[Jim-Bob]

Originally Posted by mnmarcus

Sounds like the perfect place for a scan guage or MPGuino... Being able to see MPG instantly seems invaluable to your situation.

Lightweight effective aerodynamic mods will almost always help the mpg, even at low city speeds, see:
Aerodynamic & rolling resistance, power & MPG calculator - EcoModder.com

A hybrid would probably help a lot in the driving you plan to do, though your budget would have to allow for it. It's an interesting "problem" though, you wouldn't want to give up a good tip by being late... I suppose shifting early and keeping it at full throttle until you reach your desired speed would work well enough. An efficient (if there is such a thing) CVT would be the perfect transmission for you because of the quicker acceleration (I bet just making a light really helps with the delivery time.)

Really interesting build thread, good luck!

Thanks! It is an interesting equation to balance which is why it's sort of fun to do ( at least for me). As for a hybrid, I considered an early Insight but the price of the car coupled with a technical complexity that could get expensive to fix nixed the idea. I can buy 15 Metros for the price of 1 good Insight and it would take me a long time to make up the price difference ( once you get past 50 mpg you run into the law of diminishing returns at $3 a gallon). Don't get me wrong: I like the Insight better. It's a safer car and probably doesn't feel like something from the third world to drive. It's just too expensive right now.

I will also say that the store you choose to work at determines a lot. My store is primarily suburban driving and 90% of my deliveries see no more than a 1 mile stretch between stop lights. I also have an easy merge from the main road from my store that helps as does the fact that I really only need to do 50 mph at most on all but a few deliveries. I plan on trying the Metro tonight to get a proper baseline and to see if it works well enough to keep driving it as I fix it.