Took my first trip with the Scangauge II

[Excellerator]

It came in the mail about an hour ago. I plugged it in, set it underneath my radio, and set it up for MPH, MPG, etc. And, stupid me, I turned on the engine thinking I had to set it up with the car running. So these results are low because I foolishly idled for like ten minutes.

I took a 3.3-mile trip where most of the road was 40-50 MPH. Here were the stats:

12.8 MPG
16 MPH average
48 MPH max speed
.2 hours
3848 RPM max
191*F WT max
.3 gallons

Not too good for a first try, but learning did occur.

One question, though. I was anticipating a stop sign, and took my foot off the accelerator. It read like 65 or so MPG. Then I put it in Neutral just out of curiosity, and it jumped to 85. Is that normal?

[Chuck]

Even though the Insight lean burn makes the ScanGage mpg readout worthless, I'd say your FE did improve shifting in neutral.

Your fun is just starting.

[xcel]

Hi Excellerator:

___It could at slow enough speed. If you are going to idle anyway, do it in Neutral so you are not trying to heat up a bunch of Auto tranny fluid mashing plates together while going nowhere if you can?

___As Chuck mentioned, the fun has just begun

___Good Luck

___Wayne

[brick]

I think you are going to see some real improvement just from having that gauge telling you what's happening. Instant feed back is amazing...just remember to watch the road once in a while!

[Excellerator]

I believe it really does help because even with just taking a few short trips with it I've started to learn how little I really can use the accelerator to maintain my speed and get to where I need to go.

I also realized that I may possibly improve gas mileage by getting up to speed quickly, then coasting as far as I can while at the same time adjusting the accelerator slightly to maintain the speed I need to be going at. I'll plan on coasting in Neutral just on long stretches, though. Not sure how much harm it can possibly do to the transmission doing all that shifting between N and D. I can't imagine what it must do being in Neutral at 50 MPH and then suddenly forcing the transmission to go that fast from a dead stop returning to Drive.

It'll be a while, though, before I can get this thing fully set-up the way it should. The MPH gauge seems to be very accurate, but I may need to calibrate the MPG gauges once I refill the tank, use that up, and refill again (as of today the tank was slightly below half full, so miles to empty etc. are not accurate.) It'll be a while before I can clearly see the difference in gas use. Of course, I used half the tank without a Scangauge II.

I'm planning on bringing in the Scangauge II to the house every night because I noticed the device was a little sluggish when the car cooled back down and I returned later to go somewhere. It's been hovering around the low teens (*F). Typically temperatures at night are even colder.

I have the velcro placed in two spots; one on top of the dashboard directly above the gauges, and one in an area directly at the bottom-center of the gauges (below the speedometer and odometer.) In both cases it's not distracting, and doesn't block anything. I originally had it in a little cubby space below the radio, but it was hard to see from that angle.

Overall I'm very impressed. I expected that minor adjustments in the gas pedal would affect MPGs, but I didn't believe just how much. Wow.

[lightfoot]

I just got a Scangauge too. When I would drive my Subaru after commuting in the Insight during the week it really bothered me that the Subaru lacks average and instantaneous mpg displays. My normal mileage in the Subaru has been around 24-25, but on a 1-hour drive the Scangauge (with a bit of long-range drafting of a truck) helped me bump that up to 28.1mpg.

My only disappointment is that you cannot display both instantaneous mpg and average mpg at the same time. Or if it is possible I can't figure out how. Maybe the "Scangauge III" will be able to do that.

I've been loaning mine out to people I work with and to my sister to try to hook them into the mpg game. Some of you might try this.

[Excellerator]

I took a trip to Burlington, VT today and I was easily able to get the gauge to read 125 MPG just from putting the car in N and coasting down the long hills. Keeping the speed at the posted speed limit of course. I was especially proud when I was able to time the lights perfectly on one stretch of road so that way I never needed to stop for the lights... they turned green by the time I reached them.

Overall, I got an average of about 26. Gosh I love this Scangauge II.