dlibner wrote:Hi all, I am new to this forum and there seems to be a lot of good information from hybrid owners. I just got my new 2012 M35h with all the packages and I must say, it's a great car so far! I notice that my mileage is a lot lower than expected (17-19 so far) but I have only driven a few miles in the car so that may just be the fact that the car is brand new and needs a break-in period. I have the car in full Eco mode with the pedal set to resist me so I can train myself to drive for more efficient fuel consumption.
I notice on the forum that several members are able to discern miles driven in EV mode vs. regular miles. I have not been able to figure out how to see those statistics in the vehicle's Navigation panel. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Thanks,
- Dean
Hi Dean,
Glad you wrote in. Glad you're loving the car thus far...well, except for the gas mileage! That should change, but more on that in minute. I too love the car, for many reasons. Here, most importantly, I've learned a lot talking with other owners before me in this forum and glad everyone is here to help. I got mine in August, so it's still pretty new to me, but I think I already have about 7000+ miles on the car, so I've done a lot of testing.
Most importantly for me, while I love the car, I really did look to own a Hybrid this time around, so the 27/32 mpg rating was really important to me. To date, my average mpg is about 24-25 mpg in real tank numbers. Not bad, but really would love to see 27 consistently. I do believe there are many factors for this... Bottomline, I believe the most important factor is where you live and the terrain, along with City or Highway driving. I've noticed since I've owned the car, I live in a "hilly" area, where my home is really far down hill compared to "town." This means, when I head out in the day, I'm starting off heading uphill anywhere I go, and then the rest of the day, I'm trying to make up the good numbers. Anyway, you may start to notice these things. Level ground is pretty amazing. I can drive the car 25 - 40 mph in EV mode for what feels like miles on level ground, as long as there's battery charge. The more you drive, the more you recognize when you can get the car in EV mode and when it will be a challenge. There will be drives where you'll see 19 mpg...others 42...sometimes you'll be surprised...but the average should come up in the low 20's to start. Then, hopefully mid-20's or higher. Another quick note on this. I also find, the car needs to warm up...so the mileage gets better later in the trip...if you drive a short trip to the store and back, may not see full benefit of the battery...and I've read about this with Prius, etc, as well.
I also think the car needs to break in a bit. I haven't noticed a huge difference yet, but I do notice, on long drives, highway, etc...even just in a trip, the more you drive, the numbers get better. I've seen 30+ mpg, so that's been nice. My continuous smaller city driving brings me down.
My car only has the Premium Package, so Navigation but not Eco pedal. I do have Eco mode, which limits the throttle and the gas still feels heavier, but I'm about to conclude officially that the ECO mode was not really made for our cars, but for Standard M's...even the ECO pedal. I note this because the hybrid system needs you to drive, accelerate, get to coasting speeds, etc. If you're driving in the city from stop light to stop light and you're spending all your time accelerating and it takes too long to reach a good speed, you're just using gas. Anyway, more on that. I think you'll find as you use the car more...give it a week in ECO, then switch to Standard...seems like everyone else I've talked to on the forum has done the same.
One final note on this, and wanted to mention this to Baxter as well, after several weeks in Standard, I've switched back to ECO this week to see what happens...haven't filled up yet, but so far, I haven't noticed any MPG increase average. I will report back.
Regarding the EV versus gas miles, this can be found on the in-dash display. I refer to the nav display as the touch-screen and the little display in front of you the dash display. You can cycle through that dash display with a button on the side. Go through those, and look closely till you see EV miles...you'll see total that you can't reset and an EV per this trip that you can reset. I find in my city driving, I get about 33-35% EV miles... You'll note here, others with more Highway driving get better MPG with about 25% EV miles.
FInal note, meant to write in response to Baxter on this... I looked in the maintenance schedule in the included guides,etc. Looks like there's a schedule A or B. B allows for service every 7500 miles. I'm going with this, assuming it doesn't void the warranty...which nothing says it will. Schedule A is for extreme cold, different types of drives, etc...but I'm in the desert, never snows, rarely rains...I think I'm safe with B. More as I learn more.
Also, Dean, any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask!