Hypermiling update

[rsvman]

I don't know if anybody is actually interested, but I wanted to give a quick update....

Back when nobody could get gas I started hypermiling to save gas. History is that the car is a 2014 with about 54K miles on it; lifetime the car's average mpg was 30 right on the nose.

That week when I couldn't get any gas I did a fairly extreme version of hypermiling, which involved not only driving more slowly, accelerating and decelerating slowly, and not running the AC, but I also turned the car off entirely at stop lights if i was going to sit there for any length of time. As some of you may recall, I got 38 mpg on that particular tank.


Here is the update part: Since that time, I have continued, but I have been doing a more relaxed version, just to see what I could get with a "reasonable" form of hypermiling. Still trying not to change speeds or brake, if possible (braking just turns gas money into heat!), but when it is hot i am running the AC, and I am not turning the car off at red lights. So, the answer is that I am getting 34 mpg using this milder form of hypermiling, and in just a few short weeks I have increased the lifetime mileage of the vehicle from 30 to 30.2.


You might think that 4 mpg is not that much of a difference and that it is probably not worth it, but the way I see it, essentially what I am doing is taking a 13.3% discount on gas. Gas prices are high and they will likely get higher. Say gas is at $3.50 a gallon, would you not want to buy it for $3.03? I would, and I am accomplishing the same thing by just changing my driving habits a little bit. As a bonus, I figure it is probably better for the environment, too.

Hypermiling is not for everybody, and I think it is unlikely that too many of you will change your driving habits one iota in response to this post, but I just wanted to let everybody know that sustained improvement of more than 10% in gas mileage is definitely doable.

[bundabergdevil]

I don't know if anybody is actually interested, but I wanted to give a quick update...

Back when nobody could get gas I started hypermiling to save gas. History is that the car is a 2014 with about 54K miles on it; lifetime the car's average mpg was 30 right on the nose.

That week when I couldn't get any gas I did a fairly extreme version of hypermiling, which involved not only driving more slowly, accelerating and decelerating slowly, and not running the AC, but I also turned the car off entirely at stop lights if i was going to sit there for any length of time. As some of you may recall, I got 38 mpg on that particular tank.


Here is the update part: Since that time, I have continued, but I have been doing a more relaxed version, just to see what I could get with a "reasonable" form of hypermiling. Still trying not to change speeds or brake, if possible (braking just turns gas money into heat!), but when it is hot i am running the AC, and I am not turning the car off at red lights. So, the answer is that I am getting 34 mpg using this milder form of hypermiling, and in just a few short weeks I have increased the lifetime mileage of the vehicle from 30 to 30.2.


You might think that 4 mpg is not that much of a difference and that it is probably not worth it, but the way I see it, essentially what I am doing is taking a 13.3% discount on gas. Gas prices are high and they will likely get higher. Say gas is at $3.50 a gallon, would you not want to buy it for $3.03? I would, and I am accomplishing the same thing by just changing my driving habits a little bit. As a bonus, I figure it is probably better for the environment, too.

Hypermiling is not for everybody, and I think it is unlikely that too many of you will change your driving habits one iota in response to this post, but I just wanted to let everybody know that sustained improvement of more than 10% in gas mileage is definitely doable.

Interesting read, thanks for sharing. Didn’t even know that was a term.

[budwom]

I don't know if anybody is actually interested, but I wanted to give a quick update...

Back when nobody could get gas I started hypermiling to save gas. History is that the car is a 2014 with about 54K miles on it; lifetime the car's average mpg was 30 right on the nose.

That week when I couldn't get any gas I did a fairly extreme version of hypermiling, which involved not only driving more slowly, accelerating and decelerating slowly, and not running the AC, but I also turned the car off entirely at stop lights if i was going to sit there for any length of time. As some of you may recall, I got 38 mpg on that particular tank.


Here is the update part: Since that time, I have continued, but I have been doing a more relaxed version, just to see what I could get with a "reasonable" form of hypermiling. Still trying not to change speeds or brake, if possible (braking just turns gas money into heat!), but when it is hot i am running the AC, and I am not turning the car off at red lights. So, the answer is that I am getting 34 mpg using this milder form of hypermiling, and in just a few short weeks I have increased the lifetime mileage of the vehicle from 30 to 30.2.


You might think that 4 mpg is not that much of a difference and that it is probably not worth it, but the way I see it, essentially what I am doing is taking a 13.3% discount on gas. Gas prices are high and they will likely get higher. Say gas is at $3.50 a gallon, would you not want to buy it for $3.03? I would, and I am accomplishing the same thing by just changing my driving habits a little bit. As a bonus, I figure it is probably better for the environment, too.

Hypermiling is not for everybody, and I think it is unlikely that too many of you will change your driving habits one iota in response to this post, but I just wanted to let everybody know that sustained improvement of more than 10% in gas mileage is definitely doable.

