1st tank of gas: 34 mpg!
I know, for a lot of y'all, 34 mpg isn't much at all, but for me, it's huge! I bought this 2002 Chevy Prizm a couple of weeks ago, and I just drove my fist tank with it: 372 miles, 34 mpg.
The only "mods" were tires at max sidewall pressure, adding a bottle of Seafoam to the tank (that engine sounded awful on cold mornings!), and driving technique.
The only technique I'm questioning whether I should continue is coasting down hills. It's the 3-speed AT; I don't kill the engine, so I'm essentially coasting at idle. My commute home every day is good for roughly three miles of coasting. I just don't know if it's okay for the tranny or driveaxle (and maybe it's not the coasting, but leaving gear and coming back into gear). I only have ever coasted in this car, and it's only been for the past week, but yesterday on the way home, I noticed an odd (and disconcerting) clunking in the car now--not just during coasting, but all the time (turning, over bumps, it doesn't matter).
Anyway, the EPA esimtate for this car is 27 mpg combined, so I thought for my first eco tank, 34 mpg was pretty cool. (And it's hard to retrain my driving habits; I was proud of myself for being able to keep my foot out of it!)
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