Can't break 40MPG...

[mikenacarato]

Originally Posted by supmet

Are you a salesman by trade? ..just out of curiosity. You have an amazing ability to drag me back in with your lack of facts.

I'll believe 2 hours is the average when I see a link - but even if it is, shouldn't a hypermiler being doing far less idling, by avoiding traffic and slowing before lights, waiting for them to turn green?? The average will also include people who warm up their cars which isn't recommended for the yaris.

You continue to ignore the fact that at 7 seconds you are only saving 1/10 of a penny of fuel. Do you truly believe the wear and tear on the engine and transmission(they kind of like circulating fluid), the starter, and the electrical system is less than 1/10 of a penny each time you start a car?

Assuming 7 seconds really is the break even point, this still means at 7 seconds, you saved nothing. 14 seconds you save 1/10th of a penny. 8 or 9 seconds, as you have recommended, will save you 1/35th of a penny. Following your recommendations, I could do this 10 times a day, and end up with 10 dollars at the end of the year. Ignoring wear and tear, is it worth the PITA to save 10 bucks a year?

i thought you said you were done in your previous post......its not nice to go back on your word.
i wish people would cut down on their whining here.


for the record, i am reading this to try and gain something from it but the arguing and bickering is rediculous and making this thread hard to follow.

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by Sodium Duck

Also, sometimes I try pulse and glide but I never follow through with. It's tough to do while maintaining a reasonable flow in traffic. I think I'll try and incorporate when possible from now on and see how that goes, too.

Have you looked into the Hang Time technique which is stickied at the top of this forum? It is much less labor intensive than P&G, and it lets you maintain a narrower speed band.

[supmet]

Originally Posted by mikenacarato

i thought you said you were done in your previous post......its not nice to go back on your word.
i wish people would cut down on their whining here.


for the record, i am reading this to try and gain something from it but the arguing and bickering is rediculous and making this thread hard to follow.

I apologize if this thread is convoluted now, but I see people pass off the 7 second rule all the time here, and I just want a simple answer. Does the wear and tear of shifting in and out of park(for an auto tranny), letting your fluids stop circulating, taxing the battery and alternator, and using the starter, among other things, all cost less than 1/10th of a penny each time you turn your car off and start it? It seems very unlikely to me.

And then I'd like to know if the 10 dollars(by my numbers) or the 40 dollars(by bailouts numbers) a year is worth the risk of increased injury and damage to the car getting rear ended turned off vs in gear and on. Not to mention, if you still had the car on, you could have pulled out of the way instead of getting rear ended.

[mikenacarato]

i think of it as....well the yaris gets better mileage than my last car...thats good enough for me. why can you all be happy getting high 30s?

[rningonfumes]

Originally Posted by mikenacarato

i think of it as....well the yaris gets better mileage than my last car...thats good enough for me. why can you all be happy getting high 30s?

Because happiness is relative.

[mikenacarato]

well im coming from a 13 mpg lincoln. instead of me squeezing every last drop of fuel from my yaris...i would rather have some fun with it and still get great mileage...and for the record..i get 42 mpg from mine.

[Sodium Duck]

Originally Posted by BailOut

Have you looked into the Hang Time technique which is stickied at the top of this forum? It is much less labor intensive than P&G, and it lets you maintain a narrower speed band.

Yup yup, I've read all your posts a lot. But don't you say you need a ScanGauge to do this technique?

[SpaceShot]

What I think trips up the logic on the Neutral coasting versus DFCO in gear, is that in Neutral the engine will rev just a little bit higher and you will actually use more gas on that down slope and worse yet, the fuel from that extra revs isn't putting any useful energy into the wheels.
This is hard to see without a ScanGuage or at least a Tach.

It does take effort and practice to give it just enough gas coming out of the down slope to minimize your loss of momentum and speed. There is a strong pull to step on it a little too much if the car slows down more than 5 Mph, which tends to undo some of the savings you just made coming down the hill.

Again look at your route, maybe you can find a way to coast from Mt. Wachusett most of the way home ;-)

By the way, 3 trips this week at 45 Mpg in my 08 manual LB, and its not even May yet. You can do this!

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by Sodium Duck

Yup yup, I've read all your posts a lot. But don't you say you need a ScanGauge to do this technique?

I mention in that thread that you don't have to have a ScanGauge for the Hang Time technique but that it's easier to dial it in with one.

[anonymous user]

I, like Sodium, barely crack 40 MPG on a tank. I think i've done it twice.
Anyway, my question is that since i only usually drive my car during the workweek, i usually only drive it monday-friday, and sometimes only 4 times a week. So on weekends it sits on the curb. How much does this sitting for 2-3 days a week affect my mileage? I may run a test to see how it works.

[Loren]

Sitting around has no effect other than the usual cold-start penalty. My car quite often sits undriven for 3-5 days at a time, I work from home. I can immediately get in it and turn a 45+ mpg trip average anytime I want to. Traffic usually makes it difficult to get more than 38-42 mpg, though.

[Sodium Duck]

Bah! Just filled up, 39.80MPG!

Something drastic must be done!

[Loren]

There's a technique called DWB - Drive Without Brakes. Essentially, it's just a way to make more use of coasting and DFCO. Sort of a mental exercise, really. Just drive as if you don't have brakes. If you didn't have brakes, you'd be looking WAY further ahead and anticipating stops, downshifting and much more carefully managing your speed. That's what you need to be doing for max fuel economy. Anytime you touch the brake pedal, you're wasting energy, turning it into heat.

Think that will help you?

[Sodium Duck]

Well, I do that to an extent now, but I will take it to the next level -- I think that will give me my .2MPG. On the way back from the gas station tonight, I was practically using just my pinky toe on it, coasting way far away into lights and using DFCO a lot. *fingers crossed*

I think that will help!

[CTScott]

I recently picked up a used Scangauge. I usually get about 35 MPG max, and now I see why - I never thought that I had a heavy foot, but I often see 5 MPG for a few seconds when accelerating from a stop. With the Scangauge I am learning to accelerate more gently and am expecting that at my next fill-up I'll notice a significant difference.

[Sodium Duck]

Hmm, when you accelerate from a stop how high do your rev's go? Is that the only major fuel burning thing you've noticed yourself doing with the Scangauge?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by Sodium Duck

Hmm, when you accelerate from a stop how high do your rev's go? Is that the only major fuel burning thing you've noticed yourself doing with the Scangauge?

I don't gun it, but it doesn't take much to really suck the fuel to get the car in motion.

The other place I've noticed a significant reduction in instantaneous mileage is going up hills. I find with a couple of hills around me that I sit at 15-20 MPG most of the way up the hill.

[Loren]

Originally Posted by Sodium Duck

Hmm, when you accelerate from a stop how high do your rev's go? Is that the only major fuel burning thing you've noticed yourself doing with the Scangauge?

How high you rev is only part of your concern when trying to save fuel under acceleration. Throttle position is as important, and probably MORE important.

You'll use more fuel with a heavy foot shifting at 2000 than you will with a light foot shifting at 2500