Hypermiling........How my driving is.....

Ok, so I'm surfing the net the other day and I come across a video on CNN.com about some dude that's getting 50mpg in his non-hybrid Honda Accord. This interests me as I have to drive pretty far to work every day and I'm spending about $500/month on gas. So I put it to practice. I tried it out for a complete tank of gas and increased my fuel economy from about 20mpg to 27mpg by simply changing my driving habits. This was my first try and my goal is to average 30mpg in my 2007 Mustang. It's easy and you can do it in any vehicle. Follow a few simple rules and save 25-30% on gas. Even if you're driving a gas guzzler that only gets 10mpg, isn't 15mpg better? All of this adds up to between $125-$160/month savings for me. Plus I'm carpooling with a buddy which saves me another $100/month. Not exactly chump change. Here are the basics to hypermiling.

Drive like Grandma: Drive the speed limit or a little below. I never drive more than 60 mph now and that's only on the freeway. This from a speed demon who never drove below 85mph on the freeway. Then I read that for ever 10mph over 60mph you're adding 53 cents per gallon to your gas bill due to wind resistance. That woke me up really quick since I'll drive out of my way to save 5 cents/gal on gas. BTW in case you didn't know, your car is most fuel efficient while going as slow as you can in the highest gear. For me, since I have an automatic, my car shifts into overdrive at about 40mph. So my best fuel efficiency is at around 40mph.

Accelerate like Grandma: Ok, I piss some people off a little with this one, but I accelerate like I'm doing my very best to make the speedometer needle move upward as slowly as possible. HUGE gas savings on this one.

Keep moving. This is the part where you get to drive like a racecar driver and not a Grandma. Surprisingly it's your brakes rather than your accelerator that's your worst enemy. Your Goal is to keep your momentum going. You paid good money to get up to 55mph. Every time you hit the brakes you have to pay more money to get back to 55. Take curves and corners with as much speed as possible, thereby lessening the amount of gas you need to get back up to speed.

Avoid Idling at all costs. Time your lights and stop signs. If you can see the red light from far away or a green light you know is about to change, throw your car into neutral, turn off your engine and coast up to the light. This also works for long downhills. Keep your momentum going. Even if that means slowing down early and crawling up to a stop light so that you don't have to come to a complete stop. Starting from a complete stop kills your gas mileage. Even if you're only going 2mph, it's much better than starting from a complete stop. And if you do have to come to a complete stop, at least you're not getting 0mpg by idling at the light.

Here is a video and an article about hypermiling if you're intersted.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/03/btsc.hypermiling/index.html?iref=newssearch#cnnSTCVideo

http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/06/11/squeezing-the-most-out-of-a-gallon/

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