[FastMover]

You think you have learned as much as possible about a subject, and then "DUH", something so obvious hits you that you feel like a dummie:

The name "Camry" comes from a phonetic transcription of the Japanese word kanmuri (?, ????), which means "crown", a tradition started with the Toyota Crown in the 1950s, and continued with the Corolla and Corona, which are also Latin words for "crown". It is an anagram for "my car".

The Crown used to be the flagship of the Toyota fleet in the earliest Toyota import days. They were very rare at that time, but my grandfather had one, a 1969 sedan.

RFB

Ref = http://www.loqu.com/hybrid-camry-com...erbunny-382664

Original Crown = http://www.toyoland.com/cars/crown.html

[Zippycamrygirl]

Fastmover,
What part of the country are you in? I see you are averaging 44 mpg! Wow thats amazing. I wonder what I am doing wrong to only get 33 mpg ( besides the fact that I live 4 miles from work and I live in the tundra ).... Good Job on your mpg and thanks for the cool story about the Camry / Crown...

[Philt]

You answered your own question. You can't get high mileage without driving further than 4 miles at a time. You are not doing anything wrong. The car is still warming up. Hey I wish I had a 4 mile commute. Mine is 110km each way (65 miles). When plug-ins become available you would be an ideal candidate.

[FastMover]

Zippycamrygirl said:

Fastmover,
What part of the country are you in? I see you are averaging 44 mpg! .....

I live in Washington State in a rural area south of Seattle and east of Olympia Washington in rolling foothills on the west side of the Cascades. I have a 32 mile communte (one way) that is mostly over two lane rural highways at a predominant speed of 55 MPH. Faster is not usually possible due to traffic, which includes logging trucks, feed trucks and lots of 16 wheelers. I am sufficiently rural that even heavy trucks must use the two lane routes, yet close enough to Olympia that the traffic is heavy enough to prevent passing. Also, there are very few stops along the main part of the communte. One stretch is 8 miles without a stop sign or light. Another is 6, etc. I have only about two miles of "city" type driving with stop lights and other speed limits, and these are coordinated to a speed of between 35 and 45 MPH, so with a little planning and by driving ahead of the car, you can avoid stops. I frequently drive to work, 32 miles away with only two complete stops. Same thing at the end of the day going home.

I am not a severe hypermiler, but I do study my car and drive to take advantage of the efficiencies that it offers. I use a driving profile for my commute that includes planned speeds for each curve and segment, planned accelerations and decelerations, and use of speed changes and dynamic braking to optomize the use of kinetic energy with a minimum of battery cycles. I have a scan gauge, and its primary use is to let me know accelerator pedal position. By doing this I can best determine when to place a charge on the battery bus, and when to just allow kinetic energy to build to be used on the next hill or curve. The use of raw kinetic energy is very important in my own driving profile because using it is much more efficient that converting it into a battery charge and then re-converting back into mechanical drive energy.

Route selection is also a part of my commute profile. I use two different routes each day, one to go to work and the other returning. Both routes are selected becasue they have steeper uphill segments and longer downhill segments that permit extended coasting (neutral charge/discharge). The routes also permit me to end with a charging segment and begin with a segment that requires the ICE anyway, so that the energy used for warmup is not wasted.

RFB

[Zippycamrygirl]

Wow, thats pretty well thought out. Oh my....I just get in and drive I have a lot to learn here.
Thank you for the reply, it will help me on my journey to top mileage.
Zippy

[FastMover]

Zippy.... Not much information on your profile, but since you say that you live in the Tundra, a tank heater and or oil heater might help. That would permit you to get into the EV modes in less time. (It would also provide instant cabin comfort on those "tundra" mornings <grins>.)

Is your car garaged? Only 4 miles is not much time to actually get to the EV modes after an allowance for warmup. On very cold mornings you might actually never get to stage 3 operation. (If you don't know what that is look HERE.)

If you have a choice of routes, chose a route with the stops at the end instead of stops at the begining. Sitting with the ICE running for warmup hurts FE.

One other thing, if you have any hills to climb on your way to work, can you select a route in each direction that climbs them early in your commute, during your warmup? That would get you to EV quicker and permit a longer time for electric drive.

[Zippycamrygirl]

Hi Fastmover,
I guess I should update my profile...thanks for the reminder. I am from Michigan and it gets very cold here. And yes the zippy car is in the garage all of the time. I have thought about the engine heater but I wonder about the cost of keeping it plugged in overnight vs the lower mpg. I do have a hill that begins at the bottom of a traffic light and if I can't time it right then I get stuck climbing it from a stand still position. I could go about 2.5 miles out of my way but the hill gets us over the highway to the main road where I work. I know I said I am 4 miles but I think it's actually 3. I'll check it tomorrow.

I had a guy ask me my mileage today and he said he was shocked that his non hybrid toyota ( an older 4 cyl ) gets about 30 in the city. He thought I should have gotten a lot more. But I am almost sure his 4 cyl doesn't have the pick up that the hybrid does...

Thanks for the reply's I really enjoy learning about my car. I love it!