I give up, It's not worth my time...
 

The only reason I started trying to save gasoline was to save money. I'm not interested in saving the planet or any other grand plan.

With the Hyundai I bought, I can drive conservatively and get about 39 mpg or I can drive aggressively and get about 35 mpg.

The savings for me at 4$/gal. amounts to less than 20$/month driving conservatively.

The time savings driving aggressively amounts to about 20 minutes/day.

My driving style will probably be somewhere in the middle and I'll probably end up getting around 37 mpg.

I know it's kind of a hobby or obsession for some. For those who enjoy the challenge of getting the most out of their vehicles, more power to you. I'll still keep my stats in the garage area and maybe go for good numbers once in awhile just for fun but as far as an ongoing effort, I don't see it happening. It's just not worth my time.

How does everyone else feel about the effort it takes vs. the time involved?

Kevin

Like everything in life, balance is good. I also think driving should be fun so an extra $20 in gas per month is probably worth not stressing about mpg's. The important thing is just knowing what habits and techniques etc, effect your mileage, then you can implement them as you see fit.

Sounds like you know what works for you. That's what's important.

I do it because I really need to save money, but when it comes to small differences like that $20/month, I mainly do it because it's fun. I get bored just driving along and messing with P&G, EOC, DFCO, or any other acronym gives me something to do with my time and excess attention span. Otherwise I might be doing something that distracts me from driving.

With Marvin, it works out at about 20mpg and 20 mins per trip or 25mpg and 25 mins per trip, on a 20 mile trip. So 5 mins saves .2 gallons, which at my prices of nearer $5 a gallon, is about a buck. So those 5 mins extra "pay" 12 bucks an hour, and about $20 a week. Even if gas went down to $3, it would still be worth the $7 an hour or $12 a week. If a clean, renewable fuel came in at under $2 a gallon equivalent, then I guess I'd worry less about being a little wasteful.

Another one bites the dust!

Post like these really cause you to admire the people that were hypermilers back in the $1.99/gallon days.

when i bought my civic it would go 28-32 miles on a gallon of gas and it handled and stopped o.k. and was very noisy on the road. it was 3.5 k with 85,000 miles.

after 3k in parts and about 120 hours of labor it is pretty darned quick, has fantastic brakes, handles stupidly good, is reasonably quiet, and gets 40 mpg or so (i am pretty sure i will get to 45 as an average when the final kinks are worked out). I do only very mild hypermiling, and i love to haul ***. I'm happy, but i am a gearhead so all the work was fun. one person's fun is another persons nightmare.

My Grandpa was a hypermiler before it had a name. I remeber him telling me about getting 40mpg in his 82 Dodge Rampage with the 2.2 liter 4 cyl with a Holley 2 barrel and a 4 on the floor. That was when I was in high school in the mid 80's. I thought he was a nut but I also thought it was pretty cool he could go that far without having to buy gas.

I am a feather footer, not a hypermiler. My Washington state is lovely to travel thru & the slower I accelerate & cruise, the longer I get to see beauty. Such driving is no effort. I cannot see where aggressive driving is restful.

Your aggressive Hyundai Accent driving gets 35MPG? That's pretty good. My wife's non-aggressive winter commute in stop & go highway traffic only got her 32 to 33MPG. She let me take her Accent on 3 day trips over 1400, 3000, 4000, & 5500 foot mountain passes for tanks of 41.5, 42.6 & 45.2MPG.

Similarly, I took my 88 Ford Festiva over the mountains & nailed down 51.8MPG. Compared to a 18MPG gashog, I saved $53 on 1 tank of gas. Despite going 367 miles, my tank fillup wasn't even a full tank & I could have traveled another 150miles.

also remember that being "agressive" on an engine will also wear it faster so you may need to replace that car sooner with a more agressive attitude to driving.

that does depend on how agressive you drive

In my case, its worth the effort. I'd save only 10 minutes driving fast to work.

