Thread: Echo driver
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Old 06-12-2009, 10:02 AM   #9 (permalink)
taketwoaspirin
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: NH
Posts: 5

Blue Noise - '13 Chevrolet Sonic LT Turbo
90 day: 47.15 mpg (US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by matthewc View Post
Hi taketwoaspirin,

I just joined and was looking for the other echo drivers and found your post. I have the same year and 4dr manual as you.

So, I'm curious if you've made any new breakthroughs since your last fuel log last year. So far pulse & glide and ICE-on coasting, and keeping at 55 MPH have been my biggest ally. I also bumped my tire pressure up to 40psi.

What have you found most useful?

-Matthew
Mostly, the things you've done The biggest thing was the ScanGauge, so that I *know* what is happening; for example, seeing that first gear is only good for 5mpg, tops, is powerful motivation to get into 5th gear ASAP and leave it there.

My Echo is, unfortunately, technically totaled right now, as I've found rust underneath the plastic lower-body cladding, and the body shop guy told me that it would cost more than the car is worth to repair that. Between that and a change in my driving patterns (detailed below), I'm not really trying to improve my fuel economy any more. Instead, I'm trying to increase the number of days I can keep the car before having to replace it.

I'm also getting nowhere near 50mpg any more, thanks to a number of factors. I had loaned my car to a family member for a couple of months and I'm only this week finishing my first full tank since getting it back, so I'll be updating my fuel log again shortly. If I hadn't loaned it, I would have had a couple of tanks at around 32-35mpg. The current tank is about 38.

I've noticed a couple of things that really hurt my current mileage, but there isn't all that much I can do about them. One is that hills are really bad, particularly steep hills on high-speed roads with a stop sign at the bottom (so there's not much opportunity to recover the lost energy). Another one is short trips; related to that one is cold weather. While winter is the worst, even days like today, when it's cool & damp, are enough to notice, especially when combined with a short trip. Idling at traffic lights where the traffic volume is high enough that it takes three or four light cycles to get through a light is another bad one, particularly when it's cold out or the trip is short enough that the engine hasn't warmed up yet, so shutting it off at the light probably isn't a good idea.

I'm now struggling to get in the high 30's; same car, same techniques, just a different commute is all :-) My company moved so that my commute is now just 3 miles, but those 3 miles involve an interstate, several hundred feet of elevation change, and a quarter-mile of road with sufficient traffic congestion to make me temporarily forget that I'm not in Manhattan.

On the plus side, even though the MPG's have dropped, I still only have to put gas in the car once every couple of months, since I use about a gallon a week.
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