in: PG; PG > 2008-05-21;
| # Posted 2008-05-22 02:38:52 | |
| kissy: | I topped 30 mpg for the first time in my Toyota Matrix. And that was mainly from driving slower. |
| # Posted 2008-05-22 02:46:43 | |
| PG: | The problem is that you have to be careful not to do it.
Stage 1 of overdoing it is driving like Swampfox when he travels cross the country, averaging about 55 at most, getting good mileage I'm sure but also getting vicious leg cramps from so many hours behind the wheel. Stage 2, even slower, is driving like Sharon, harking back to the days when she got pulled over on the Maine Turnpike for driving too slow (45?). Seriously. |
| # Posted 2008-05-22 04:04:25 | |
| jjcote: | My Vibe has averaged over 33 mpg for the 190000 miles that I've driven it. With a ladder and a hang glider on the roof, going 75 on the highway, it drops to around 30. Why so much better than kissy's Matrix? Mine is a 5-speed manual, is yours an automatic?
Sharon was going 45 because her Rabbit was in such poor mechanical condition that it wouldn't go any faster. There's no reason to expect that it was operating efficiently at that point. |
| # Posted 2008-05-22 04:30:39 | |
| TimGood: | Finally something I am good at. Need to calculate some recent mpg figures but if I don't get at least 35 total and 40 highway in my Saturn SW2 (manual) I am disappointed.
Last weekend I got over 33 in Bev's Lexus SUV. She normally gets around 23. It was all highway driving coming back from Williamsburg to DC area. I love the instantaneous mpg display and was trying to beat my previous record of 30 mpg. Got it up to 33.6 before we had to leave 95 and go up route 1. |
| # Posted 2008-05-22 05:30:54 | |
| kissy: | Yes, my Matrix is automatic and AWD, so it knocks the mileage down. My next car will be manual. And I'm with Tim...it is like a game to beat your MPG PR. |
| # Posted 2008-05-22 08:23:46 | |
| coach: | Interesting to see this on Attackpoint, usually this is on the Volvo site.Anyway, before any of you get too carried away with your gas mileage calculations, do a calibration of your odometer. Easy for us O travelers, just figure the error by using those mileage markers along the interstates. You get a good error correction by checking your odo for about 5 - 10 miles.
Usually get 25 in the Volvos. BTW, have noticed big improvements in instantaneous mpg display when within 10 carlengths of a semi, try it. |
| # Posted 2008-05-22 08:52:38 | |
| levitin: | I am near the threshold of having driven 1, count-it, one, 1, light-second (1863xx) miles in my 1991 Honda CRX, and I'm still getting 40+ mpg in it, usually closer to 45. Whether, when, and how urgently to replace this car is a matter of some discussion in our household. To my happy surprise, it passed its most recent state inspection.
I love this little car, and it galls me no end that in the intervening decade and a half, automatkers have not significantly improved fleet fuel economy. At best, they have stayed about steady given stricter safety standards (and higher curbside weights). |
| # Posted 2008-05-22 08:57:56 | |
| PBricker: | Volkswagen Passat wagon, 6 cylinder, manual: 26.5 miles per gallon highway at 75 mph; 31 miles per gallon highway at 60 mph. Pays to go slow if I'm not racing to get to some o start. |
| # Posted 2008-05-23 02:29:07 | |
| feet: | 31 mpg at 60 mph for 60 miles: time spent, 1 hour; money spent at $4/gallon, $7.74.
26.5 mpg at 75mph for 60 miles: time spent, 48 minutes; money spent at $4/gallon, $9.06. Implicit value on own time not driving vs own time driving by someone who prefers 60mph to 75mph: not more than $1.32 per 12 minutes, or $6.57 per hour. Implicit value for a carload of 4: $6.57/4 = $1.64 per hour. PG said you have to be careful not to [over]do it. I submit that if you don't dislike the rest of your life almost as much as the time you spend driving, then driving 60mph to save gas doesn't make much economic sense. |
| # Posted 2008-05-23 03:13:15 | |
| PBricker: | It's interesting indeed to see what the amount saved per hour is; probably lower than I offhand thought. But decision making in this case is complicated by the fact that (at least for me) the (dis-)utility of (continuous) driving is (very!) non-linear with respect to time: I don't much mind, and sometimes even enjoy, driving an extra 12 minutes on a 60 mile trip (listen to news, music, chat with passengers), easily worth saving a $1.32, and saving $20-30 on trips of a similar length over the year. But an extra hour on a 360 mile trip (back starting to hurt, news stale, bored with passengers) I would pay more than $6.57 to avoid, much more. I guess I've incorporated that already into my decision making, since I always do long car trips at the highest speed I think I can get away with, but short trips and around town, I go at a moderate speed (when else am I going to listen to NPR?). (Also, any realistic calculation has to include the reduction in accidents, and the severity of accidents, at lower speeds, which, I suspect, has a non-negligible affect on the utilities.) |
| # Posted 2008-05-23 03:21:15 | |
| feet: | Indeed. That's why I wrote 'driving 60mph to save gas' rather than 'driving 60mph.' |
| # Posted 2008-05-23 03:28:52 | |
| jjcote: | While we're critiquing this stuff, I think AWD is a scourge. I'm glad that it exists, but I bet 90% of the people who have it (and all Subaru drivers these days are in that group) have no need for it, and it just wastes gas. And it makes the car heavier and thus more difficult to stop. Now, I'll readily admit that I have several friends who have driveways that are difficult to negotiate with just FWD (PG included), and I don't begrudge it to them, but I often hear people talk about how it really comes in handy a lot, and I think that's bunk. It's like a pale shadow of the SUV problem, where most of those vehicles never leave pavement. I've never had AWD, and I've rarely found situations where I needed it (mostly on the driveways of the abovementioned friends). This is in the wilds of New England. South of the Mason-Dixon, I don't think it should even be available. Fortunately, I don't make the rules. |
| # Posted 2008-05-23 04:07:42 | |
| Charlie: | Well said. I really need a non-AWD car for the summer months. And I won't even get into the mileage discussion. |
| # Posted 2008-05-23 04:34:31 | |
| feet: | I should add that not only can an implicit value be put on time not driving vs. time driving, but also, because of people's willingness to bear the increase in accident risk that, as Phil mentioned, is associated with faster driving, you can put an upper bound on the value of a statistical life this way. Link to the abstract of a 2004 Journal of Political Economy paper by Ashenfelter and Greenstone that does just this. (Answer: a life is worth no more than $2 million in today's dollars). |
| # Posted 2008-05-23 04:34:42 | |
| TimGood: | Used to have the Toyota Tercel with the lever to switch from 2wd to 4wd. Almost never used it except for occasionally in the winter.
