'Real Life' MPG of 07 Camry Hybrid

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Has anyone read or experienced it?

I know it is rated 40 CTY / 38 HWY.

But the Prius was rated for 60 CTY / 55 HWY get about 41 MPG in various magazine tests.

My 02 Camry SE w/ 5 speed is doing 30-32 MPG. I wonder how much of an advantage the 07 Hybrid has.
 
Hybrids are very application specific cars... good for stop and go driving, much else and a small diesel is better by a long shot.

Like any other vehicle, the actual MPG is determined by driver skill and driving profile.

When the magazines take their hybrids on high speed runs through mountain passes and deserts, of course theyll not get anywhere near the posted mileage. take them through DC traffic on a thursday afternoon and youve got another story.

Youll likely be able to reasonably extrapolate from the accord analog.

IMO, the camry from 02 is pretty good looking, and a 5 speed 4cyl setup is about as smart and economic in the true lifecycle sense, as you can get. Even though toota and honda resale values are absurdly stupid, youll still come out behind.

unless youre really itching to get the new style camry, stay with what youve got, IMO... eve if you want to change, dont discount the new 4cyl/MT setup (so long as they actually offer a MT in the new one?!?).

JMH
 
quote:

Originally posted by JHZR2:
Like any other vehicle, the actual MPG is determined by driver skill and driving profile.

That's the truth. Most people I know complain how the MPG estimates are for 'optimal' conditions that don't happen in real life.

Wereas I fell I'm doing something horribly wrong if I can't get the highway rating while city driving.
 
quote:

Originally posted by BlueWorld:

quote:

Originally posted by JHZR2:
Like any other vehicle, the actual MPG is determined by driver skill and driving profile.

That's the truth. Most people I know complain how the MPG estimates are for 'optimal' conditions that don't happen in real life.

Wereas I fell I'm doing something horribly wrong if I can't get the highway rating while city driving.


cheers.gif
me too!

too many people have too much power and just know to mash the go pedal, nothing else.

JMH
 
I'm not quite that good, but, I have exceeded HWY mpg while mostly city on occasion. However, I ALWAYS exceed hwy mpg while on the hwy...sometimes by almost 25 percent! I need a rolling terrain and to be really in the mood to work at it. What I do is to make sure I'm coasting down the steepest hills, but mostly I'm just letting the car hit the bottom of the hill at it's highest speeds and the top at it's lowest speeds, all the while averaging a little more than the posted speed limit.
 
There is no such thing as "Too Much Power". The problem is too many distracted drivers! More often than not, it's "mashing the go pedal" that gets you out of trouble. Trying to get the advertised highway mpg on well traveled commute routes will more often than not get you a lot of "single digit salutes".
 
I wouldn't expect that you'd gain much going from your Camry to the hybrid, Jonny. Usually car mags get mileage in-between the EPA city and highway numbers. But with hybrids, they're always well below both. Something just isn't right.

I've asked the question before, but maybe I'll bring it up again: how do they account for the different state of battery charge from the start of the EPA test to the end on a hybrid? Is it possible the numbers are inflated because they don't account for this?
 
The problem is the brake pedal. In stop and go driving the first one to the next red light wins. If you try to keep a modest pace so you hit the light green, you'll get run over. Also people have trouble with mileage because lights and stop signs sneak up on them. They have to slow down quickly, or they drive up way to close to others who are not involved in the race to the red light. I think the brake pedal can lower the mileage quicker than the gas pedal.
 
Larry, exactly right. The idiots who compete in stop and go driving annoy me to no end.
 
quote:

Originally posted by rpn453:

I've asked the question before, but maybe I'll bring it up again: how do they account for the different state of battery charge from the start of the EPA test to the end on a hybrid? Is it possible the numbers are inflated because they don't account for this?


I doubt that they consider the battery charge. The battery is an intermediate with essentially infinite refills and empties over the time before replacement, as opposed to gasoline which needs to be constantly replentished.

Assuming the batteries start fully charged at the beginning of the test, even if at some point the engine has to run to serve only as a genset to maintain the batteries' state of charge, this will be reflected in the fuel usage.

Batteries cycle the best if kept within a very narrow charge range where their chemistry is the most well behaved. under stop and go the batteries typically see this charge range, during cruising, the batteries dont do much but perhaps top off. The difference is likely very small, if any.

JMH
 
Edmunds.com has tested them and the gas mileage was surpirsingly close to what it should be.

They said it was the 1st hybrid they tested that if you did not tell someone it was a hybrid, they may not even know.
 
quote:

Originally posted by LarryL:
The problem is the brake pedal. In stop and go driving the first one to the next red light wins. If you try to keep a modest pace so you hit the light green, you'll get run over. Also people have trouble with mileage because lights and stop signs sneak up on them. They have to slow down quickly, or they drive up way to close to others who are not involved in the race to the red light. I think the brake pedal can lower the mileage quicker than the gas pedal.

Do not forget that with a hybrid, using the brakes charges the battery, recouping the energy expended in accelerating to speed; this is why a hybrid gives much better mpg on the city cycle than the highway cycle. Also, with a hybrid, the engine is not running at a red light.
 
but no system is 100% efficient, so using the brake has its losses, none the less.

JMH
 
quote:

Originally posted by JHZR2:
but no system is 100% efficient, so using the brake has its losses, none the less.

JMH


So its only, say, 50% to 80% efficient in recovering kinetic energy and storing it in the battery - isn't that a lot better than 0% efficiency with regular brakes?
 
From what I hear, driving a hybrid to maximize economy is a little different than with a regular car. A few things I have read.

-Accelerate briskly to get up to speed quickly to allow the engine to turn off.
-Brake firmly to allow max use of the regenerative braking system.

The regenerative braking system only works over a specific range of braking force.

I think you can count on 35mpg for the new Camry Hybrid. Remember there is a federal tax rebate for most hybrids. For the Camry it is $2600 I think.
 
The August issue of Consumer Reports magazine tested some family sedans. including all three driveline versions of the Toyota Camry. All were automatic transmission versions. In overall mixed driving, city/highway, the V-6 averaged 23 mpg, the 4 cylinder with 5 speed auto averaged 24 mpg, and the hybrid averaged 34 mpg. The hybrd was also 1.1 seconds faster accelerating to 60 mph than the conventional 4 cylinder car. Some of these differences can be attributed to the CVT transmission used in the hybrid.
 
Just don't drive like the one Prius I was lightly tailing(possibly 250-300 feet between us).

We came to hill and it was like he just jumped off the gas at 65(speed limit) I was going probaley 68.

I had the cruise set and had to pass him. Then he proceded to race me downhill well not really but you could tell he was gaining.

Why can't people just keep one constant speed on the highway.
 
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