Author |
Message |
Holly
Member
07-22-2001
| Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 10:35 am
Happymom, what is "hypermiling?" I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how you can get your car to give you more MPG . My car has never given the mileage it was advertised as giving. It's always been WAY less. When I complain to the dealer, they want to do all sorts of stuff for hundreds of dollars so I stick with the low mileage 
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 10:53 am
It's when you make changes in the way you drive to try to increase gas mileage Holly. One artcile posted here a month or two ago, the drivers went way out like trying not to step on the brake so they don't have to accelerate. Three weeks ago, Darren decided to do what he could to get better gas mileage to work. He stopped using his a/c, though he had no choice, it's not working, lol, and started driving with the windows down (not sure if that helps or hurts!) He also slowed down. The speed limit most of his way to work is 60-70, he drove 50-60. While he takes the freeway for a good portion of his drive, even when he's not on the freeway he only has a ocuple stop signs or lights, so not a lot of starting and stopping or idling in traffic. I figured he'd save a little gas, but he surprised me. Ususally he gets just about 300 miles on a full tank. Fills up Sunday night and by Friday afternoon he's limping home on empty (we don't use his car on weekends.) By making his fairly easy changes, he got 350 miles on his full tank of gas, or an extra day of back and forth to work. He filled up Tuesday morning (instead of Sunday evening) and said he thought he could have gone another 10 miles or so but once he got on the freeway there was no place to fill up til Rosamond (about 13 miles) and he didn't want to risk running out of gas.
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Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 12:45 pm
I'm using the freeway more, too. It's helping on gas mileage. As I wrote earlier, hubby is carpooling with co-workers a few days a week. We also try not to make unnecessary trips out. For example, I'll save one day for the bank, grocery, and other errands. I used to drive just to the bank or to the store. By combining these trips, I'm saving gas, as I don't live near anything convenient.
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Dipo
Member
04-23-2002
| Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 1:53 pm
I don't drive, but when my sister comes over to shop, I find out from her where she wants to go and map out all the stores in the best circular drive possible. It helps a little.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 1:59 pm
That's my main thing too Dipo, I try to plan all my trips together. If I need to pay water bill, I wait til my electric and phone bills come so I can do them at the same time. Even though it's a pain in the ass, I do my shopping and my aunts together now instead of two seperate trips (she likes shopping done for a whole month at once..sigh, lots and lots of groceries.) Holly, we've had the same problem with my minivan, not getting the mileage we should. We've taken it in several times and they can't tell us why. They suggest changing fuel filters and something else, which we did do but it din't help a bit. I keep a log of my gas mileage, and now an even more detailed one, and give it to them everytime we go over but they still can't say why. I would say, and Darren did for a long time, that it's because I do mostly in town driving, lots of stopping and going, etc, but even on long trips, the mileage doesn't improve any.
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Holly
Member
07-22-2001
| Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 2:29 pm
Thanks for that answer, Wargod; very helpful! I'm going to try everything you mentioned. I also didn't buy any of the reasons they gave me for the low mileage (especially when they wanted me to spend a couple of hundred on cleaning something out); I think they just fib about the mileage we should get!
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 4:02 pm
War, use bill pay or mail your bills, that would save from having to load kids and drive there. I just recently gave in and set up many of my bills at wells fargo bill pay. I wasnt sure at first but 2 months in and I just added 5 more to it! I am loving it!
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 4:29 pm
Also, be sure that your tire pressure is where it's supposed to be. Even a pound or two off can lower your mpg(especially if there's only one tire that is different from the others).
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 8:39 pm
Pamy I refuse to mail bills after mixing up checks and sending the gas co a check for the electric co and the electric co the gas co's check. Electric company sent it back to me with an extension to pay my bill figuring it was a mistake, gas company cashed the electric co's check and credited my account for several months after that. I can pay both electric and gas co online or on the phone, but not my water bill. I have paid the other two that way sometimes, but since I have to go out to the water co, I usually do the other two at the same time. I do pay my mortgage online (started a few months ago) and I love that, takes only a couple minutes, is free, and a few days later I get a letter confirming the money was taken out of my account.
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Friday, July 04, 2008 - 9:43 am
aahhh I see. That was nice of the electric co, not many companies would do that. That is the kind of thing that makes me want to do business for life with a company. (although in this case you have to use them no matter what ) We are car shopping again today but we now have more info/research(Thx to TVCHers!) so we are hoping to trade in a 7mpg old truck for a 25-30mpg!