I've been checking my FE ever since I started driving, although I am much more conservative now than I was then I just take it as a challenge to see how good I can get. I've always liked playing with numbers anyway, so if gas went back to 28.9 regular price like I remember as a child I would probably still take on the challenge. I even remember once as a child a new gas station in the area I grew up in opened and a gas war brought gas down to 11.9 cents a gallon at the new station trying to get new customers. Talk about the good ole days. This was either in the late sixties or early seventies.

For some people, driving slow is very tedious and difficult to tolerate, requiring a lot of effort. I've gone through spells of being either way, often related to my general stress level and comfort in life.

OUCH! Stop, you're killing me! You're raising my general stress level and that will make me drive faster! ;)

that all depends on the car. hondas to not always exhibit that characteristic.

i beat the piss out of my last civic all day every day until i got cut off by a guy who didnt see me totally the car. his insurance only gave me $500 but i got to part out the car.

my current civic also sees vtec every day without problems.

there are degrees of hypermiling. the first step should change the way you drive forever, like leaving the car in gear as you slow down and using the brakes as little as possible. the other things like pulse and glide and engine off coasting can get annoying, but to say you are "giving up" means you were trying too hard.

heh, I like that argument, you won't have to replace the car sooner if you drive aggressively, but I had to replace mine because I was driving too aggressively to allow idiot room .... yeah, yeah, it was the other guys fault, but I'd have written off 20+ cars by now if I ever got into the mindset of letting it be the other guys fault.

However, if you maintain a modern car meticulously you can pound on it every day with no apparent ill consequences to the engine, the ring packages and bore finishes in modern use are highly wear resistant. You can destroy an engine by the other extreme of not running it long or hard enough, like buy a new car and only go to the grocery store in it twice a month (Watch out for the ridiculously low mile ex-seniors cars for that, if it's done less than 2K a year be as suspicious of it as one that's done 30K a year, and the one that did 30K a year might be better than most if it was a fleet vehicle maintained on a severe service schedule)

Well driving conservatively saves more than just gas/diesel. You save wear and tear on brakes/tires/transmissions/engine...this can add up quite a bit. You also are less likely to get a speeding ticket (for most anyway). Driving slower also increases your reaction distance in case you need to make eveasive manuvers. Even just $20 a month based on 39 mpg with fuel at $4.50 per gallon...you get 2080 free miles of driving. That makes for a nice snow ski or sunny beach vacation.

I bought my xB in November, and have been trying to optimize my MPG since. In that time I have saved over $500 in gas over what my last car got. If I wasn't optimizing I'd have saved *maybe* half of that. So that is $500 to waste on other things.

The most interesting thing for me, in addition to the "game" of hypermiling, has been how much more relaxed I am now that I think about driving lightly rather than being the first one there. I used to stress out and yell whenever someone cut me off, or passed me, or was driving "too slow"[1], or was just in front of me. Now I'm much more relaxed and take it easy. It makes driving less stressful. And when I do drive "spiritedly" it is more fun and I don't feel guilty about wasting the gas, since the rest of the tank is still well above average.


[1]given I drove at around 80mph, they could be doing 75+ and I'd still get ranty

For me, changing to a smaller car and driving as if there were an egg under the foot feed has saved me, in the past year, something over $2000. That includes the cost of the car, all the parts that needed replacing, a little paint to make it look a little less (but only a little) bizarre, and maintanence. But then, I drive 100+ miles a day. I could move closer to work, but I'd probably lose more money doing that (but dear, if we paid just a little more per month we could get this much nicer house...!).

I too have changed my driving habits over the last yr. But in the long run for my second job, I have tried to find a balance in MPG vs time. FYI I drive a Mini-van on a fixed route every tues and thurs night. Round trip is 246.6 miles. Now I get paid a flat fee for this route I could do it in 2 hr or 8 hrs the pay is the same. Fuel comes out of my pocket. How much is sleep worth to me. I also work 7:30am to 5 and this run is 11:40pm to 4:15am.

