MetroMPG:
Thanks for the info! I really appreciate all the help and knowledge you lend. It's good to get clarification on the vocabulary of what I'm actually doing. As a newbie I'll throw the word "drafting" out to loosely describe following an SUV about 200-300 feet off, and not realize the true meaning/practice. As for investing in the instantaneous instrumentation, I'll move on to after I've seen what I can do with what the factory gave me and see what eccentric cravings I have afterwards
(there's also the consideration of whether I can get better milage in the geo 'vert or the civic hatchback, which will decide which should be my daily driver and warrant the extra investments and labor)
Well, the New Years vacation break hit since my last post. My wife and I got out of town for the weekend and I didn't get to practice my new driving habits much on the trip. We were pressed on time to make it from San Diego to Modesto to visit family, traveling over 430 miles in about 6 hours (while taking the hit of LA traffic in between). Tssk me as you like, but when a 91 year old widowed Great Aunt is waiting up late for you on the other side with a meal prepared - you put your foot in it. I did get in some engine off coasting over the Grapevine (AKA the Tejon Pass, a 4000 foot mountain range that separates LA from the San Joaquin Valley). On the way down I got a surprise when my brakes lost power. Since then I have learned what a vacuum booster is and how it temporarily provides power to the brakes when the engine is shut off. Between the Grapevine and the 7,000 foot climb/descent to the Sequoia National Forest, I had some extreme examples of coasting that gave me time for experimentation to figure out just how much power the brake booster will provide.
Now that I've been back in town and back to normal driving, I've refilled and I'm out to see just how high a milage I can do on one tank. The needle has hardly gone below the F (full) point on my gas dial and I've already put just over 100 miles on the tank. I have been noticing that I can do far more coasting heading home from work than I do heading to work. I'm going to borrow my Dad's old altimeter (from his old piloting days) to see exactly what the elevation change is and see if that instant knowledge can help me in planning my coasting. What goes up, must come down... and if I can guesstimate my potential energy when traveling through less familiar valleys - it may help me in planning my EOCs by knowing just how much I gained. Fun stuff! I definitely have been noticing when I take repetitive and familiar routes in my car I can be very accurate in my EOC and P&G timing, where I have a whole lot of practice to do to get such accuracy on unfamiliar roads.