Pulse and Glide?

[Pete7874]

dkruitz, VWJunky, that's basically my take on it as well. The reason I started this subject was because I thought I was missing something here. You'd be surprised how many P&G hardcore fanatics are out there though. This isn't something I'd be able to try out here in Chicago area, even if I wanted to... I'd get shot by other drivers probably.

[VWJunky]

yes you would. I think with the lower the price on gas the less people will do this but of course if prices go back to where they were, somepeople can squeeze blood out of a turnip or at least another quater miles out of a gallion of fuel! LOL!

With the economy like it is I just don't drive that much anymore. That saves lots of fuel!

[rem83]

P&G may be a relatively main-stream technique (compared to some of the other stuff that hyper-milers do), but I think a lot of the hyper-milers aren't in it to save money, they just want to see how efficient they can be (kind of like people who race just want to see how fast they can go, not how much time they can save). I doubt those folks have stopped just because gas prices have dropped off. While this seems pretty dangerous, stuff like removing your external mirrors, taping up body gaps and intake holes and removing excess weight from the vehicle, etc... is also quite risky.

[jhu]

Pulse and glide - something that I was skeptical of until I actually tried it. It really does work. So what does this entail? The idea is to accelerate to a higher speed at about 3/4 throttle, then coast in neutral to a lower speed. Once the lower speed is achieved, put the car in gear and accelerate again to the set higher speed (eg, accelerate to 70mph, coast to 60mph to get an average speed of about 65 mph).

Now when the car's coasting in neutral, you can keep the engine on or off if you're driving a manual. If you're driving an automatic, turning off the engine will damage (most likely depending on your car, check your owner's manual) your car's transmission. If you're driving a manual and you coast with engine off, you can bump-start the engine instead of using the starter. Be aware that with the engine off, you'll lose power steering and lose power brakes after 3 full pumps of the brake so don't do this until you get some practice in low traffic areas such as an empty parking lot.

So, why does this work? Well, at cruising highway speeds your vehicle will really only need to use 20hp. But your car's engine is most efficient at low rpms and high engine load.

Results: I used to get about 30mpg on the highway. Now getting low-to-mid 40mpg on the highway is common.

[coolbreeze]

with a stick p$g is no more dangerous than shifting gears. it works and is as natural as shifting and causes no inherit danger in normal driving conditions. i would not recommend in city driving but for rural roads and quiet highways it is a natural practice that bears great mpg results. cutting off your engine is a different matter altogether.