My best in the van has been 28.5 mpg but it comes at having to drive max of 52-53mph max speed. It is a rather hilly but all highway route. If I drive 73-75mph the tank comes out to 22-22.5mpg. The saving per night is about 2-2.5gallons per night. What I have come up with is slower on the way out about 59mph/27mpg and 74 on the way home. Works out to about aprox 24+mpg. With a saving of about 1.5 gallons per night.

If I do the run in 4hr a night for a total of 8hr It works out to 40.80hr. If I slow down it takes me 11hrs+for the wk and that works out to 29.67hr. I chose to speed to a point. But the extra time I spend going slow is just killing me with sleep. Sorry for the long rant.

John


https://www.gassavers.org/gaslog/sig.php?id=954

if EVERY commuter in the US did this(bought a more efficient vehicle), our consumption of gas would be decreased significantly, irrespective of hypermiling or not.

add to that responsible(not hypermiling) driving habits and consumption would be even less.

BTW, i do not think you would be getting 35 MPG if you drove over-aggressively, but i get the gist of it.

Function:
I don't think its really an "effort" for me, and it gives me something to do/think about while I'm driving which is good because I have a bad habit of getting bored and that is very bad for everyone.... zzzzzzzzz... yes, very bad. After a long day at work, sometimes the sandman can get to me but with HM, I'm more aware of my car, the surroundings, other traffic and my own habits -- all good.

Economically:
I drive 210 miles a week or about 480 miles a month. Going from 33mpg to 42mpg (my current tank avg) means I go from 14.5gal to 11.4gal. If reg gas is $4 then the cost per month is $58 to $45.6 or save $12.40 a month. Not much but I'm not really doing this for the money -- I like to use what I have to its potential.

MPG:
EPA MPG estimates:
(old) 31/38 [34]
(new) 27/35 [30]

My tank averages before HM were 33. Starting out in HM jumped to 38. Once I got the scangauge to see what I was doing right/wrong it's gotten up to the 40s, so at least I'm ahead of the "estimates".

Time:
I do take more time to get to my destination but since I always leave early to beat traffic, I really don't lose anything (plus what would I do with that extra 10min/trip???)

Egg under the foot doesn't always work. In my truck even "egg under foot" in 1st or 2nd gear results in about 2MPG being reported by SG. I usually give it about 20 - 25% throttle until I can get at least into 3rd gear then play the egg under foot game. My mileage ends up much better.

Depends on the car...with the Geo it does work. With my Cad, what with overdrive transaxle and lockup torque converter, your method seems to work better.

FYI, I already doubled my FE when I parked my F150 3 months ago and bought a new Hyundai Accent. I went from 18 mpg to 36 mpg.

I honestly get 35+ MPG driving this 08 manual trans. Accent pretty hard. Shifting @ 3000 + RPM and cruising at 75 mph. Don't ask me why it's rated so low for highway mileage. I don't see it. I honestly don't know how I could get much less mileage on the highway with it.

Kevin

Same with my VW. EPA highway estimate is 28mpg. A non-hypermiler who owns the same car reports 33mpg from highway driving at 70mph, and that seems to match what I've observed (but I haven't done a single tank of mostly highway driving on this car).

Turn on your A/C to max, all lights on, open all windows, blast your stereo system and drive with underinflated tires while driving on the highway at 80mph with a loaded bike rack on top and carrying 4 complete golfbags in the back.... I bet you'll get those EPA numbers now with no problem. :)

that's more or less what i meant by over-aggressive, thank you for clarifying. i would add: speeding to red lights and slamming the brakes.

I think part of it is also being able to prove those SMART people at the EPA wrong about their mileage estimates too.

