Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - 30 Day financial challenge- fuel economy

WanderingOak · 03-28-2007, 01:44 PM

After driving 901 miles, my car has burned 28.2 gallons of gas, giving me an average of 31.95 MPG. The official EPA fuel economy for this car is 24 City, 31 Highway, and my driving is pretty much a mix of the two, over sometimes hilly terrain. The EPA figures were done under laboratory conditions, which do not reflect driving in the real world. Since I am beating the EPA average for this car right now, I guess I am doing something right.

As I mentioned earlier, I was getting about 28 MPG before I began paying attention to and changing my driving habits. That is only a 4 gallon difference over 900 miles, however, I am not inconvenienced by the change in my driving habits whatsoever. My commute still takes me roughly the same amount of time, as I am driving with the flow of traffic for the most part. I am neither the slowest or the fastest vehicle on the road. The main change that I have made to my driving is that I avoid heavy accelleration unless I have to for safety reasons. In other words, I am still driving the same speed that I was before, it just takes me a bit longer to get there now.

It's interesting that the EPA calculates 'average' acceleration at 3.2 MPH/second. That's 0-60 in 18.75 seconds. I don't have a stopwatch or an accelerometer handy, but that seems awful slow, even by my current driving standards. I might pay closer attention to how long it takes me to get up to speed.

One inconvenience to shutting down the engine at stoplights that I discovered is tha my car has a battery saving 'feature' that shuts off the headlights when the engine is off. This is the exact opposite of the high-end luxury cars that keep the lights on for five minutes after shutdown. This could be a safety issue when driving after dark, so I may look into ways of disabling this 'feature'. It is even more fun when I have a burned out running light, because then my car is almost completely invisible when my headlights are off and it's dark out. Until I get this fixed, I am probably going to keep my engine on when driving at night.

One advantage that hybrids have is that they automaticly shut down at idle if the batteries are topped off. You don't even have to take them out of gear. All you have to do is step on the gas and she'll start right back up again. It takes me about 3 seconds to start the car and get her in gear. If I can see the other light turn yellow, I can usually time it so I am running and in gear when my light turns green.

Anyhow, I'll keep you updated and let you know if I have anything new or if there are any changes.

03-28-2007, 01:44 PM	#2 (permalink)
WanderingOak Family Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 1,184	After driving 901 miles, my car has burned 28.2 gallons of gas, giving me an average of 31.95 MPG. The official EPA fuel economy for this car is 24 City, 31 Highway, and my driving is pretty much a mix of the two, over sometimes hilly terrain. The EPA figures were done under laboratory conditions, which do not reflect driving in the real world. Since I am beating the EPA average for this car right now, I guess I am doing something right. As I mentioned earlier, I was getting about 28 MPG before I began paying attention to and changing my driving habits. That is only a 4 gallon difference over 900 miles, however, I am not inconvenienced by the change in my driving habits whatsoever. My commute still takes me roughly the same amount of time, as I am driving with the flow of traffic for the most part. I am neither the slowest or the fastest vehicle on the road. The main change that I have made to my driving is that I avoid heavy accelleration unless I have to for safety reasons. In other words, I am still driving the same speed that I was before, it just takes me a bit longer to get there now. It's interesting that the EPA calculates 'average' acceleration at 3.2 MPH/second. That's 0-60 in 18.75 seconds. I don't have a stopwatch or an accelerometer handy, but that seems awful slow, even by my current driving standards. I might pay closer attention to how long it takes me to get up to speed. One inconvenience to shutting down the engine at stoplights that I discovered is tha my car has a battery saving 'feature' that shuts off the headlights when the engine is off. This is the exact opposite of the high-end luxury cars that keep the lights on for five minutes after shutdown. This could be a safety issue when driving after dark, so I may look into ways of disabling this 'feature'. It is even more fun when I have a burned out running light, because then my car is almost completely invisible when my headlights are off and it's dark out. Until I get this fixed, I am probably going to keep my engine on when driving at night. One advantage that hybrids have is that they automaticly shut down at idle if the batteries are topped off. You don't even have to take them out of gear. All you have to do is step on the gas and she'll start right back up again. It takes me about 3 seconds to start the car and get her in gear. If I can see the other light turn yellow, I can usually time it so I am running and in gear when my light turns green. Anyhow, I'll keep you updated and let you know if I have anything new or if there are any changes. Last edited by WanderingOak; 03-28-2007 at 03:44 PM.