I know what you mean. For ages, I thought I was using the lightest pressure to propel the Prius along downhills and straights. Turns out I was doing what I think they call "feathering the throttle".
A tiny pressure disengages the regenerative braking (compared to foot off), but is using no electricity or petrol, the car is just rolling! It was only when I kept seeing the arrows on the display show that nothing but gravity and momentum were propelling me along...
Considering I have to lump me and the missus up and down hills and keep pace with traffic, that most of my driving is far less "eco" than I would like, I'm happy to hitting nearly 70 mpg.
I think we share the same drag coefficient of 0.25 - though I bet I've got 500 kilos (plus occupants!) more than you...

Yea you're about right there, same drag and about 500 or so more kgs. It's the same with me, living in a steep Valley, every journey begins at the bottom of a hill, combined with a cold engine start, it makes for terrible initial fuel economy. I'm taking the Honda for a little drive tonight to get shopping, 50 miles or so.

I'm lucky to be in a flat area but my most common destinations are 1.x - 4.x miles away. Today I'm driving about 45 miles to meet family for lunch, about 90% freeway, so it should boost my average a bit. I have a friend who is a trucker and plans all his trips so he stops at the top of whatever hills are available. He knows pretty much every truckstop etc. there is that provide a good boost from gravity when leaving. He gets pretty amazing mpg from his truck compared to most.

Yep, and no doubt a small warm up period for his engine before it's put to work at the bottom of the hill the next day. I'm the opposite, unless I head towards the coast just 8 miles away, it's always downhill to the coast ;)

I detailed it, cant stress enough how well using a Clay bar works on any car, any age, any mileage, just do it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19G78H1PVFg

Does this mean she is being polished up for the centre spread in autotrader, or in readiness for a new battery...?
Looking good by the way - very shiny!

Top tip for those on a tight budget.

You can use Blu Tack instead of a clay bar, little bit of water and it slides over the paintwork and have to agree the results are amazing.

It is hard work though to do a whole car.

Oliver.

Little update on the insight. I arranged to take it to a guy who's a long term insight owner (13 years/156,000 miles) just 72 miles away. He's doing a few diagnostic tests, reading the fault codes regarding the IMA battery, and fitting his grid charger to recharge the pack and hopefully rebalance the cells which over time lose balance causing inconsistent capacity etc.

It really needs a charge/discharge then charge again, but this process takes up to 3 days with carful monitoring, something neither of us can afford. Car ran beautifully on the way there, even without the hybrid assist, it still got over 70 MPG, which is good considering I was having to rev the engine in 2nd gear at 60 MPH over some of the steep welsh hills!

Looking forward to seeing the results of the battery work.