I've heard various things about whether turning the A/C off helps mileage or not, one theory being that if you open your windows the car becomes less aerodynamic..but hey, thanks for saving us some petroleum.
My efforts generally consist of "bundling" trips, i.e. I only leave home a couple days of week...tomorrow is a good example: breakfast with the boys, then a dump run, a haircut, visit to the hardware store and a blood draw at the doc's, all in an efficient route...my first trip out in several days...

[cspan37421]

I think you may have a small error in calculating your gas discount from hypermiling.

Suppose you go 300 miles on a tank.

At 30 mpg you're using 10 gallons of gas.
At 34 mpg you're using 8.8235 gallons.

That's an 11.765% savings (regardless of the price of gas), not 13.333%.

[cato]

When I am driving behind someone hypermiling, I end up hyperventilating. In extreme cases, it can lead to hypertension.

[lotusland]

When I am driving behind someone hypermiling, I end up hyperventilating. In extreme cases, it can lead to hypertension.

https://youtu.be/yvdW0AQcLzc

[rsvman]

I think you may have a small error in calculating your gas discount from hypermiling.

Suppose you go 300 miles on a tank.

At 30 mpg you're using 10 gallons of gas.
At 34 mpg you're using 8.8235 gallons.

That's an 11.765% savings (regardless of the price of gas), not 13.333%.

Thanks. I'll take 12% off anytime.

[Phredd3]

Hypermiling is not for everybody, and I think it is unlikely that too many of you will change your driving habits one iota in response to this post, but I just wanted to let everybody know that sustained improvement of more than 10% in gas mileage is definitely doable.

Yep. I mentioned in the Tesla thread that I get about 20% better mileage than my lovely wife. Most of that is my willingness to adopt hypermiling techniques. Surprisingly to most people, hypermiling is not all boring, nor is it all about raw speed.* It is mostly about accelerations. Yes, that can mean beginning to coast well before stop lights (not actually stopping at all is the goal) and getting back up to speed slowly, but that also means freewheeling downhill as much as you safely can and taking most turns quite fast so that you have as little loss of forward speed in the turn as possible. The turning thing I try not to maximize when others are in the car, as it can be fairly uncomfortable for unsuspecting passengers. It is also, obviously, limited by law, visibility and sometimes a car waiting so you can't fudge the lanes.

*Air resistance is non-linear, but cars are aerodynamic enough and there are enough inherent inefficiencies, that anything under about 40mph makes little to no difference on mileage. There is a small dropoff after that in most models, but the effect doesn't truly become large until speeds above around 55-60mph. There's a really big difference between 60 and 80, so speeding on the freeway will really hurt fuel consumption over long distances, which is why the original national 55 speed limit law was enacted. It was originally a fuel-saving measure, not a safety thing.

[cspan37421]

This was a particularly good half-tank on an '08 Honda Fit Sport. IIRC it took 5 gallons on the nose to refill, for 53.3 mpg.

Exhibit C.jpg

Possibly overfilled to start, but not intentionally: the pump was delivering slow, and in my experience, the shutoff occurs a bit later in such cases. To the extent the subsequent fill-up was with a faster pump, it's arguably apples and oranges, I concede. Still, it was a marvel to experience. I didn't hypermile intentionally - there were a lot of 55 mph zones and construction, but traffic kept moving. So it was a steady, moderate speed. This was back in 2011, on I-40 in NC.

Typical highway mpg in my Fit (driving at actual speed limits) has been 40-44. Outside of those ranges, it's either significant headwind knocking me down to the upper 30s, or a boost from sustained lower speeds (by law or by conditions). Previous high was 49-50 mpg in an '88 Civic DX, on a straight shot from Hartford to Baltimore (300 mi), long ago. No fuel pump jiggery-pokery with that one, but IIRC, 55 mph was the speed limit then.

DD has the '08 Fit now. I have a '12 that just rolled 100k, and I am in no hurry to be back out there to buy! It's a seller's market, and Honda doesn't even bring the Fit to the USA anymore.

[YmoBeThere]

*Air resistance is non-linear, but cars are aerodynamic enough and there are enough inherent inefficiencies, that anything under about 40mph makes little to no difference on mileage. There is a small dropoff after that in most models, but the effect doesn't truly become large until speeds above around 55-60mph. There's a really big difference between 60 and 80, so speeding on the freeway will really hurt fuel consumption over long distances, which is why the original national 55 speed limit law was enacted. It was originally a fuel-saving measure, not a safety thing.

Wouldn't this be depend on the drag coefficient of the vehicle and the rolling resistance of the tires?

[rsvman]

Wouldn't this be depend on the drag coefficient of the vehicle and the rolling resistance of the tires?

In short, yes.

You can't really change your air resistance, but you can make a difference by making sure your tires are always inflated to the proper pressure.

Unless it is ridiculously hot, I use the windows to cool the car when I am driving in neighborhoods or anytime speed is less than 35 mph. Above that o close the windows and use the AC.

Whenever possible, I turn the AC off and slow down some when going up steep hills, then turn it on again once I crest the hill.

