no tanks under 40 MPG in a year

[nsmitchell]

What kind of driving do you do mainly? I can't get 40 except on highway trips doing about 55MPH. City driving is about 30 to 35MPG on cool days. Less than 30 on cold days. You are in Illinois where it is much colder than Virginia. How do you do it? You must be a hypermiler extrodinaire.

[SpaceShot]

Actually your route can make a big difference in Yaris mileage. I commute 62 miles each way with the middle 3/4 being freeway and fewer than 6 stop signs or stop lights at either end. And for the little bit on either end that isn't freeway, it is mostly back roads or 2 lane where the Yaris can hit its optimum efficiency around 40-45 Mph.

Keeping the tires fully inflated and a K&N filter help some. Having a scangauge helps to remind me to back off 1 notch of throttle on the 2-lane, but it is hard to be consistent with that around town on weekend errands and so forth.

Thus I can keep it to 40-44 Mpg on my commute, just being conservative and not really `hypermiling'. Running errands around town (and not watching so closely) drops it down to 34 or so.

[stripey]

[QUOTE=SpaceShot;279846]Actually your route can make a big difference in Yaris mileage. I commute 62 miles each way with the middle 3/4 being freeway and fewer than 6 stop signs or stop lights at either end. And for the little bit on either end that isn't freeway, it is mostly back roads or 2 lane where the Yaris can hit its optimum efficiency around 40-45 Mph.

QUOTE]

Is this a known fact about 40-45 MPH? Presumably in 5th on level roads with a gossamer touch on the accelerator pedal.......

[rningonfumes]

Yes, 40-50 is the magical number for most cars, 45 for the Yaris. After that range, you start to battle wind resistance and the power needed after that begins to triple. So you need to accelerate (takes up power ) and then keep a constant pace, how fast the pace you want to keep the car at is how much more you will put in...

Note that the power needed to push an object through a fluid increases as the cube of the velocity. A car cruising on a highway at 50 mph (80 km/h) may require only 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) to overcome air drag, but that same car at 100 mph (160 km/h) requires 80 hp (60 kW). With a doubling of speed the drag (force) quadruples per the formula. Exerting four times the force over a fixed distance produces four times as much work. At twice the speed the work (resulting in displacement over a fixed distance) is done twice as fast. Since power is the rate of doing work, four times the work done in half the time requires eight times the power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_(physics) (go down to where where it talks about power)

[SpaceShot]

According to the scanguage, I hit peak instaneous MPG between 40-50 on the country 2 lane from the office to the freeway. Which verifies how I `feel' the engine is doing.
With a fair amount of low rolling hills one can more easily use a light touch on the pedal in combination with the terrain to keep the vehicle moving along at a steady speed with less fuel.
If you don't have a scanguage, backing off to just under 3K RPM should be pretty equivalent. It takes some practice not to be lazy and just keep your foot down no matter how the road conditions are changing in front of you.

[stripey]

Had a good day today, doing about 43-44 mpUSg mainly along motorways staying close behind Continental lorries doing between 50 and 60 mph. But it's slowly numbing my mind!

[voodoo22]

Originally Posted by stripey

Had a good day today, doing about 43-44 mpUSg mainly along motorways staying close behind Continental lorries doing between 50 and 60 mph. But it's slowly numbing my mind!

While going slower can seem boring when you're used to driving faster, try to keep your mind active by paying more attention to your surroundings and trying to anticipate what others may or may not do so that you stay safer and also never have to use your brakes. I drive in heavy traffic on my hwy commute and hardly ever use my breaks anymore. The upside to this is you're safer and more prepared, but you're also saving gas, because when you're coasting up on slower traffic at hwy speeds, your car goes into DFCO and doesn't use any gas. You're also saving wear and tear on your brakes.

Also, please make sure you are not tailgating any vehicle for yours and others safety sake.

I don't have a scan gauge, but for my commute of 52kms each way, I am usually able to keep my speed between 50-55mph and easily get over 50US mpg or over 60Imperial mpg on entire tanks. There's no trick to it, you can easily get these sorts of numbers too. I find for our sedan, it's important to keep from going over 90km/h or 55mph. I try to keep it closer to 80km/h or 50mph when possible.

