Dan
04-08-2008, 11:25 AM
Managed to steal the MMH away from the wife for a few days. It's getting harder to do lately. Anyway, heres some things a MMH/FEH may know, but floored me as a Prius driver.
Engine can cut in and out in Neutral - This truly surprised me. I the MMH just like the Prius, I'll settle into a LS P&G technique using NICE-on for my glides. Well I went into one NICE-on glide and about half way through it, the engine cut off. This absolutely floored me. Verified this at low speed a few miles later. Later that week I was trying to trick the compressor by shifting into 'N' then switching off of Econ on the A/C. Since the Prius can't start the engine while in 'N', I thought this would prevent the MMH from lighting. Well it didn't. While in 'N' it lit the engine.
There seems to be a fast warmup transition - After driving the Prius, I'm used to just gritting my teeth and baring the insane warm-up cycle. I noticed real quick that if I was in the MMH, and made a short (10 min) trip to the store, that when I came out, and drove off, the MMH would be totally warmed up in about 10 seconds.
The 2.4L eats the highway alive! - Whenever my wife posted stelar tanks, she'd always say "well I had lots of highway". I was tempted to explain that in Hybrids highway is worse than city, but decided against it. Well the first time I got the SG on it driving on the highway, I would have had to eat crow. DWL at 1700 RPM can yield 40 MPG @ 60 MPH. I likely had a tail wind that day, but I still notice that DWL in the 50-60 range gives high 30's with almost no effort.
Specs on our Ride:
2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid.
Sunroof and XM radio.
Leather Upgrade.
No Mods (yet).
11011011
Engine can cut in and out in Neutral - This truly surprised me. I the MMH just like the Prius, I'll settle into a LS P&G technique using NICE-on for my glides. Well I went into one NICE-on glide and about half way through it, the engine cut off. This absolutely floored me. Verified this at low speed a few miles later. Later that week I was trying to trick the compressor by shifting into 'N' then switching off of Econ on the A/C. Since the Prius can't start the engine while in 'N', I thought this would prevent the MMH from lighting. Well it didn't. While in 'N' it lit the engine.
There seems to be a fast warmup transition - After driving the Prius, I'm used to just gritting my teeth and baring the insane warm-up cycle. I noticed real quick that if I was in the MMH, and made a short (10 min) trip to the store, that when I came out, and drove off, the MMH would be totally warmed up in about 10 seconds.
The 2.4L eats the highway alive! - Whenever my wife posted stelar tanks, she'd always say "well I had lots of highway". I was tempted to explain that in Hybrids highway is worse than city, but decided against it. Well the first time I got the SG on it driving on the highway, I would have had to eat crow. DWL at 1700 RPM can yield 40 MPG @ 60 MPH. I likely had a tail wind that day, but I still notice that DWL in the 50-60 range gives high 30's with almost no effort.
Specs on our Ride:
2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid.
Sunroof and XM radio.
Leather Upgrade.
No Mods (yet).
11011011