take my foot off the gas and coast, even if we end up not stopping it's not like I'm losing a lot of speed to coasting.  As soon as I see I will need to brake I brake a little hard at first and then brake just hard enough to end up stopping right behind the guy in front of me.  Sometimes you get bad scores, but more often than not by anticipating what is going to happen I can pretty consistently get 100's.

SnitGTS, thanks for the insight.  I'm impressed with your braking prowess.  I've got to learn to not stab the pedal when I see brake lights going on ahead of me, that will help for starters.  One time I was approaching my freeway offramp and it was a long downhill ramp with either a stop at the bottom before a left turn or a right hand turn with no stop.  I was doing the stop at the time.  So I anticipated my slow gradual braking and for 3/4 of the ramp I was doing pretty good when suddenly  I realized I was running out of room and still going too fast so had to press the brake harder and my brake score plummeted to somewhere between 50% and 70% after it was close to 100% after a 20 mile cruise up the freeway.  Improvement is needed.

[mtb9153]

My advice for up hills....use ICE, not enuf power in EV (MTB forgetaboutit). If you can, keep it at 2 bars so u can charge and just before you peak, back off the pedal so u can allow EV to kick in and push u over the top..remember, little things make a big difference. Remember u can't fight physics going up hill so use ICE.

 

Downhills depends on a few things, steepness of grade, traffic on your a$$, next light or jammed traffic ahead... so that will influence whether u decide to use EV to power down, ICE to give u a burst say 5 mph above speed limit, or if steep enuf jus coast and gain regen... u have to make the call but remember, ICE uses gas which u can't get back if you're doing a 600+ tank run.

Great advice Jus, thanks.  I always have the greatest intentions as I'm driving but always seem to screw it up.  As for a 600+ tank?  :banghead:  I really think that lofty goal is long coming and I seriously doubt a 700 tank.  But if it's meant to happen?  It will.

Edited June 18, 2013 by mtb9153

[Noah Harbinger]

My old car, the brakes were not very good, so I got used to braking long and slow a long ways in advance of the light, leaving car lengths in front of me, etc. It definitely helped me get lots of 95%+ brake scores right off the bat. I think now I'm working towards making sure I don't brake too softly early on, thus getting stuck having to clamp down at the limit line. 

[salsaguy]

speaking of which, is the brake score only based on the last touch of the brakes till complete stop, so if you do what Jus said to brake harder to start then let off and then do the slow steady break till final stop that you will get closer to 100%, or is the brake coach score based on all braking in between the final braking including the initial brake and let off?

Edited June 16, 2013 by salsaguy

[Noah Harbinger]

The circle thing that comes up is just the last brake - if you let up enough so that it stops regenerating, and then brake again, it will only measure the second brake (it won't show the score if you don't come to a near-full stop).

 

The info screen with the bar chart I think is some sort of "recent driving" average. Too lazy/tired to look up the exact details.

[salsaguy]

what i mean is will the 1st brake (sudden partial brake or other) in a series of multiple but not complete stop brakes hurt your goal to reach 100% or will it not?

[Adair]

what i mean is will the 1st brake (sudden partial brake or other) in a series of multiple but not complete stop brakes hurt your goal to reach 100% or will it not?

I've wondered that myself. Many times I brake but don't come to a complete stop. Wondered if that counted. But my brake score is 97%, so if anything, it's not hurting me much.

[Jus-A-CMax]

I've wondered that myself. Many times I brake but don't come to a complete stop. Wondered if that counted. But my brake score is 97%, so if anything, it's not hurting me much.

IMO, the brake scores are not that critical in the overall scheme of things - a 97% vs 100% is not going to effect you as much as your acceleration or route selection. You can easily make up the 3% in the first P&G. Now if you score 50% all the time, thats a different story

[SnitGTS]

My old car, the brakes were not very good, so I got used to braking long and slow a long ways in advance of the light, leaving car lengths in front of me, etc. It definitely helped me get lots of 95%+ brake scores right off the bat. I think now I'm working towards making sure I don't brake too softly early on, thus getting stuck having to clamp down at the limit line. 

I still do this sometimes, but I'm trying my hardest to brake enough because it seems that getting 95% + scores recharges your battery quite a bit, clamping down on the brakes at the end really hurt the score.

[SnitGTS]

SnitGTS, thanks for the insight.  I'm impressed with your braking prowess.  I've got to learn to not stab the pedal when I see brake lights going on ahead of me, that will help for starters.  One time I was approaching my freeway offramp and it was a long downhill ramp with either a stop at the bottom before a left turn or a right hand turn with no stop.  I was doing the stop at the time.  So I anticipated my slow gradual braking and for 3/4 of the ramp I was doing pretty good when suddenly  I realized I was running out of room and still going too fast so had to press the brake harder and my brake score plummeted to somewhere between 50% and 70% after it was close to 100% after a 20 mile cruise up the freeway.  Improvement is needed.

I'm REALLY paying attention to my braking now because I have Progressive for my insurance and I'm doing the Snapshot where they track your driving for a month and then give you up to a 30% discount if you do good enough.  I read that hard braking was what they are primarily looking for, if you slow more than 7 mph per second the device beeps at you.  So far I've had it in for 12 days and I've only had two beeps, first was on the very first day a bunny ran out in front of me and the second was because someone pulled out in front of me when I was moving 45 mph...