[rningonfumes]

Originally Posted by voodoo22

I find for our sedan, it's important to keep from going over 90km/h or 55mph. I try to keep it closer to 80km/h or 50mph when possible.

For the longest time, I've been trying to figure out how you got the extra 2-3 mpgs over me!.... I do 55mph, but I spike over it according to the traffic flow (mostly when merging).

[50MPGDream]

sorry, haven't been plugged into the web much this week (crunch time on a project at work)

Thanks for all the words of encouragement and support, there were a few tanks where I was rushed or the weather was bad that I thought were going to throw me.

As to what I have done to get good MPG, keeping to speed under 55, easing into the throttle, and doing my best to time lights is all, no FASing, no P&G, no drafting, I don't always face out when I park (I would, but my garage is usually pretty full when I get there, and choices are limited as to where to park)

My current commute is 21 miles with some stop lights that are somewhat predictable and I am at off peak time for travel (read: I go into work at 3PMish against traffic, and I go home around the time the bars are closing... not a whole lot of traffic going anywhere at that time)

[voodoo22]

Originally Posted by rningonfumes

For the longest time, I've been trying to figure out how you got the extra 2-3 mpgs over me!.... I do 55mph, but I spike over it according to the traffic flow (mostly when merging).

I hear you on merging. In the rare instance where I do have to spike over 90km/h it's on merging to stay safe, but once I've merged and am in the right lane I almost never have to go over 90km/h and will go a little slower if traffic permits.

In the winter I go much closer to 80 than 90, but in the summer I find myself often going closer to 90km/h. I guarantee you that if you made 55mph your max and tried to bleed it down to 50 when safe that you'd pick up those extra few MPGs.

[firemachine69]

13K miles later, I'm still waiting for a 40mpg tank.

[andaconda]

I am amazed! Still breaking it in easy, nothing over 3k on tach, and only 800 miles on it.
First fill up - 46mpg. Topped off the tank (price of gas is going up another dime) this time 48mpg. Boy is the EPA ratings way off on this car!

[rningonfumes]

No, I would say EPA rating is "dead-on" for the average driver. If you don't really try in the slightest, you'll hit epa ratings. You don't really have to be a hypermiler to better the epa ratings at all but folks don't realize it.

[twowheels]

Got a pic of my trip ODO at 93 miles w/ a "full" tank today... 48.98 MPG on my usual 200 mile route. With the improving weather, a few extra PSI in the tires, and additional break-in on the drivetrain the mileage has been improving drastically!

So close... I was hoping for 50!!

The other day I hit 46.5, but realized I'd been driving in 4th instead of 5th out on the open road for quite some time not really paying attention. :-(

[Yaris Hilton]

Originally Posted by rningonfumes

No, I would say EPA rating is "dead-on" for the average driver. If you don't really try in the slightest, you'll hit epa ratings. You don't really have to be a hypermiler to better the epa ratings at all but folks don't realize it.

That's right. The older (pre-2008) EPA ratings were optimistic for most folks and take some effort to achieve, but aren't too hard.

As for the "mind-numbing" aspect of driving more slowly, I saw a good quote the other day:

"Don't try to make good time. Try to make time good."

[TheRealEnth]

i get like 20-30mpg... 30 if im lucky

[Yaris Hilton]

Yeah, that EPA "average driver" city rating is 29 MPG. Lots of folks will do worse. Playing the "stoplight Grand Prix" will really pull you down.

[rningonfumes]

Originally Posted by andaconda

I am amazed! Still breaking it in easy, nothing over 3k on tach, and only 800 miles on it.
First fill up - 46mpg. Topped off the tank (price of gas is going up another dime) this time 48mpg. Boy is the EPA ratings way off on this car!

In reading your post once more, I'm sorry andaconda, I didn't mean to depreciate your accomplishment at all. I meant purely to point out the EPA ratings. Even with the older EPA numbers (as pointed out by Yaris Hilton), you've blasted them out of the waters.

46 mpgs is great!...>I Had 45mpgs my first tank. Matter of fact, getting 45mpgs right off the bat was what fueled my new found thirst for mpgs which lead me to google and thus the term "hypermiler." The rest was history.