Friend saved 70 cents per gallon on crose country trip
 

A friend of mine is driving accorse country in his 1985 civic sedan, I've done road trips with him, and driven the car a number of times in the city, and on the highway and it's had an average of around 35mpg at 70mph, so for this trip that has hit it's half way point in wisconisn on the way from west coast to east coast he plans to continue driving 55mph the whole way, without cruse controle and I did some rough figuring and realized that for him to spend the same on gas going the higher speed that he would have had to pay 70 cents per gallon less, it's made me think more about bill board ideas, something like:

"Save up to $.70 per gallon by slowing down, high gas prices are a choice"

It sure made me think more about driving slower.

Ryland: You mention "without cruise control"... do you mean that he just doesn't have it, or that he chooses not to use it? Being that the car is an '85, I would imagine that it just doesn't have it... but I could be wrong.

i have read that cruise control is not the best way to bet the highest mileage. if you can use your foot you react faster because you can see down the road and you don't have to maintain your speed going up a hill.
when you come to a hill you can keep the same pressure on the peddle and you will slow down a bit but you won't stop. the cruise control will floor the peddle to keep you at what ever speed you have it set at.

It also uses some electricity. Thats counting beans, though. On the flats, it use it, but the hills, I disengage it.

I wrote a letter to the paper a few weeks ago to tell people to shut up with all the whining about high gas prices unless they were prepared to do something about it. My suggestion was to just drive slower (the speed limit & slower acceleration) and then compare $$ of how much money they save. It was a little more in depth than that but they did print it 2 weeks after I wrote it.

the car doesn't have cruse controle, and having made the same trip a number of times I must say that it is extreamly tempting to drive 75mph the whole way as the hours slowly pass by, even more so because in most of the states that he passed thru the speed limit is 75mph.
I've thought about writting a simaler letter to our paper pointing out that people don't drive like they are paying very much for gas, but then again in water shortages people still water their lawns, and I noticed alot of people hauling around ATV's and dirt bikes this weekend, so gas can't cost that much.

Slowing down is definitely the way to go for FE but keeping the speed down really takes discipline. Some days I'm more successful than others.