[KAL Cmax]

Half is interstate 95 with the rest city. This is a routine round trip. Jus a Cmax is right, you start noticing the inclines and declines that you never saw before. I should be getting approximately 630 miles to this tank.

[SnitGTS]

BTW, just topped 1,000 miles on my way home from my parents house today and when I turned the car off my lifetime average has hit 47.0 mpg.  As soon as trip #2 hits 1,000 (another 40 miles or so) I will take a picture and post it, if I can get the mileage up a little bit I will have driven my first 1,000 miles in under 20 gallons! 

[salsaguy]

if you want another way to track your driving habits try the free  State Farm app "Driver Feedback" where it checks your acceleration, braking and cornering and let's you save trips/routes so you can try and beat your previous score each time.

what's cool is you can have a multiple people setup so you can compare drivers scores (wife/husband) to see who is the master driver in the home..., but do this at your own risk, especially if your better half is very competitive. ;)

Edited June 17, 2013 by salsaguy

[C-Maxgo]

Okay here's my first 50 mpg post. :sing_rain:  I drove from 25 to 35 mph on mostly flat roads in stop and go traffic.  

 

 

 

[Jus-A-CMax]

Okay here's my first 50 mpg post. :sing_rain:  I drove from 25 to 35 mph on mostly flat roads in stop and go traffic.  

 

 

If you keep this up, we'll have to add you to the 600 Mile Club ;) Go! Go! Go!

 

 

 

 

I am still rolling along....post 200+ miles at the moment, its going to be a    s....l....o......wwwww slog :shift:

Edited June 18, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[SnitGTS]

Ok guys, here it is, the first 1,000 mile tank!!!   :happy feet:    :camera:

 

 

Well, if I had a 20 gallon tank I would have!  ;)  Just passed 1,000 miles on the car at an average of 50.3 mpg!   :yahoo:

 

My average for the 450 miles on my second tank is 52.6 mpg, lifetime average is up to 47.4 mpg, when I got the car it had a 19.8 mpg average.  If I keep this up for another tank of gas or two my lifetime should pass 50.

Edited June 18, 2013 by SnitGTS

[Jus-A-CMax]

That is FREAKING awesome snitGTS...so young on the odo as well :)

 

Crap, I forgot about the 1000 mile challenge by DaveofDurham...but I may once my MPG madness is over ;)

[ScubaDadMiami]

Today was a banner day.  Not only did I break the 600+ range barrier on the very first tank, but I also hit my all time high for Trip MPG of 58.4.

 

With just over 730 miles, the break-in continues to go well.

Edited June 18, 2013 by ScubaDadMiami

[Adair]

You guys are amazing!!!

[C-Maxgo]

Here's another good driving day.  My husband couldn't keep his eyes open the whole way.  He ran in the house and took a nap, literally  :hysterical:.  This trip was traveling on mostly flat roads with speeds between 25 and 45 with traffic.  I'm starting to get the feel of the P&G a little more but yesterday driving at 25 mph average I had a hard time charging the battery let alone keeping it charged.  I'll have to work on that route.  Here's the proof:

 

[Jus-A-CMax]

Here's another good driving day.  My husband couldn't keep his eyes open the whole way.  He ran in the house and took a nap, literally  :hysterical:.  This trip was traveling on mostly flat roads with speeds between 25 and 45 with traffic.  I'm starting to get the feel of the P&G a little more but yesterday driving at 25 mph average I had a hard time charging the battery let alone keeping it charged.  I'll have to work on that route.  Here's the proof:

 

 

Keep going C-Maxgo, you're tracking nicely to be the next hypermiler. To charge, take the car to say 5 mph above the limit and let it glide, repeat and repeat till you get a "useable" level. Feel free to throw in some nice EV in betwen cycles. I would also suggest you keep a good eye on the front red lights and see if you can time crossing them without stopping -  without p*ss off the drivers behind you, be street smart. I think the timing helps a ton by saving you gas from the 0-35mph acceleration. Try that next time.

[Jus-A-CMax]

This is my best morning work trip stat to date....not sure what I did to squeeze 4 more MPGs out of it but it worked...

 

 

82% of the trip is EV :yahoo:

Edited June 21, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[salsaguy]

insane in the membrane!!

you da man Jus. here comes the 800 mi tank. :0

[Jus-A-CMax]

insane in the membrane!!

you da man Jus. here comes the 800 mi tank. :0

Thanks, keep an eye on the 800 thread as well. I am dropping hints and tips here and there...hope people are watching and learning...the more we crack this car, DA BETTER :rockon:

 

I am going to revamp my CMax review later when this is all over to add in a section for City driving. I am seeing this is totally different mentality to freeway/highway driving especially in the treatment of the battery/SOC.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[salsaguy]

jus that would be great to have a faq created by you and recump for the top 10-20 tips to get the highest mpg / longest range out of the C-Max.

having it in one document/place will be better for all the new (and potential) and seasoned cmax drivers.

thanks