[dremd]

Originally Posted by bimmerguy

In my opinion, and by no means do I mean any disrespect, I think that almost the entirety of this list is BS. I drive a 1999 BMW 323i, and on the freeway, I get 30mpg, around town, 22-25. If you cannot afford the gas, DON'T BUY A CAR!!!!! The one that erks me the most is "shut off your engine if you are going to be stopped for more than a few seconds." This is an all around bad idea. Here is my reasoning:

Since no one ever seems to reply to these comments; I will.

First off I must admit that I felt the same way as you not all that long ago; and I felt like a lot of these hypermiling tequniques was like drinking the coolaide.

The way I figure it is if you use 30% less fuel then you can spend that $ on something else.

With that being said

Originally Posted by bimmerguy

1) The gas required for a vehicle to idle is almost none at all. You WILL NOT be at a stop light long enough for it to matter. The gas required to start your car with the engine shut off requires much more gas than sitting at idle. Just watch your tachometer next time you start your car, the needle jumps up doesn't it? Just remember simple physics, "...an object in motion tends to stay in motion, an object at rest tends to stay at rest..."

First off engine off uses 0 fuel Starting uses some fuel, but not much more than idiling for the ammount of time that the starter is spinning.

In my Opinion overall break even is 30 seconds, for fuel only it's probably 5 seconds. it requires very little fuel to start a car

And in the personal evidence department it was worth 4 mpg in my supra and is worth 8~10 mpg in my golf.

Originally Posted by bimmerguy

2) By starting your car, you are draining the battery. The engine will have to use more power from the alternator to replace this power, therefore increasing the auxiliary load on your engine, therefore lowering fuel economy.

Believe it or not the electrical requrement isn't all that great. (take a look at the guys whith no alternators, they use their starter quite a bit and don't have a way to recharge without issue.) If your car requires long cranking to start a warm engine then the break even point will be longer (15 seconds?).

Originally Posted by bimmerguy

3) Increased wear and tear on your engine and starter. By shutting your engine off, you are then draining your oil back into the oil pan. Thus relying on the oil left "hanging" on the parts to sufficiently lube all the moving parts on start up. This is why it is said that starting your engine is the harshest thing you can do to your engine. The increase in maintenance cost will offset the savings in fuel cost.

Mine's still working :-)
I have not yet heard of anybody on this forum replacing a starter yet. appears to be a non issue.
I must admit that it is hard to believe.
I have seen someone work it out for 4x increased starter wear and it still worked out cheaper. Does anybody remember this?

Originally Posted by bimmerguy

I apologize for the rant, and I mean no disrespect, but some of these ideas are ludicrous. You should just drive normally, and you will not cause an accident, and you will not beat your engine up.

I'm in no way offended, I don't believe that anyone else is either.
IMHO some of the ideas are EXTREME and are only useful in competition.
IMHO all of them can be used in the correct situation safely now as far as everyday it is unlikely that many use more that a dozen or so.

Edit: Well I see others have replied; but I will let my post stand.