Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Charlie
Ignore what the car tells you, with its Zone Of Stupidity.
Don't even watch the gauges too closely- you're not trying to hit a moving needle, you're trying to get to work. Take each acceleration event as a whole: I gave it this much gas, got to that speed, and it did this to my trip mpg. Instant mpg will be horrible while accelerating hard, but that's okay. What matters is what you do with it overall.
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Well stated. Acceleration is bad for fuel economy. Try not to waste too much time accelerating.
When driving home from work, I enter I-40 eastbound on an up-hill on-ramp. I don't drive with an egg on the accelerator; I drive with a deck of cards under it. I push the accelerator to achieve 100% load on my Ultra Gauge without going into open-loop enrichment. I shift at 2500 RPM. Instantaneous MPG is about 6.9 MPG in 3rd gear; 9.9 MPG in 4th gear; and 13 MPG in 5th gear while accelerating to 65 MPH. I set cruise control @ 65 MPH while still on the on-ramp. Driving in town and in rural neighborhoods, I generally shift at 1500-2000 RPM - still accelerating @ 80-100% load. I know I'm doing a few things wrong, but 32+ MPG (6 month average) isn't
THAT bad for a 4.0 liter Ford Mustang.