In general, what wastes gas the most is accelerating. After that is braking, because you are wasting kinetic energy, not to mention that everytime yiu slow down or brake unnecessarily, you have to accelerate again on the either side.

[BlueTeuf]

Reminds of a fun Car Talk segment. Audio clip here: https://www.cartalk.com/sites/defaul...nts/201252.mp3

[PackMan97]

I did not buy a car that can go 0-60 in 8 seconds flat to drive it 0 to 60 over two minutes! I'm putting every single one of those 130 horses to work when I get going!

[YmoBeThere]

I did not buy a car that can go 0-60 in 8 seconds flat to drive it 0 to 60 over two minutes! I'm putting every single one of those 130 horses to work when I get going!

This is the car video for you:

[PackMan97]

This is the car video for you:

Those seriously outclass my Corolla. The Civic with the 1.5T engine gets to 60 in under 7 seconds. I can't handle that type of power. Over 170 horsepower. That's insane!

[Acymetric]

Those seriously outclass my Corolla. The Civic with the 1.5T engine gets to 60 in under 7 seconds. I can't handle that type of power. Over 170 horsepower. That's insane!

You would not believe the difference the extra 24 horsepower (and twin cams!) made on my old Saturn SL2 vs. the SL1. Total game changer.

[PackMan97]

You would not believe the difference the extra 24 horsepower (and twin cams!) made on my old Saturn SL2 vs. the SL1. Total game changer.

Those Saturns with the plastic body panels were pretty sweet! Didn't need a lot of power to make them get up and go! The weight savings were significant. a 1994 Corolla was around 2300 lbs, the new 2022s top out at almost 3300 lbs. I can't imagine how much more efficient those lighter cars would be with today's engines. It's amazing how much chunkier cars have gotten these days.

I was really a fan of the old Dodge Neons as well, even though the build quality sucked. I think it was 1997 when I went shopping for my first new car and I test drove a Neon. When I attempted to roll down the power window, I actually pushed the power window button through the arm. That was a hard pass. I had the feeling that wasn't the first time something like that had happened to the salesman.

I have definitely noticed our family mover gets much better mileage when we go the backroads (mostly 55) vs the interestante (mostly 75). It's considerable even with the stops and starts driving through a few small cities.

[Acymetric]

Those Saturns with the plastic body panels were pretty sweet! Didn't need a lot of power to make them get up and go! The weight savings were significant. a 1994 Corolla was around 2300 lbs, the new 2022s top out at almost 3300 lbs. I can't imagine how much more efficient those lighter cars would be with today's engines. It's amazing how much chunkier cars have gotten these days.

I was really a fan of the old Dodge Neons as well, even though the build quality sucked. I think it was 1997 when I went shopping for my first new car and I test drove a Neon. When I attempted to roll down the power window, I actually pushed the power window button through the arm. That was a hard pass. I had the feeling that wasn't the first time something like that had happened to the salesman.

I have definitely noticed our family mover gets much better mileage when we go the backroads (mostly 55) vs the interestante (mostly 75). It's considerable even with the stops and starts driving through a few small cities.

Looks like the SL2 clocked in at just under 2400 lbs. The SL1 was about a hundred pounds lighter. Curiously, this isn't any lighter (even a little bit heavier maybe depending on the trim) than the same model year (1999) Corolla or Civic.

[rsvman]

Another quick update....sorry to take an old thread back on track away from the complete opposite discussion that was taking place, lol.

Still getting around 34 mpg with every refill. LIFETIME mileage on the car is now up to 30.4 (it was 30 even before I started all this, and had jumped up to 30.2 at the last update).

Doing this milder form of hypermiling is now becoming very easy and almost automatic. I don't really see a downside to it, so I will probably keep at it. Now I'm on a quest to continue improving the lifetime mileage of the car up to 31 and perhaps even 32 over time. Sometimes other drivers seem to get a little miffed by my new driving style, but so be it. Can't count the number of idiots that are hell-bent on changing money into heat by speeding around me in their V8 oversize trucks less than half a block from a red light and then slamming on their brakes and waiting for me to pull up right behind them. For the life of me I don't understand what makes a person want to speed up considerably when they are just going to have to slam the brakes in 50 yards or so and sit at a traffic light for 2 minutes, but whatever floats their boat, I guess.

[PackMan97]

For the life of me I don't understand what makes a person want to speed up considerably when they are just going to have to slam the brakes in 50 yards or so and sit at a traffic light for 2 minutes, but whatever floats their boat, I guess.

I wonder how much some of the newer vehicles that turn off when at a dead stop help improve mileage. Even at idle, a car uses fuel. Saving that two minutes of gas has to make a difference. It's very interesting to see how they just stop the engine still under compression to reduce wear on the starter/battery. I'm still not sure it's a great idea, but it should help with mileage. We test drove one by Toyota, but passed on it for other reasons.

I never realized that Otto cycle was replaced by the Atkinson cycle in a lot of hybrids. It's still amazing that 140 years later, we still have the same two basic types of ICE.