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Improving Fuel Mileage

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DeathBUA said:
For that latter statement only my own driving and my wife's but taking my Fusion Hybrid for example I can apply that light throttle touch on flat straight road and my instant fuel economy will basically peg off scale(60+ mpg) I can replicate this in my wife's Focus as well. It's part of the reason my long term MPG on my Fusion is 48.4mpg. And in my wife's case her first fill up using this method with 50% city/50% highway driving she managed 38.1mpg. I'd post more but I'm posting from a cell phone I'll post more later tonight on our driving experiences and fuel saving techniques.
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OK, but what you do and what is recommended for hypermiling could be different.
 
DeathBUA said:
For that latter statement only my own driving and my wife's but taking my Fusion Hybrid for example I can apply that light throttle touch on flat straight road and my instant fuel economy will basically peg off scale(60+ mpg) I can replicate this in my wife's Focus as well. It's part of the reason my long term MPG on my Fusion is 48.4mpg. And in my wife's case her first fill up using this method with 50% city/50% highway driving she managed 38.1mpg. I'd post more but I'm posting from a cell phone I'll post more later tonight on our driving experiences and fuel saving techniques.
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I agree, plus most of the hybrids are also setup with better aerodynamics, LRR tires, less drag in the power train, etc. So it is easier to maintain a reasonable speed and get great efficiency. I use these principles on a daily basis and just hit 700 miles on the current tank with an average mpg of 83. The last two weeks the average has been higher at over 90 mpg.

Driver attitude would be my biggest suggestion. Plan ahead and give yourself extra time, if possible plan your trip with routes that are 55 mph friendly. That alone with boost efficiency on most cars.

Use either pulse and glide techniques, or practice a light foot at all times giving only enough pressure to maintain your desired speed. I use the latter as pulse and glide takes too much attention and can be fatiguing.
 
Howard said:
OK, but what you do and what is recommended for hypermiling could be different.
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His method is as valid as pure pulse and glide, there is actually a thread on Insight Central talking about pulse and glide vs leveraging lean burn on the Insight. To maintain lean burn we apply just enough pressure to maintain speed which is what he is doing. The same principle can be applied to non lean burn capable cars also.
 
archetypaul said:
Never fight the gravity down a hill.
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Horrible advice. You'll get a $200 speeding ticket because you were trying to save $0.10 worth of gasoline.


I actually heard* you get better mpg from a quicker start and short shifts because you get into a higher gear more quickly.
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I don't know if it improves mileage, but it certainly doesn't hurt. I drive like a retard and my car still gets 31mpg (US gallons) in the city. It's a 2010 Corolla. I floor it off the line every time 😀
The official US EPA rated mileage for that car is 26mpg in the city.


Best way to improve your highway gas mileage is to stay behind a large vehicle. I tested this last week when I had a day off and nothing better to do. My Corolla's highway mileage at 75mph when I'm behind nobody is 34mpg. When I was roughly 3 car lengths behind an 18 wheeler, my gas mileage was 55mpg. You should only do this if you have no gas and you need to get to the nearest town to buy gas. Big trucks sometimes throw rocks back that will fuck up your paint and crack your windshield which completely negates the point of saving fuel.
 
jlee said:
Ugh in a land with few highways and not many passing zones, it's so annoying to be stuck behind someone like that... 🙁
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THIS THIS THIS THIS

If you honestly can't afford a few extra bucks not to annoy the ever-loving shit out of everyone behind you, you seriously need to make some financial changes in your life.
 
ShawnD1 said:
Horrible advice. You'll get a $200 speeding ticket because you were trying to save $0.10 worth of gasoline.



I don't know if it improves mileage, but it certainly doesn't hurt. I drive like a retard and my car still gets 31mpg (US gallons) in the city. It's a 2010 Corolla. I floor it off the line every time 😀
The official US EPA rated mileage for that car is 26mpg in the city.


Best way to improve your highway gas mileage is to stay behind a large vehicle. I tested this last week when I had a day off and nothing better to do. My Corolla's highway mileage at 75mph when I'm behind nobody is 34mpg. When I was roughly 3 car lengths behind an 18 wheeler, my gas mileage was 55mpg. You should only do this if you have no gas and you need to get to the nearest town to buy gas. Big trucks sometimes throw rocks back that will fuck up your paint and crack your windshield which completely negates the point of saving fuel.
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How do we negate the tailgating ticket? 😀
 
there is a pretty short list of things to do to improve mileage:

a)change your driving habits. don't be a hypermiler, for gods sake, but drive smoothly and carefully. make sure you keep your car decently maintained.

b) this one is extreme, but shed all the weight you can. all the interior save a pair of seats and half of the dash. (don't want to get rid of the instruments now do we)

c) sell your car and buy something with better mileage.
 
ShawnD1 said:
Horrible advice. You'll get a $200 speeding ticket because you were trying to save $0.10 worth of gasoline.



I don't know if it improves mileage, but it certainly doesn't hurt. I drive like a retard and my car still gets 31mpg (US gallons) in the city. It's a 2010 Corolla. I floor it off the line every time 😀
The official US EPA rated mileage for that car is 26mpg in the city.


