Like most of you, I’m feeling the pinch of higher gas prices. I’ve read all the efficiency and “hyper-miling” articles claiming to teach you how to “save big at the pump” and “double your car’s MPG,” etc. So I decided to take action and follow some of the sage advice.
I filled my tires up to the max recommended pressure. I turned the A/C down from 3 or 4 to 1 or 2 (torture in this weather.) I slowed down from 70-75mph on the freeway to 55-60mph, and even lower on surface streets. I started accelarating verrrrrry sloooooowly and shifting at 2,000 - 2,500rpm instead of 3,000 - 3,500rpms. I took everything unnecessary out of my car to lighten the load. I coasted down hills and towards stoplights. I did everything to avoid hitting the brakes unless absolutely necessary.
Last night, with giddy anticipation, I filled up and hopped back in my car, bragging to my wife, watch THIS! as I began calculating all the money we’d saved on my cell phone calculator. Imagine my surprise when I hit = and saw that I’d improved my efficiency by . . .
wait for it . . .
three tenths of a mile per gallon
Well within the normal range and not the best I’ve ever gotten.
So all that sweating I did, all that leaving for work early, all that watching the tachometer like a hawk, for three tenths of a mile per gallon?!!
That means, with a 13.5 gallon tank, I got to drive an extra 4.05 miles on that tank of gas. That means, at 28.6mpg, and gas being $4.15, I saved 58 cents. Fifty eight cents on an entire tank of gas. And how much time did I waste?!
I only use those techniques when I’m extremely low on gas. I usually only put $10 in at a time which doesn’t account for much. I’ll drive slower and turn the A/C off and resist my compulsion to pass people.
There was an article on some of those ‘hyper-miling’ folks in Reader’s Digest a few months back. Frankly, some of thetechniques they used to maximize their mileage made them hazards to others on the roads (and based on the letters they got I apparently wasn’t the only one to feel this way)
Oh, you can cut your mileage, all right. But it’s hard to do if you have to drive in heavy traffic or cities.
On the highway, with me driving, our Saturn gets 44-47 mpg. With my husband driving, 37-40 mpg. One difference is that he uses cruise control, and in the same instances where cruise control would work, I use the method of putting my foot on the pedal so as to go the speed limit (75, usually) on a flat surface. Uphill? I slow down, and I don’t try to stop that. Downhill? Zoom. Just keep that pedal in the same position no matter what.
Obviously, it doesn’t work if you have to deal with a lot of other traffic. In light traffic, though, it works well without posing any more of a hazard than the cruise control.
(This does not work for city driving or in the mountains, but I haven’t had great success with cruise control in mtn. driving, either.)
I’d say try it for one more tank of gas. Maybe your computer needs more time to adjust. I seem to remember I was getting like 40 miles more per tank when I was really trying, which was almost 2 gallons of fuel.
The most I ever got out my Saab was 42 mpg. I had the top up and I accelerated very slowly. Granted, I have a 4 cylinder engine and I tried not to engage the turbo (by keeping it in the green). I was driving 100% highway from LA to Las Vegas at night (no air conditioning). I had it on cruise control, too, but my cruise control is different than lesser vehicles that I have rented. On other cars, the cruise really accelerates hard to get to set speed. I also drove ~63 mph and I tailgated trucks whenever possible. Right now, I’m getting 28.6, but I’m at like 90% highway. The A/C really kills my mpg rating.
This advice is all over the hyper-mileage sites, and it’s wrong. Very wrong! It takes much less gas to get up to 60 with your foot on the floor than creeping up slowly. Your engine is theoretically most efficient with a wide open throttle (WOT), because it isn’t wasting energy sucking air through a small hole. (Unless your engine management helpfully decides to burn rich at WOT, that is. To avoid this, acclerate hard, but not with your foot to the floor.) Accelerate hard, change up early, brake minimally.
The standard advice I’ve always heard was that one should achieve cruising speed ‘briskly’. That is, much more quickly than most people do it (heck most yobs can’t even accelerate to freeway speed before they get on the freeway!) but not in a ‘jackrabbit’ fashion.
And that’s pretty much what it says in my Prius’s manual too.
I’m opening myself up to a hurting here, but I don’t think there is any such thing. Tires have a recommended inflation pressure and a maximum pressure. The latter is a warning, not a recommendation.
Yep, when you turn on the AC, a clutch engages on a pulley hooked to your fan belt to spin the AC compressor. That makes the engine work a little harder to spin the compressor.
The fan runs off electricity, they way they’re hooked up in at least some cases is the normal speed is full speed, and lower speeds are achieved with a resistor. When the resistor goes bad your fan will only run on high. Anyway the fan shouldn’t affect MPG at all, other than maybe making the alternator work slightly harder.
I drive pretty conservatively. But always keep up with traffic. There are 8 traffic lights on my 25 mile commute to work. And little, little traffic itself. Mostly rural mountain roads with one small town that I pass through.
I rarely put my foot in it unless it’s warranted. And I’ve been trying to be more gentle. I’ll try it the other way.
I’ve been paying closer attention to my mileage. Using the MPG meter in my ’06 Pathfinder.
What is odd is that if I set it in the morning, drive to work and then home again, I average about 18 mpg. This is very consistent, mostly highway driving with no traffic.
If I set it at home, and then re-set it at work and drive home and average the two, I calculate 21 mpg. Something is screwed up (and it’s not my math). I looked at the owners manual, and it says that it will average the whole trip regardless if it’s 10 or a 1000 miles.
You probably don’t want to depend on the MPG meter in cars, they’re widely considered to be inaccurate.
What you really need to do is reset your tripmeter, fill up your tank, and drive until almost empty. Then fill up, the number of miles you traveled divided by the gallons you put in is your MPG.
Didn’t you say it’s uphill going home? Seriously - if you’re going down mountain to work, and up mountain going home - I’d expect you to get poorer mileage going up. Maybe I’m confused about the trip computer.
Wait, coasting down hills and to stoplights reduces mileage, and accelerating briskly from a stop increases efficiency? Yes! No more grandpa Soul driving!