what are your 2006 fuel economy goals?

[MetroMPG]

saw this in kickflipjr's sig: "2006 Goal: 35mpg Average: 4 tanks over 40mpg"

good idea. did someone already start a thread on this topic - i.e. what are your fuel economy goals & mods for 2006?

might be interesting reading everyone's plans for the year. lay it on the table and come back in a year to see how we did.

my '06 mileage goals:
- raise my average mileage (hwy/city combined) to above 50 mpg (us) - or 6.8% above current levels
- achieve consistent hwy mpg of 55-60 (US) (@50+ mph, summer temps, calm conditions) - or 10-20% above current - aero mods will contribute most to this goal

planned mods/changes:
- driving style will contribute most to city mpg improvements; paying more attention to pulse & glide / coasting in neutral opportunities
- further aero tweaking (belly pan, skirts, dams, lowering) ... this will give me my expected 10-20% hwy mpg increase
- going to try alternator optional 12v system (solar/plug in) for local driving ... this will contribute to increasing my city mpg
- keep my eye out for lightweight 13 inch alloy rims ... also primarily a city gain
- continue investigating the metro EV project, and proceed if insurance and build cost looks reasonable

[MetroMPG]

Well, folks...

It's the last month of the year. Maybe a bit early for retrospectives, but how did you do? Did you meet your goals?

If you didn't, you've still got 30 days

[philmcneal]

hm damn i hope i get my lazy *** up and install my mobil 1 oil that's been sitting there for months into my hybrid, as well switching the transaxle oil over to something much thinner. Then probably pay someone to install my block heater for me and then boom, 70 mpg here i come!

i hope to obtain the same epa as I did on my civic (39% higher) although for hybrids... obtaining even just 100% is already a chore.

[GasSavers_brick]

I didn't learn about serious FE improvement until March. The goal I eventually set was to get consecutive 40mpg+ tanks, and I managed seven before my weather ran out. There's no end to the value of what I learned at gassavers and cleanmpg!

[zpiloto]

Metro MPG
"Do you have a sense of where you can get the Maxima?

The Flea's limit is: how low am I'm willing to go with my average speed for a given tank.

RT-wise, I'd like to better my 133 mpg effort, and aim for 150+ mpg next summer. It won't be TOO hard, but it will be slow - probably 18-20 mph avg. Just for kicks. Not very practical.

Tank averages are a different story. If I go totally basjoos on the car, I may gain an additional 5-10% @ 50-55 mph. That's still not VX or basjoos territory. (I console myself by saying: I doubt there are any VX's around with 11,000 km on the odometer. But if i still had Firefly #1 - a little rusty & high mileage - I'd definitely be shopping for a VX now.)

70 mpg tanks are history now, I fear. The last one was mostly (unusually) mild November weather.

And here's another thing: like the bicycle cargo trailer, the ForkenSwift is going to be a problem next year: it's going to drag my Flea tank averages down when it goes on the road, because it'll displace even more local (high mpg) driving.

Your question reminded me to bump this thread though: what are your 2006 fuel economy goals?"
__________________

Without instantaneous FE feed back I think I'm about there. Somewhere around 65% over EPA or 35 MPG, any higher than that and it would involve spending money. I think the ceiling for any car for ideal normal driving is around 90% for a standard and 70% for automatic unless heavily modified (engine/transmission). I still have some issues to work out with the engine and transmission. Ultimate goal would be 38 MPG and then it's time to sell it and move on to another more challanging project.

[kickflipjr]

2006 Goal: 35mpg Average: 4 tanks over 40mpg

Well I am averaging 37now. I don't think i averaged 35mpg for all of 2006, but i was near that. I still haven't had any full tanks over 40mpg, but that isn't really important to me.

[psyshack]

I didn't post any goals. But did have some.

I wanted to get a 50 mpg tank out of the Civic.
Been done a few times.

I wanted the wife to get better FE in the Accord.
She did it. Not a big increase. But a solid one. She slowed down a bit and backed off the A/C some. It helped.

I wanted the Rangers mpg to get better.
I may have made some ground on that today. It was either. It got better mpg, or I was going to blast it to death with a 44 mag. Or put a brick on the throttle parked in front of the Ford dealer and let toast its self. Then go buy a used F-150 or Tundra. It earned a stay of execution today.

psy