Best way to improve your highway gas mileage is to stay behind a large vehicle. I tested this last week when I had a day off and nothing better to do. My Corolla's highway mileage at 75mph when I'm behind nobody is 34mpg. When I was roughly 3 car lengths behind an 18 wheeler, my gas mileage was 55mpg. You should only do this if you have no gas and you need to get to the nearest town to buy gas. Big trucks sometimes throw rocks back that will fuck up your paint and crack your windshield which completely negates the point of saving fuel.
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I have been driving my gf's Corolla because my 3 has been in the garage. All i can say that 1.8L engine does not take any fuel. I took it to work all week last week, it only took half a tank of gas and it took around $11 to fill it back up. My Mazda 3 would take a whole tank even when driving like a Grandma and it takes around $33 to fill it up. I drive the Corolla like a mad man because it's the only way to get it to move and it still gets good mileage.

That said, I also rented a 2010 Mazda 3 last week. It was the smaller engine. I went to Maine and back, then to my mom's house and back. It was close to 500 miles all together and I only spent $27 on gas to fill it up. If only the made the HB with a smaller engine.
 
Gibson486 said:
I have been driving my gf's Corolla because my 3 has been in the garage. All i can say that 1.8L engine does not take any fuel. I took it to work all week last week, it only took half a tank of gas and it took around $11 to fill it back up. My Mazda 3 would take a whole tank even when driving like a Grandma and it takes around $33 to fill it up. I drive the Corolla like a mad man because it's the only way to get it to move and it still gets good mileage.

That said, I also rented a 2010 Mazda 3 last week. It was the smaller engine. I went to Maine and back, then to my mom's house and back. It was close to 500 miles all together and I only spent $27 on gas to fill it up. If only the made the HB with a smaller engine.
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That corolla, was it the Automatic or Manual transmission version? I'd bet if you got the Manual Transmission version, you'd see a major boost in performance at no cost to fuel economy.
 
ShawnD1 said:
Horrible advice. You'll get a $200 speeding ticket because you were trying to save $0.10 worth of gasoline.



I don't know if it improves mileage, but it certainly doesn't hurt. I drive like a retard and my car still gets 31mpg (US gallons) in the city. It's a 2010 Corolla. I floor it off the line every time 😀
The official US EPA rated mileage for that car is 26mpg in the city.


Best way to improve your highway gas mileage is to stay behind a large vehicle. I tested this last week when I had a day off and nothing better to do. My Corolla's highway mileage at 75mph when I'm behind nobody is 34mpg. When I was roughly 3 car lengths behind an 18 wheeler, my gas mileage was 55mpg. You should only do this if you have no gas and you need to get to the nearest town to buy gas. Big trucks sometimes throw rocks back that will fuck up your paint and crack your windshield which completely negates the point of saving fuel.
Click to expand...

The other reason your fuel economy jumped was because you were probably going slower to stay with that semi. Just going slower alone will increase your fuel economy. And for most cars the different between 75mph and 65mph is a pretty decent jump in FE. And for most people that don't commute super long distances, you won't see a difference in time of commute of more than 5 minutes. But hell if 5 minutes is that important to you...then by all means speed away. I know that sounds antagonistic, but on my 20 mile highway part of my commute the difference is only a couple minutes but the different in fuel economy is 8-12mpg depending on the direction of the wind.
 
archetypaul said:
Unless there are any sorts of hills, cruise does the exact opposite of what's right in any sort of elevation change. Accelerate about 10 mph faster before a hill so you can coast up it. Never fight the gravity down a hill, cruise will hold you at the speed you told it to.
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Depends on the hill. There are grades here that will overwhelm a car left in D easily requiring you to either downshift or ride the brakes and as far as I know cruise control only maintains a minimum speed that you set, it doesn't regulate speeds above that by downshifting. Speeding and reckless driving are not something I care to do in order to save a few pennies on gas. Besides, engine braking uses no gas anyway...coasting in neutral does.
 
Many modern cars with autos will downshift to hold their speed going downhill.

Using Speed Control On Hills
The automatic transmission may downshift on hills to
maintain the vehicle set speed.
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I think the only cost effective method for improving fuel mileage is to change your driving habits. Anything relatively inexpensive (to where you would even come close to making your money back) seems to have little to know effect.
 
LTC8K6 said:
Many modern cars with autos will downshift to hold their speed going downhill.
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Hmm, I didn't know that. How aggressively will they do this though? There is a 10% grade out in Palm Springs I have to downshift into 2nd to keep from building up too much speed and/or riding my brakes.
 
How much do you drive a year Olds? Seems that even if you get a 10% increase in fuel economy, it might only equate to $100-200 a year or $1-2 a week. If your budget is that tight, I would suggest giving up the car and spending the money on a gun and a bullet.
 
JulesMaximus said:
Hmm, I didn't know that. How aggressively will they do this though? There is a 10% grade out in Palm Springs I have to downshift into 2nd to keep from building up too much speed and/or riding my brakes.
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I don't know. Maybe I should experiment? 😀
 
Dodge Charger manual:

Using Electronic Speed Control on Hills
NOTE: The Electronic Speed Control system maintains
speed up and down hills. A slight speed change on
moderate hills is normal.
The automatic transmission will downshift while climbing
uphill or descending downhill. This downshift is
necessary to maintain vehicle set speed.
Click to expand...
 
KentState said:
How much do you drive a year Olds? Seems that even if you get a 10% increase in fuel economy, it might only equate to $100-200 a year or $1-2 a week. If your budget is that tight, I would suggest giving up the car and spending the money on a gun and a bullet.
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i second that suggestion, regardless of your financial situation.
 
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