I've been checking my FE ever since I started driving, although I am much more conservative now than I was then I just take it as a challenge to see how good I can get. I've always liked playing with numbers anyway, so if gas went back to 28.9 regular price like I remember as a child I would probably still take on the challenge. I even remember once as a child a new gas station in the area I grew up in opened and a gas war brought gas down to 11.9 cents a gallon at the new station trying to get new customers. Talk about the good ole days. This was either in the late sixties or early seventies.

For some people, driving slow is very tedious and difficult to tolerate, requiring a lot of effort. I've gone through spells of being either way, often related to my general stress level and comfort in life.

OUCH! Stop, you're killing me! You're raising my general stress level and that will make me drive faster! ;)

that all depends on the car. hondas to not always exhibit that characteristic.

i beat the piss out of my last civic all day every day until i got cut off by a guy who didnt see me totally the car. his insurance only gave me $500 but i got to part out the car.

my current civic also sees vtec every day without problems.

there are degrees of hypermiling. the first step should change the way you drive forever, like leaving the car in gear as you slow down and using the brakes as little as possible. the other things like pulse and glide and engine off coasting can get annoying, but to say you are "giving up" means you were trying too hard.

heh, I like that argument, you won't have to replace the car sooner if you drive aggressively, but I had to replace mine because I was driving too aggressively to allow idiot room .... yeah, yeah, it was the other guys fault, but I'd have written off 20+ cars by now if I ever got into the mindset of letting it be the other guys fault.

However, if you maintain a modern car meticulously you can pound on it every day with no apparent ill consequences to the engine, the ring packages and bore finishes in modern use are highly wear resistant. You can destroy an engine by the other extreme of not running it long or hard enough, like buy a new car and only go to the grocery store in it twice a month (Watch out for the ridiculously low mile ex-seniors cars for that, if it's done less than 2K a year be as suspicious of it as one that's done 30K a year, and the one that did 30K a year might be better than most if it was a fleet vehicle maintained on a severe service schedule)

Well driving conservatively saves more than just gas/diesel. You save wear and tear on brakes/tires/transmissions/engine...this can add up quite a bit. You also are less likely to get a speeding ticket (for most anyway). Driving slower also increases your reaction distance in case you need to make eveasive manuvers. Even just $20 a month based on 39 mpg with fuel at $4.50 per gallon...you get 2080 free miles of driving. That makes for a nice snow ski or sunny beach vacation.

I bought my xB in November, and have been trying to optimize my MPG since. In that time I have saved over $500 in gas over what my last car got. If I wasn't optimizing I'd have saved *maybe* half of that. So that is $500 to waste on other things.

The most interesting thing for me, in addition to the "game" of hypermiling, has been how much more relaxed I am now that I think about driving lightly rather than being the first one there. I used to stress out and yell whenever someone cut me off, or passed me, or was driving "too slow"[1], or was just in front of me. Now I'm much more relaxed and take it easy. It makes driving less stressful. And when I do drive "spiritedly" it is more fun and I don't feel guilty about wasting the gas, since the rest of the tank is still well above average.


[1]given I drove at around 80mph, they could be doing 75+ and I'd still get ranty

For me, changing to a smaller car and driving as if there were an egg under the foot feed has saved me, in the past year, something over $2000. That includes the cost of the car, all the parts that needed replacing, a little paint to make it look a little less (but only a little) bizarre, and maintanence. But then, I drive 100+ miles a day. I could move closer to work, but I'd probably lose more money doing that (but dear, if we paid just a little more per month we could get this much nicer house...!).

I too have changed my driving habits over the last yr. But in the long run for my second job, I have tried to find a balance in MPG vs time. FYI I drive a Mini-van on a fixed route every tues and thurs night. Round trip is 246.6 miles. Now I get paid a flat fee for this route I could do it in 2 hr or 8 hrs the pay is the same. Fuel comes out of my pocket. How much is sleep worth to me. I also work 7:30am to 5 and this run is 11:40pm to 4:15am.

My best in the van has been 28.5 mpg but it comes at having to drive max of 52-53mph max speed. It is a rather hilly but all highway route. If I drive 73-75mph the tank comes out to 22-22.5mpg. The saving per night is about 2-2.5gallons per night. What I have come up with is slower on the way out about 59mph/27mpg and 74 on the way home. Works out to about aprox 24+mpg. With a saving of about 1.5 gallons per night.

If I do the run in 4hr a night for a total of 8hr It works out to 40.80hr. If I slow down it takes me 11hrs+for the wk and that works out to 29.67hr. I chose to speed to a point. But the extra time I spend going slow is just killing me with sleep. Sorry for the long rant.

John


https://www.gassavers.org/gaslog/sig.php?id=954

if EVERY commuter in the US did this(bought a more efficient vehicle), our consumption of gas would be decreased significantly, irrespective of hypermiling or not.

add to that responsible(not hypermiling) driving habits and consumption would be even less.

BTW, i do not think you would be getting 35 MPG if you drove over-aggressively, but i get the gist of it.

Function:
I don't think its really an "effort" for me, and it gives me something to do/think about while I'm driving which is good because I have a bad habit of getting bored and that is very bad for everyone.... zzzzzzzzz... yes, very bad. After a long day at work, sometimes the sandman can get to me but with HM, I'm more aware of my car, the surroundings, other traffic and my own habits -- all good.

Economically:
I drive 210 miles a week or about 480 miles a month. Going from 33mpg to 42mpg (my current tank avg) means I go from 14.5gal to 11.4gal. If reg gas is $4 then the cost per month is $58 to $45.6 or save $12.40 a month. Not much but I'm not really doing this for the money -- I like to use what I have to its potential.

MPG:
EPA MPG estimates:
(old) 31/38 [34]
(new) 27/35 [30]

My tank averages before HM were 33. Starting out in HM jumped to 38. Once I got the scangauge to see what I was doing right/wrong it's gotten up to the 40s, so at least I'm ahead of the "estimates".

Time:
I do take more time to get to my destination but since I always leave early to beat traffic, I really don't lose anything (plus what would I do with that extra 10min/trip???)