I have continued to monitor my gas mileage and have been consistently seeing around 30mpg without using some of the more extreme hypermiling measures. This has still left me a bit puzzled. I have two possible conclusions—one or both of which must be correct based on my results:
I have discontinued using some of my hypermiling techniques to test their effectiveness. I have been watching my tachometer closely, and, rather than using cruise control, I have been manually keeping the RPMs under 2000 at all times which usually results in an interstate cruising speed of 60mph. I have also been practicing engine-off-coasting. I am still driving conservatively, but I have resumed using my cruise control and started driving up to 70mph. I have also started shifting to neutral rather than turning the engine off for coasting. After one day of this, I have some surprising results.
What looked like a success may not be (or at least not so much as it seemed). I previously claimed a modest mileage gain of 3.5mpg over a measurement taken before I started hypermiling. In two more recent measurements, I calculated 27.5mpg and 28.9mpg. This is really much less than the gains I was hoping for as many people who are doing this (granted I’m sure they are much more skilled than I) are really achieving dramatic increases in fuel economy.
I previously posted about hypermiling and started employing some of the techniques in my own driving. I can now claim minor success! On the last two gallons of gas purchased, my mileage was 31.5—a gain of 3.5mpg on my measurement when I purchased the car! It’s pretty exciting to me considering there are still a number of other things I can do to improve my mileage like replacing the air filter, having an oil change (I’m overdue.), and correcting the tire pressure. I’ll keep you posted
I am unfortunate enough to have a fairly substantial commute to work—28 miles one-way. I am going to have to find a way to seriously cut back with climbing gas prices. Don’t worry. This isn’t going to turn into a bitch session about gas prices. They are high and should probably be higher to pay for road maintenance, pollution cleanup, oil industry subsidies, and the like, but there’s no use in complaining. I want to do something about it. Read more »