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Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Monday, July 07, 2008 - 3:23 pm
I also try to combine all my trips out and to do them in such a way as to save on gas. War, my bank (Bank of America) will send actual checks to my payees if those payees don't have electronic whatever- it- is -they- need to be paid electronically. It typically takes 5 days instead of the usual next day or 2 days. I love banking online and they say it is actually safer than the mail (maybe not for you War but for identity theft). (I did accidentally send our old cell phone co. a payment through online banking and it was a pain to straighten it out. It taught me to delete payees that we don't pay anymore!) I should probably call my version of hypermiling modified hypermiling or safe hypermiling. I don't do the extreme things like turning my engine off when going down an exit ramp or anything like that! I do really look ahead for traffic, stopsigns etc. and try to brake as little as possible. I just will try to coast to a stop so I don't waste gas. When I do have to brake, I plan ahead as much as possible so that I brake slowly. I also accelerate really slowly. I go slow up hills and take my foot off the gas going downhill much of the time. I don't go over 60 mph because gas mileage plummets after that speed. Although, if I'm on the hwy going downhill, I will never brake to get the speedometer down (unless I have to brake for safety) and sometimes I am actually speeding then. If I'm on the hwy, I will try to get behind a big truck, but I know from Mythbusters that in order to really save gas that way you have to follow the big trucks dangerously close. I won't do anything unsafe. But if being behind a big truck can save me even a little, I'll do it. War, there have been discussions here I think and studies done on keeping the windows open vs. a/c. I know his is broken, but having the windows open creates drag and lowers gas mileage. But if it is too hot, we can't suffocate ourselves! True hypermilers would probably tough it out and not use the a/c, or vent with the fan and have the windows up. I am trying to keep the windows up as much as possible and use the a/c as little as possible. I don't turn on the a/c until the car has been moving for at least a bit. I keep the windows open then to get some of the hot air out. I also turn off the a/c when going up hill. I'm going to try not to drive the next few days, it is supposed to be over 100 (15-20 degrees hotter than normal) and today and tomorrow are spare the air days anyways. If I do have to drive, I'll put up with some heat for a bit. When I get somewhat close to home, I'll turn the a/c off instead of my old way of turning it off when I pull into the driveway or even not turning it off at all. I have heard that the worst thing for gas mileage are fast starts and fast stops. I have heard that you will increase mileage by 40% if you don't start and stop fast. Holly, I hope I answered your question somewhat. Thank you War for getting back to her so quickly. I haven't been in this thread in awhile.
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Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Monday, July 07, 2008 - 10:19 pm
Good idea about stopping and starting slowly. I'm a slow driver so this isn't a problem..LOL
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, July 08, 2008 - 12:19 am
I read the other day that the use of cruise control in an attempt to save gas only works if you are not driving up and down hills because the cruise control acceleration takes more gas than regular acceleration.
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Prisonerno6
Member
08-31-2002
| Tuesday, July 08, 2008 - 4:49 am
On this gas tank fill-up, I decided to try to change my driving habits to see if it changed my MPG. I tend to have a bit of a lead foot, so I am doing the slow starts (I always slow stopped, and left lots of room between me and the person in front of me). I started driving 55 on the highway instead of 65-70. I live in a a very hilly area, and I live on the side of the mountain, but work in the valley, on the other side of the river, so there is a lot of up and down -- but going into work, it's mostly down, and coming back, mostly up. So far my MPG is up 20%, and it was already over the EPA estimate (2004 Chevy Malibu -- was getting around 26 mpg around town opposed to the estimated 23; now I'm getting around 31). Of course, it's only been a few days, but so far it seems to be making a significant difference. As for cruise control, it really depends on how steep the hill is. I have a couple of 30ish degree inclines on the way to work, and I can't cruise control those. Instead, I watch my tachometer, and try to keep the RPMs under 2000. I refuse to do any of the engine turn off things while coasting down hills -- too many deer on the road, and I need the power brakes!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, July 08, 2008 - 4:00 pm
I wouldn't do the coast down the hill thing around here, for sure. Roads just too crowded and you are right, in rural areas you have to look out for deer and other critters (and gravel trucks in some places..).
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Prisonerno6
Member
08-31-2002
| Tuesday, July 08, 2008 - 4:12 pm
And cows crossing the road at the dairy.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Tuesday, July 08, 2008 - 10:05 pm
We have a 2002 Toyota Highlander, and when we drive it to Texas, we go through a lot of hills and mountains. We have it on cruise control, and sometimes going up the hills, it sounds just awful. We also keep a mpg log from fill-up to fill-up for the entire trip, and strange as it may seem, we get our very best mileage on cruise control on those hills. Normal highway is around 23 pretty consistently. On those hills, we often get 30 mpg. Isn't that just the most bizarre thing? You would expect exactly the opposite. The first time we noted it, we thought it must be a mistake, but the phenomenon gets repeated. Huh!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, July 09, 2008 - 6:14 pm
That is interesting, Juju.. it could be that the better mileage is despite the uphill jaunts under cruise control, so it is still best to use it on long trips like that. I used mine whenever possible on my two month driving trip in 94 but because I suppose I'm related to Tess in driving instincts, I'd end up nudging the thing up now and then, speed wise..
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Friday, July 11, 2008 - 9:39 pm
DS and I just returned from a trip - we went NINE hours on ONE tank of gas! We got 40 MPG. Most of the highways we took were only two lane, so our average speed was 55. One leg of the trip (about 3 hours of the 9), though, was an interstate, so we stayed a bit below 65 (limit is 70).
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Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Saturday, July 12, 2008 - 10:41 am
40 mpg! awesome! What type of vehicle?
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 1:11 pm
Are gas prices going down everywhere? I had 1/8th of a tank this weekend and haven't bothered filling up yet since I haven't really gone anywhere. Figure by now I'll have to put some gas in before going to my aunts again and I was telling my sister that earlier. She told me gas prices had dropped 43 cents in a week. I hadn't even noticed cuz I haven't been near the gas station.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 1:14 pm
not here...
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 2:34 pm
Ours went up over 10 cents yesterday!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 3:08 pm
War, yesterday, I saw three stations at $4.29 for reg unleaded so it has gone down.. they were up to $4.55 at least. The last gas I bought was at a station north of me that was a couple of cents cheaper than by my house and that half tank was $4.29 a gallon. I'm only at a little over 1/4 down now but if it drops more I may be tempted to top it off.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 5:37 pm
LOL, I asked Darren about it and he said it had dropped a little but not that much. Maybe 4.3 cents. Dumb thing is I was just up there (we took the kids to McDonalds for dinner) and I forgot to look and see how much it was.
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