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Having only owned my 2000 Insight (5M) for a month now, I consider myself an absolute novice with it still. My initial impressions are good, and what stands out the most so far is the tall grearing. My question is with skipping gears. I find myself going 1,2,5. Missing out 3 and 4 entirely. Does anyone else do this, and are your results good? I find myself accelerating fairly swiftly up to 40mph or so in 1st and 2nd then going straight for 5th gear. This around rural SC, where there is little to no traffic.

Can anyone confirm or deny that skipping gears in and Insight affects mileage positively?

Cheers!

Dave, if you are skipping gears that way I would be concerned that you are using the battery during that acceleration.

Your best mileage will occur when avoiding the use of the battery altogether. This means that your acceleration rates will be a bit anemic but the numbers will go up.

You may find it difficult to avoid use of assist when accelerating. When you see the bars appear, quickly back off the pedal and then reapply to the same level. It may take a few tries but you can convince the ECU that you really don't want assist. Then you can apply somewhat more pressure to the gas pedal as you accelerate without getting assist. If you stuff your foot in it though it will still add assist.

My car isn't geared nearly as tall as yours is, but I don't think I'd ever do 40mph in 2nd even in an Insight. Your RPM must be pretty high at that point!

Hi Dave:

___I can only give you my previous experience and results when I owned one. 1st through 5th all the way up using as little to no assist and as gently as possible. 1st is only to get her moving and only for the briefest period of time. And do not rev her up. Keep the revs below 1,500 for a nice and easy take-off as there is no reason to race. I saw more then a few times > 100 mpg after 2 miles in the summer using this very car longevity friendly acceleration pattern. Tail winds usually helped on those days of course. You should see 80 + pretty easily using the same from dead cold in a parking lot or drive up to speed when its above 70 degrees. Because you are in a rural area, just bring it up slow and steady. That 1-2-5 stuff was created well before the hypermilers got their hands on the Insight so take it for what it is worth.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I agree. The only time I skip gears upshifting is when the road is going downhill, and even then I'd probably skip only one gear, not three. I try to keep the rpm's under 2000 for sure, preferably lower. Downshifting I go into whatever gear will be needed, so sometimes I'll skip a few gears on downshifts.

Also, make your shifts deliberate, don't rush them. Pause a moment in neutral between gears and let it coast for a tad. Try to be smooooth and avoid losing momentum due to lurches.

When I first got my Insight I tried the whole 1st, 2nd, 4th (or 5th) shifting thing. While it did get me up to speed quickly so I could get into lean burn, it was hurting my FE overall.

Lately I've been more frugal with the accelerator using as little as possible to accelerate smoothly. If you shift too quickly the engine likes to throw some regen on you right as you let out the clutch... slowing you down. It definitely is a HUGE difference from how I drove my STi ;)

I'm still playing around with my driving style. I trying to fit my new MIMA into all of it while practicing P&G driving. It certainly is fun though to throw out some 100+ segments!

Wow, I can't imagine trying to get my Insight moving using only < 1.5k rpm...

I don't have assist/regen disable set up yet (although I do have FAS), so I aim for 17-18 mph in first to drop into 2nd where it won't use assist with light throttle. I then take 2nd up to 35 if my target speed is higher, and go into 3rd.

Although, I seem to do a lot of first gear blips up to 10 mph, FAS, then coasting down hills, light to light, etc.

Granted, I've only had my Insight since July - I can still pull 90+ mpg segments with good average speed.

When I first started driving my Insight, an Insight expert told me to shift through all gears - and try not to use any assist.
This is difficult in 2nd gear, it takes patience.

But I agree with everyone else, the slow steady increase in speed using all gears seems to give the best MPG's. And shifting at 2K is about right.

Enjoy your Insight.

while a very slow acceleration up to cruising speed will get you the best mpgs, a quick blast up to 70 in 2nd to show a ricer how its done can be a lot of fun! maybe i should have named it sleeper...

Thanks for all the input guys. I will work on going through all the gears and more importantly my patience....

Blake:
The STI - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, oops there went 100, I'd better slow down now.. :-)

Dave ;) Bringing back memories of being on the track.

Hard sweeping right into 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th Hitting fuel cut and maxing out on the back straights of a track. Certainly a different kind of driving.

I'm most definitely a reformed gasaholic!

Hitting fuel cut

Ha, different kind of fuel cut than the one people talk about on here! ;)

Hey Blake,
Yeah, it's so nice, but so bad.

I still have the STI. Haven't driven it once since getting the Insight. I need to "air it out" this weekend. I have considered selling a few of my collection of cars, but I rationalize keeping all of them in thinking "If I own them, and they are saved for very limited use then they are not being driven daily and as such are not using much fuel/oil".

It’s a weird philosophy, but I get to keep my toys as a result 