What do your passengers think of your driving?
 

The other day I gave some friends a ride in to town, and because I live at the top of a nice long hill I turned the engine off and coasted down, doing a bump start at the bottem of the hill, and no one noticed... the only sign that I did anything was the slight reduction in noise as the engine went from a quite idle, to being compleatly silent, and the alternator light, and low oil presure light coming on a second after I fliped the key off and back on, and of course I try to keep my bump starts smooth.
So is anyone have passengers that don't notice their non standard driving?

Ryland -

I usually modify my driving based on the passenger or tell them what I am doing, so they are not surprised. My mom would FREAK if I did EOC. My wife is very tolerant, :) .

CarloSW2

Wife didnt like the pulse and glide at ALL... After about 10mins she said if I did it any longer she was getting out.... Almost lost myself a passenger LOL J/K.

Apparently, even if you are already speeding, a passenger with a restroom emergency pending gets really annoyed with anything resembling a glide. Cripes, I was doing ten over the limit! :P

Aside from that, most of my effort is centered around coasting to red lights or stops which really doesn't seem to make much of an impact on how quickly we 'get there', so the complaints are minimal. I think my wife is more annoyed that I manage to get nearly 40 mpg doing the same trip where she barely gets over 30.

I try to not EOC as much with passengers because they tend to get scared. I will do it with my wife in the car though - she's used to it.

My G/F thinks somethings wrong with me! I used to drive "jerky". Short shifting, and smooth acceleration is throwing her off. She thinks someting if wrong with me. Then I point to my trip meter! I say Look, 423 miles, and I have almost 1/4 a tank left!

GF hasn't noticed.
Of course I don't EOC or anything.
I also use the A/C when she's in the car... Some sacrifices you gotta make.

Had my family in the xB yesterday to visit the Vets cemetary where Dad is and ran highway with AC on up to 80mph - nice tail wind and moving van to draft helps the mileage a lot. Car ran great but tough keeping it cool at those speeds - the AC does better at lower speed. Tank fillup was about 42+ mpg after 250 miles of highway. Did a few coasts that they didn't notice but they try to use less brake when they drive their gas guzzlers already so it was all cool.

I don't know why people complain about the xB not having enough power when I ran with four adults and junk in the trunk yesterday and had plenty of getup and go.

I dont care what they think. They can walk if they have a issue.

psy

What got me really thinking about this topic was reading news paper articals where the writer wrote about how dangerus hypermilers are, and that the fear they inflict on their passengers, and the danger they put other drivers on the road in wasn't worth the gas they save, and altho I'm not in the top 10, it's not because I don't try, I tend to haul tools, and have passengers, and make more short trips then is really reasonable.
I was a bit shocked when I started reading those news paper articals that were basicly asking people not to change their driving style, because I've rarely had passengers make negative comments about my attempts at driving more effecintly, the most commen thing that they do notice is driveway bump starts, and that is just because the chain of events stands out as being out of order when the car starts to move befor the engine starts.
The only person that I remember who didn't like my driving was a few years ago when I got my license, the person over seeing the test said that if I was going to coast to a stop sign was of the opinion that the car should be in gear, the clutch could be disingauged, but he wanted the gear shift to be in gear.

Everyone just makes fun of me saying I drive like a grandma. It's problably because my car is pretty fast and I drive it to allways get above 27mpg.

I've managed to do quite a few hypermiling drives, and make sure people haven't noticed :)

PAX Avoided
 

I tend to take this approach.

I'll do mild hypermiling with PAX (especially in the TSX, which comes with strict rules :rolleyes:): loading up hills, neutral coast, timing lights, spacing in traffic (more technique), etc. I rarely drive anyone in the 'Teg -- that would kill my FE!

On rare occasions, it's fun to show people who normally drive large vehicles, what a 4-banger can get with average driving (noting the mileage display at the end of the trip :p )

It all depends on how comfortable they are with your driving style...

RH77

Uh huh ^ that right there !

A couple weeks ago my wife and I did a road trip, three hours each way to visit my parents. Wifey let me know she doesn't like me coasting in neutral but I did it anyway and she got used to it. I keep ICE on as it's auto and starter replacement is a bear on this car. No complaints from the wife.

I made two concessions on that trip: I kept speeds mostly 60-70 instead of 10 mph less. And we had windows open in daytime, nothing like an overheated spouse! We did well, 30 mpg overall including 15 min in brutal traffic and taking total 4 adults to a real nice Chinese dinner, about 15-20 minutes each way.

I usually don't EOC or P&G with my mom or dad in the Geo, but I 'hypermile' all the time when driving around with my sister. Habits are hard to break. I'll do around 55mph all the time in the 'giant billboard' and get reminded to speed up to 75mph :eek:.

ive noticed that how my passengers feel depends largely on what state they are from

I rarely have passengers. But my wife loves it that I drive slower now. I guess I was a bit scary to drive with before I started hypermiling. She does think I'm a bit goofy for doing the weight reduction, etc. She does like the increase in the FE, though.

My mom is always *****ing about my driving. I've learned to ignore her.

Okay, so what if I don't want to reduce my kinetic energy by braking in the curves? I mean, it's not like I'm unfamiliar with the roads. I know how fast I can take the corners in the Metro.