Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox
Welcome to the site!
The biggest gains are always from driving technique. Mods can help a lot if you get wild like basjoos, but driving technique is really the easiest way. It shouldn't be that hard to increase your mileage to 30% above EPA without any mods.
I'll outline my favorite techniques:
- driving without brakes
- timing lights
- slowing down
Those three things alone should be able to get you well above EPA rating.
The SG or UG will definitely help you see what you're doing that is good/bad. Either will pay for themselves pretty quickly. If you're saving 30% on fuel, you're effectively chopping over $1/gallon off the price of gas. How long does it take you to go through 150 gallons? If you fill up once a week and each fill is around 15 gallons thats only 10 weeks for the more expensive SGII.
Personally, I also prefer the SGII. It is a bit more flexible (especially for hybrids). The UG is a Chinese knockoff with no technical support. Linear Logic is an US based company that tries to keep as much of its components and assembly here in the US. I've talked with the owner of the company a few times, and he is a great guy. The support is WONDERFUL if you ever have any issues. Its just a good company to support IMO and that alone is worth it. To be honest, I haven't actually used a UG, but I've read about the issues of both the SG and UG here on the forums. The SG seems to have virtually no problems where the UG does occasionally have some quirks. The plusses for the UG is that it is much cheaper, and it also can show 6 gauges at once vs the SG's 4.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cbaber
I'll second the ScanGauge. The Ultragauge is a better value, but for some reason I like the Scangauge. I like how the buttons are on the front so I can quickly configure the gauges. The size and shape is perfect for my dash mounting location. The backlight changes color to fit the rest of the lights on your dash. The communication cord mounts in the back or side so you can hide the installation. You can daisy chain multiple Scangauges together to gain more information.
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Hey thanks for the info guys. I'm gonna hold off on the scangauge for a while until I can figure out what it is I actually want/need. I do have an arduino kit kicking around that I never did anything with (old xmas present from my kid brother the uber geek), heck maybe I can finally put that to good use. idk. but the USA made thing doesn't sway me - my current car is German, and yours is Japanese... let's not talk about where things were made
anyways, I've already tried changing my driving habbits, and I think I'm doing good! I'm glad my car is a manual, and I like to neutral coast - already tried adding some pulse and glide (keeping the engine on tho) might have to look into the kill switch thing... would that be through the obdII connector as well? more research ensues!