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Old 11-08-2012, 04:27 PM   #45 (permalink)
MetroMPG
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
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That's what makes it nice when they willingly come to you - they're self-selected & motivated to learn. Post a notice on your lunch area bulletin board.

---

Case in point: this week's session...



(Yes, those are Civic Hybrid wheels & spoiler on a Canadian market Civic LX. See earlier post about the hybrid wheels on the Honda Fit for an explanation.)


That's the biggest individual improvement so far: MPG up 23% from the driver's baseline lap to the coaching lap!

One fun result about this session was each lap took exactly the same amount of time to go around the 4 mile/6 km circuit. Talk about a teachable moment! Driving efficiently in the city doesn't mean driving slowly! It means driving smarter.

This driver used to drive taxi years ago, so he was easy to coach - good mechanical operation of the car, and pretty aware of what was going on around us. He just wasn't paying attention to the right things (until now). I asked why he didn't drive for fuel economy as a cabbie. "Nobody did! Gas wasn't expensive back then!"

Worst habit: he was revving the wee out of that poor Civic on his baseline lap - driving around in 2nd gear a lot of the time. I asked him why, and his answer sort of made sense: he used to ride motorbikes a lot that needed high RPM to have any power to speak of. Just a bad habit he picked up riding that he transferred to driving. He certainly didn't object to the idea of shifting sooner, so we actually had him cruising along in 5th gear at 50 km/h (30 mph) a couple of times when it was appropriate during the coaching lap.

His results speak for themselves.

Fuel economy ratings ...
L/100 km ... MPG U.S. ... MPG Imperial

9.0 ... 26 ... 31.2 ... EPA city
6.9 ... 34 ... 40.8 ... EPA highway
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/25869.shtml

7.4 ... 31.8 ... 38 ... NRCAN city ... ...
5.4 ... 43.6 ... 52 ... NRCAN highway ... ...
http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportatio...s.cfm?id=85399

Ecodriving Results ...
L/100 km ... MPG U.S. ... MPG Imperial
8.7 ... 26.9 ... 32.3 ... Lap 1 BASELINE (no coaching)
6.0 ... 39.0 ... 46.8 ... Lap 2 (demonstration - Darin)
6.7 ... 35.0 ... 42.0 ... Lap 3 (coaching)

Ecodriving Savings (vs. baseline) ...
2.7 ... L/100 km ... 31% ... Savings, baseline vs. demo.
2.0 ... L/100 km ... 23% ... Savings, baseline vs. coaching
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__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
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niky (11-08-2012)