Flymama

I am experimenting with my MPG and found an average of 34 MPG in Normal mode....which is kind of disappointing as my Yaris got over 40. I know the CT is heavier, but c'mon hybrid! So, now switched to Eco mode and following speed limit, but is it OK to keep it in Eco mode all the time? Seems to be helping, but haven't done the math on this fill up.

shadow1118

Is it really hilly where you live? Only been to Vegas, when I was young. You can drive in eco mode all the time if you would like. I personally kind of switch from eco and normal and only use sport for the highway. Eco will make sure the car does everything to save gas, like use less A/C, reduce throttle input, make the car use the battery more etc.

Here is the tip for you that is going to see your MPG rise. When you accelerate make sure the power needle does not go past the "P" or "O" or on the power, on the left side of your dashboard. I hope I explained that well enough for you, if not I can go go into more detail. You know how you floor it, it just shoots all the way up? Well dont let it get past the P or the O. Your mpg should be the advertised now.

E46CT

The modes are just calibration. Not much secret to them. ECO mode will encourage lighter ICE usage which should increase your mileage. It's more psychological then anything (which can have a very real effect and often does). Power mode will actually up the voltage coming from the battery at light to medium input.

Try to coast up hills, and glide down hills. When coming to a stop, say a stop light or stop sign, start to brake early to use your regen brakes. Brake as long as possible with the brake meter near the end or at the end. Try not to brake to where your needle hits past the absolute limit or you'll use your real brakes and miss out on maximizing brake regen. So I start hitting the brakes EARLY if I can. Just light application--drag the brakes. If cars are on your bumper, that might be annoying to them. So practice that one wisely. And as said, keep that needle as much as possible out of the "power" area.

Also fill your tires with higher pressure (38-42 range) and change your air filter if it's dirty.

shadow1118

Yes, definitely hit your brakes early and LIGHT so you use the regen breaking.

Bro, people get so mad at me when i brake early towards a light. and they floor it past me only to stop again cause it turns red or is red, lmao. Ive enjoyed just cruising everywhere, ive been doing tests, although not scientific lol, and it seems I really do get to the same place as someone speeding everywhere, ill probably only be 1-10 minutes behind. The test was I'll see people speed past me on the highway and lose track of them, only to end up being next to them 5 min later at a highway exit light or randomly the same location (college).

qurious

what is brake regen?
how do we maximize MPG on the 200h im getting 45-47 mpg
i try not to hit power unless im on an onramp
i try and hypermile as much as possible
how are you suppose to brake in this car? i want to preserve the brakes.
anything above 70 mph and your not eco no more your on power mode

anyways love the ct
been seeing alot of them out lately now that they stopped making them
thanks e46 for all your wisdom

lexusrus

I got 50+mpg (the dash read out is a couple of mpg's more tgan actual) while driving in the desert in CA and kept it in Eco and below 65mph due to lots of semi trucks traffic on two lane highway.

qurious

one of my gauges says 38 mpg the other says 47.6 lol i dont know what to believe smh

lexusrus

I don't either??? LOL

shadow1118

Yo, guys I was wondering the same thing. While I dont know for sure, I believe the one w/ the real time gauge is a lifetime MPG counter and the one you can reset is like a trip mpg counter, that you can keep resetting on trips. try driving slow and eco for a while, like a month or two and see the mpg counter that you CANNOT reset go up. I may be wrong though, but i dont think so.

Raidin

About the two MPG displays in the CT:

The MPG display that says "avg" next to it is automatic and is not user-resettable. It resets itself when you fill your tank up. Next time you're at a gas station and fill up, leave that gauge on, and watch what happens when you start the car and drive. It will reset to 0.0 and then start calculating.

The other MPG display, the one that takes up the whole screen in the dash, is user-resettable, and will not reset automatically. You can use this to get an average MPG calculation over long distances with multiple gas stops.


About regen brakes:

When applying your brakes, the needle on the power meter will go into the "charge" area. Once you get close to the end of that area, your physical brakes will kick in. As long as you are gentle with the brakes and stay in the charge area, you should be using pretty much only the regen braking system.

The regen brakes don't shift the weight of the car forward as the physical brakes do, which is the best way to tell when you're using them if you can't do it by feel of the brake pedal alone. For context, I went over 300k miles before I had to change my front brakes because I used regen braking a lot. This means most of you can go almost a lifetime with this car on the factory brake pads.

E46CT

I wish the CT had a Prius-like MPG readout where you can see your MPG per drive session. I usually do mine manually and reset it for a given trip. I don't know why Lexus didn't code this in. It would've been incredibly easy to add another menu selection.