Hypermiling - best base car..?!

[benlovesgoddess]

Oh yes, I have an instantaneous MPG gauge, a live feed bar, which annoyingly tops out at 60 mpg. Our Honda CRV, which uses a third more fuel, also goes up to 60 mpg.... It has the average MPG figure too, which is always hugely inaccurate, usually (but not always) over optimistic by 10-20%. I wonder therefore how true the live MPG readout is?

[Draigflag]

That's pretty good going, a steady constant speed is key, probably more important than cruising speed. I would ignore the instant MPG reading, mine maxes out at 99.9 MPG but drops to single figures if you floor the throttle. No use for anything.

[benlovesgoddess]

Yeah, i wish i had done the same for the 300 miles motorway down, that had the same 50 mph roadwork sections, but no diversion, and nothing to overtake and only one stop. Pointless really, as these are rare journeys, but it is a satisfying exercise in acheiving a personal best miles per gallon figure. My son wants to return to Portsmouth, and the attractions are on a 12 month ticket, just a bloody awful long drive! My gauge maxes out at 99.9 too, on the average figure. You can reset it on a downhill and enjoy several seconds of false hope! Once it has settled, its only ever displayed 80 a couple of times.

[OliverGT]

Guys, don't discount the instantaneous readout, I would use this all the time, it gives you good feedback on how your driving style impacts mpg.

I would have the readout on the instantaneous all the time and occasionaly flick to the trip average MPG to see how I'm doing, then it's back to the instantaneous which I try and keep below the current average, which then hopefully brings down the average. Hope this is not too confusing.

It will also tell you when fuel cut off happens when slowing down, if your car implements it. For example, when my car is cold, it doesn't use the fuel cut off, so engine braking actually uses more fuel for the first few miles.

Oliver.

[benlovesgoddess]

Our Honda CRV is great, as not only is the trip computer much more likely to be within 1-3 MPG of the real figure, but you have the instantaneous bar, plus the average on the same display. As the bar goes up to 60, and the car returns around 40 MPG, what you mention above is correct.
In the Hyundai, the bar goes up to 60, but the car can exceed this (by over 125%!), you have to cycle through a half dozen displays to go from instantaneous to average, and average is always considerably wrong. I still keep instantaneous on as the default, but will switch to average on long motorway bits to watch the figure creep up!

[Jcp385]

Originally Posted by OliverGT

Guys, don't discount the instantaneous readout, I would use this all the time, it gives you good feedback on how your driving style impacts mpg.

I would have the readout on the instantaneous all the time and occasionaly flick to the trip average MPG to see how I'm doing, then it's back to the instantaneous which I try and keep below the current average, which then hopefully brings down the average. Hope this is not too confusing.

It will also tell you when fuel cut off happens when slowing down, if your car implements it. For example, when my car is cold, it doesn't use the fuel cut off, so engine braking actually uses more fuel for the first few miles.

Oliver.

Instantaneous is the one to use while driving. The average is fun when you get to wherever you're going but is only halfway trustworthy. It can't be calibrated. My UltraGauge can, as well as similar products like the ScanGauge. Get a few tanks' worth of calibration and I'm usually within .5mpg.

[benlovesgoddess]

Thanks, I am looking at buying a ScangaugeE.
I always assumed these scangauges people were talking about on here involved professional connection to the computer within the engine bay...! For this reason, I never before looked into getting one (d'oh!).
Can't believe they simply pug into what looks like a scart socket in the dash fuse box!
The scangauge E looks ideal, with the focus on MPG. I couldn't find Ultragauge for sale.
£75 seems to be the best price - do you know of any cheaper sellers? Or second hand ones..?!

[gassless]

I am a full time RV pulling a S10 behind. I was in California using the S10 and where I was it was easy to get 50% hypermilling because of the hills. I even went to Yosetemie National Park could almost coast all 100 miles with the right path if you are careful of the speed traps, but as I moved to Oregon It is hard to get more than 15% . there is a lot of difference with the terrain. makes it hard to compare each persons mpg

[benlovesgoddess]

I bought a ScangaugeE - now I need some help! Sent a message to Scangauge for assistance, but no reply yet (time difference perhaps?). The gauge turns itself off and on randomly, and shows no data UNLESS I pull out and put back in the wire to the back of the unit as I am driving....
Then it works, showing the scrolling graph and both live and average MPG figures.
Restarting the car means its back to not working, UNLESS I pull out and reinsert the wire again...
Is this likely to simply be a faulty product, or is there a set up procedure or something I've missed...?
I followed the set up instructions.
I wanted to start a new thread, but was unable to remember how to do it!

[trollbait]

Unless there is some difference in European OBDII, it, or the cable, is defective, or it needs a firmware update. You should be able to see which software version your scangauge has on one of the screens, but I can't think of how to pull it up on my II at the moment.

My old II didn't work on my Sonic, but they updated it for free(minus shipping back to them), and I have only heard good things about their customer service elsewhere. So you should be hearing from them.

If you have any auto stores that will pull codes for free, it wouldn't hurt to have them plug in their code reader to see if there isn't a problem with your socket.