For those that have never driven with me, I do have the reputation of being conservative speed wise. Have never gotten a speeding ticket. In the 33 mpg trip last weekend I did mostly 65 (the speed limit) to 70 but made excellent use of the drafting behind trunks. |
| # Posted 2008-05-23 05:32:24 | |
| jeffw: | but made excellent use of the drafting behind trunks.
This will likely nullify your accident risk savings due to driving slower. |
| # Posted 2008-05-23 09:31:25 | |
| kadley: | If you tail gate a truck close enough, the impact will be minimal when you rear-end them; hence, safety improves. |
| # Posted 2008-05-23 15:35:12 | |
| BorisGr: | If I were an environmentalist hippie (which i am not), i would point out that this talk of maximizing MPG is rather ironic, akin to boasting of having conducted a military attack that "only" killed 10 innocent civilians as opposed to 30. In other words, start biking and using public transport instead. (Again, this is what I would say if I were an environmentalist hippie, which i am not.) |
| # Posted 2008-05-25 03:52:54 | |
| PG: | I didn't bike, I didn't take public transportation, but 32 mpg on the drive to the trials is better than my usual 28. Though I think there was a good tailwind. For the way back, I expect we'll delay our departure until the winds are gale force out of the SW. |
| # Posted 2008-05-25 08:37:51 | |
| cedarcreek: | For the last year I've been driving a 2003 Volkswagen Diesel. I had a Jetta for about 4 months starting last April, but it was totaled. I was having trouble finding another Jetta diesel, so last August I bought a 2003 Golf TDI (TDI is the diesel model). It's not the car for everyone because taking it to a dealership is pure masochism---the standard advice is to only take it to a private (non-dealership) mechanic who specializes in them.
I'm mentioning the downside first so I can then mention the good part. The lowest mpg on a tank I've ever had was 39. The next lowest was in the 42s. My last three tanks have all broken 45mpg, with one in the high 47s. It's got a 16+ gallon tank that gets me over 600 miles 99% of the time, and over 700 a good portion of the time. And I'm not talking about driving to maximize fuel economy---I'm talking about driving it normal to hard all the time. My fuel bill driving 100 miles a day went from $340 a month with my old car to $205 with this one. That is for last summer's prices. My current monthly cost is going to be $320 if the prices stay this high (my old 27mpg car would cost about $445/month now). I paid $4.69 per gallon today, the highest ever for me. Using 44mpg, and 4.69 diesel to $4.00 regular unleaded, I'd have to get 37.5mpg in a gas car to equal the cost of this driving the Golf. Just once, though, I want to ride my bike to work. I'd have to leave the house a little before dark. It's 47 miles one way. |
| # Posted 2008-05-27 16:42:09 | |
| cmorse: | following this thread last week, I decided to check the mileage on the Hyundai wagon (5-speed) going down to the trials this weekend. So from Tolland to Bethlehem on highways (with Peters tailwind I suppose), then around town, up to Hickory Run on Saturday mostly via backroads, then filling up on the way back to Bethlehem netted me 38.9 mpg. But I tend to drive conservatively anyway, usually staying just under the posted limits and not speeding away from stoplights. |
| # Posted 2008-05-29 17:50:42 | |
| chitownclark: | I saw this interesting slideshow that demonstrates where your $4/gallon is going... Check out the palm-tree-shaped marina projects: beach-front living for every citizen.
But we know everything is about to change. Big time. |
| # Posted 2008-05-30 08:00:08 | |
| coach: | The drafting distance is quite large for a semi and small car, about 7 car lengths, so it's within the limits of most of our reaction times, and any car will stop faster than a semi (unless of course it hits something really Big)!. All this can be confirmed with those instant MPG computers.
So Sam's Volvo got 26.5 at 70mph. Not bad when you factor in the 4 people on board. We need a different spec. People x miles per gallon. So we got 106 pmpg. |
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