Quick update hil i have the time at work.
Got my fillup, and my fuel economy has greatly imporved, even with flying to work and rush hour traffic this morning.
i am getting a fill up this afternoon but at a 1/2 tank where i normally fill up i only have 250-300miles on the trip. Today, i have 350. Not a great improvement but appreciated. Tires will be maxed out tomorrow because all the snow will be gone by then.

Congratulations! :thumbup:

You should enter your car in "The Garage" and start a gaslog. It will keep an accurate record and calculate your actual MPG for you.

So, what have you done to get your improvement?

Thanks, i'll look into the gas log.
Well, things to improve it have been drafting, especially off smaller trucks and large pickups. In rush hour or congested areas youi're less than 10 ft away from people regardless. Keeps me on my toes.
Turning the engine off for coasting and bump starting had helped a great deal.
Yes, driving habits :-D
And i blocked the front grill a while ago but this is the first time i have really driven the car since then.
Next fill up will be welcome (never thought i'd say that), but i'm not sure how much better it will be just this once. I need to get my oil changed (it's way past due) and get new brakes. My front grill is being replaced as well as the passenger side mirror due to someone sideswiping me while on a highway a few weeks ago. Once those repairs are complete it should also help with my air resistance.

42.9mpg
Not bad, and a slight improvement from the 39.2 mpg i was getting before. So, we will see what happens this next time, it should be much better because my driving is now more controlled and i'm not trying to figure out what to do. I know the places to coast, what speeds to coast at, and how much to push to get up a hill in 5th at 40mph.
I'll keep you guys posted! Thanks so much for all the help!

My lifetime in the smart is just a tick under 60 MPG US but it should be over the 60 mark once the summer comes. I don't try for good fuel economy. The people in Canada who do, are averaging 71 MPG US lifetime.


Keeping off major boost without lugging would be ideal, but without a ScanGauge (which does work on a smart cdi) it'd be hard to tell if you are lugging or not.

I also drove a 2006 model Renault Scenic 1.9 dCi 8000 km across Europe in the fall of 2005. It was a very nice car and driven very hard, it returned over 36 US MPG with five up and luggage for a month. Vmax on the Autobahn was 205 km/h (127 MPH) and we drove it in big cities like Paris and Rome..... Driven sensibly it would be a 45 US MPG car.

@groar: we were near Toulouse last April, actually a bit south of it, driving from Carcassonne through to Messanges in the Landes. Very nice country down there. The new-ish Autoroute that passes by Tarbes and Pau is boring but the Pyrenees are beautiful even from a distance. Pau is quite a spectacular site.

Diesels economy
 

Hi,

Volkswagen absolutely sold turbocharged fuel-injected diesels in the United States. I know because I drove one at a dealership in Colorado Springs. It very quick for such a small engine. I don?t know if it?s still being offered, but if it?s not it could have something to do with reliability. Lots of people buy according to Consumer Reports recommendations and right now CR is big on Japanese stuff.

Yup, those are the "TDI" models discussed earlier in this thread.

But he didn't say the magic word: "direct".
Turbocharged fuel injected diesels have been around since, well, turbochargers were put on diesel engines, at least the early 80's with regards to VW. Those were indirectly injected. The fuel was injected into a pre-chamber in the head where the combustion began. From there it spread through a port into the piston / cylinder volume.
The turbocharged direct injection diesel injects directly into the piston / cylinder space. Some VW model or other have been sold in the US with versions of the TDI every year since late 1995 (1996 model year).

are the early (u.s. )tdi's good engines? how about transaxles? im looking for an engine, trans, harness (or a whole wrecked car with good parts), etc to transplant into a smaller lighter car.