I do it because in a past life i must have been a Scot. I think i am thrifty, frugal or whatever other terms people have come up with to describe what i do. I get a kick out of getting the mpg out of a 13 year old car that beats most cars out there that are being sold today. Most of my driving is up to my customers, so it varies all the time. This gives me something to do to break up the boredom and save a few dollars. Just used my 89 240 sx automatic for a trip and got 33 mpg with it 50/50 street and highway. The best i got before with it was 24 mpg. It has an outrageous overdrive, 65 mph at 2300 rpm. No a/c however. I like to think with what i have learned i could get better mpg on just about any vehicle out there.

With me it's partially an obsessive/compulsive efficiency thing,saving money is just a side benefit. It's not just hypermiling either,it's going faster with fewer/cheaper performance parts(67 Plymouth Satellite),getting more result from any given situation with less effort.More for less,whether it's for bragging rights or saving money, is a great motivator for me.

There were two things that convinced me slowing down was worth it.

The first was that I measured the time the commute took. It's about half an hour each way. I found that a quick trip going slow was faster than aggressive driving on a slow day. The issue isn't traffic (unless you want to go faster than 80)... it's mainly light timing, with only 2 lights and 3 stop signs. If there's no guarantee of saving time, why bother?

The second was that I was way less wound up at the end of the trip. Adding in the time until I was focused and productive made the 'fast' trip slower than the slow one.

I think measuring the actual time repeatedly is important. Just dividing miles per hour only works on very long trips.

I've been trying to get 40+ MPG out of my g/f 2004 Honda Civic SE but the best I've been able to do is 39.5 MPG. I coast as much as possible and the tires are inflated to 37psi, but I just can't break that barrier. Then, we had to make a rather rapid trip to another town for a family emergency where I was driving VERY aggressively. We had done 100 mp/h on occasion with 85 mp/h average, heavy acceleration and a/c on nearly full. The surprise was that the highway miles dropped from 38 mpg on average to 32 mpg (same as the city EPA).

I think I'm with Kevin on this one. At what point do all the hypermiling techniques become rather moot? I mean, if I drive normally I get the EPA of 38 mpg (highway) and 32 mpg (city), but when I hypermile I get 39.5 mpg (highway). That's really not worth it. Now if this was my Festiva, well, that's a different story. I'm able to squeak out a lot more miles when I use the tech.

Kevin- It's all a matter of personal opinion. Saving $20 a month in this economy is well worth it. Heck I might even take my wife out for a nice dinner. --Josh
www.reportgasprices.com

There are different ways to get your FE up. To me driving slow just to save gas is not worthwile. I try to time stop lights, pulse A/C, don't idle, go easy on acceleration - adds 1%-2% to travel time, and improves FE by ~10%. If I need better MPG then that, I'll get on a bike.

It's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase.

oh, thats how i hypermile:p try 44-51psi. 37 really isnt much at all... and could you define "coast"?

Yep, you're right, it's personal opinion. I'd rather have 20 minutes extra per day with my wife than spend it on the interstate. I've been married less than a year. (thats my wife in the photo) Maybe someday it will change, but for right now I'm in no hurry to leave in the morning and always in a hurry to get home in the afternoon!

Kevin

Lol, It's not how fast your drive, it's where you live.
I spend about 2 minutes on the interstate going over a bridge, about 3 minutes getting to it and about 5 more getting off and finding a parking spot. Timed my commute at 5.6 miles. Takes 12 minutes door to door, 11 if I run from the parking lot. Don't see a need to speed, only gets me there 5 seconds faster.:)

Before I used to drive 65 mph hwy, but I took a long road trip - Houston to Chicago at 70 mph - and discovered my 99 HX M/T gets 50 to 51.15 mpg @ 70 mph so now I just drive all hwy at 70 mph - no 55, 60, or 65 unless there are cops around. I value the saved time too!

But now I will be unemployed soon, so I got lots of time to spare, so maybe I'll try 60 mph.

For me, driving in an FE conscious way (not necessarily hypermiling) can be an interesting game. I am not tired of that yet.
I enjoy breaking my own records:).

What are you currently getting your Suburban? You should create a garage entry for it and log your mileage there. Read up what I've been learning about my truck, and you may increase your mileage as well.

-Jay