Weight reduction - not always good?

[Snax]

I know that neighborhood. Here's the house of a friend that lives there:

[baddog671]

Hmm, there must be a differnt style here in the states. I looked it up in a book at work yesterday and it said 1.1L 2 cylinder..

I think I could live with 45hp lol. My metro is rated 55hp at the crank but thank god its manual. I've driven the larger 1.3L but automatic and they are complete dogs.

[landspeed]

Probably different to the ones I used to see in the UK

You don't get them now because they have all rusted away!

[baddog671]

Yea, I think they were discontinued in the late 80's anyways. Ive never seen one in person..

[samandw]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'd like to make a point I didn't see made in the preceding replies.

Given two cars identical accept for the weight, the heavier car will have a greater ratio of weight to aerodynamic drag. When coasting down hills, the propelling force is a proportion of the weight of the vehicle. Where aerodynamic drag is the predominate slowing force, a heavier car could maintain a faster speed down a given slope. Why is this important? Well, because if one car maintains 52 mph EOC'ing down a given slope of the freeway, and the heavier car maintains 60 mph down the same slope, if the driver wants to maintain the minimum 60 mph in order to avoid causing a traffic disruption, guess which car burns less fuel? You guessed it, the heavier car, because the light car will require the engine on and at light throttle to maintain minimum speed (inefficient area of the poweband), while the heavy car will have the engine off.

Just some food for thought.

[Snax]

> weight = > rolling resistance

[usedgeo]

I have tried to decide whether I do better with my wife along or without her. I am not sure. Why not take several friends with you and see if it helps.

It has been said that P&G is a poor man's hybrid. The heavier your car the bigger your pseudo battery.

I decided a long time ago that the extra battery in my trunk is not a penalty.

[96hb]

I believe weight reduction would only hinder you (based on your theory) if you are coasting more than you are accelerating or cruising, which I don't believe is the case with most of us. And unless you are taking out a great deal of weight, I don't believe it helps much at all. I drove my Civic with full interior for a tank and got about 47mpg. Then I gutted everything out but the driver's seat and dash for a tank. MPG ended up about the same. So I will probably be putting the seats back in this weekend. All that stuff equals up to 100 lbs or so. Didn't make much difference in my case, based on a couple fill-up's.