Fuel Saving Tips

Pulse and Glide

If your car has an manual tranny OR, as in my case, you have a car with an automated manual transmission (the Smart is the only such car, AFAIK), you may find your milage improves a bit thru pulse-and-glide. Here is the trick: Choose an optimum speed, say 60 mph. Then speed up to 65, let the car go back to 55, and repeat. Even on a flat road, you'll do better than if you were to set the CC to 60. Here's why: It doesn't take much to raise the speed a bit over the optimum, and then while you're decelerating, you're basically not using any gas. Here's proof: I have better reported milage than any Smart Car owner with more than a handful of fill-ups, averaging over 44 mpg in nearly 100 visits to the gas station! And this works really well in hybrids, too! I should point out: This tip really works when traffic is light -- otherwise you'll interfere with the flow of traffic, and it's probably not worth it!