Hypermiling..is it worth it?
 

Just out of curiousity, I drove my last tank with NO hypermiling. No coasting, no engine off at lights etc. to see how it would compare to my hypermiling. My drive is not conducive to lot's of coasting etc. and I was wondering what my effort to savings ratio was. I compared this week with the previous week (which was actually higher than my average). With hypermiling I got 54.87 mpg, this week with NO hypermiling I averaged 52.00 mpg (pretty damn good for a Festiva !!) I divided these numbers into the 37,000 miles I have driven the car in less than two years, and figured that hypermiling is saving me less than 40 cents a day! Is it worth the effort and wear and tear on my starter and ignition switch to save less than 2 bucks a week?

Well it depends on how far you were going with the hypermiling. I don't know how extreme you are with your "hypermiling" and how much effort you have to put into it in order to get that 54mpg. Either way, 52 and 54mpg is small but judging by what I've read, if you're only getting a 2mpg increase by implementing all or most hypermiling techniques, then something is wrong or you're not doing it right. Either way, I think 52mpg is good for your vehicle, maybe when you got that 52mpg you were "hypermiling" in a sense anyhow.

I think 52mpg is super and if hypermileing is only netting you 2mpg more I wouldn't bother with it. I was under the impression that it made a much bigger difference. Sounds like it is not worth it.

Just my opinion.

The extra 2mpg wouldn't be worth it to me either. I'm guessing that most of your driving is highway? Yes, the Festiva does pretty damn good! Not much to look at, but they are great on gas.


N

In your case, I'd agree that it's probably not worth it.

However, in my case, pre hypermiling I was averaging 27mpg mixed, now I'm up to 31.xx mixed. 4+ mpg difference, I drive roughly 9k miles per year, so that saves me something like $220 per year. My "hypermiling" isn't anything other than monitoring my HAI, driving in highest gear at lowest speed possible.... 35 mph when warmed gets me into 4th gear (car is automatic) and SG reads about 75mpg at that speed w/ >15% TPS.

I did the math on P&G and it just wasn't worth it, saving me only $30 a year as calculated. Admitedly, I don't have much opportunity for efficient P&G on my daily commute anyhow.

In my Accord, I went form averaging around 25 in the summer, less in the winter to well over 35 in the summer, and a good 31 or so winter. changing my driving gave me nearly 10 mpg increase. As always, YMMV...

It's totally not worth the effort for you. It's a lot more worthwhile for me, which is good because I enjoy all the critical thinking and decision making involved, but sometimes I would like to put in less effort...

Most of my driving is rural highway/town driving. My Festiva is only rated 38 mpg combined so I'm easily beating that. I've put serious effort before into hypermiling and got a best tank of 56.67 mpg. Too much effort for me! It's hard to coast 37 miles to work in a timely manner :) I'll probably continue trying as I would like to see a 60 mpg tank but doubt I can reasonably pull it off.

I like to think of it as stealth hypermiling. My mileage has dropped off as the hot weather sets in here. 99 degrees today, and the AC is running, which costs me about 6 MPG. It's either that or get there dripping in sweat and the interior eventually smelling like a locker room.

Drafting, lower top speeds, DFCO, and a WAI are my main sources of improvement. If you get too radical with hypermiling around here you have 2 ton SUV's 3 feet from you rear end. I would rather be 65 feet behind them.


regards
gary

It's worth it to me because driving is part of my work. In the five months on the garage i have went 1100 extra miles using hypermiling compared to 30 mpg its rated(46 mpg combined). Less speed means no tickets for speeding and i arrive more relaxed.