Quote:
Originally Posted by ksa8907
Several things probably. If it were a date NIGHT, then perhaps the drivetrain was well warmed from the daytime heat but the A/C didn't have to work as hard since it was in the evening? As well as the heat meaning less dense air so less drag and a bit of a WAI effect?
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Bingo! A/C won't hurt mileage if it's not hot. The main point is if there's not sun out the A/C has an easy time - this effect is easily observed if you pull into a carport or it becomes overcast on a hot day.
On an old vehicle like an '03, the A/C penalty is potentially huge, I actually ran out of fuel once because I refused to believe I had used so much fuel in such a short distance - it was a 110* week
and the A/C killed my range.
After that I just mostly sweated it out, using A/C only on DFCO.
In my 2016, you'd be hard pressed to tell much difference, modern computers run the A/C during deceleration as much as possible (plus I still do it manually), variable geometry pumps etc means that my best tanks are often with the A/C on quite a bit.