AUS$350 89 Camry gets 48mpg US
 

G'day fella's,

I've been lurking on here for a month or two now and thought it was a good time finally join. I've been keen on improving fuel economy in all the cars I've owned, but the latest purchase has shown the best potential.

I started by doing some simple P&G and engine off at lights, which got me to 37mpg, then as I got more confident I tried EOC and all sorts of crazy push starting and waiting at the crest of a hill to time lights etc. Which has seen me get VERY close to 50mpg avg over a 120 mile trip. I've got to say, this is a Great Game to play !

Currently I'm collecting the parts to make an MPGuino, The Arduino itself is a bit harder to come by down here so I'm building one from scratch. I'm a huge fan of "Hard Trash" collection night so I scored the 16X2 LCD out of an old fax machine which is on a rather big PCB and I'll be powering the lot from an old cellphone car charger instead of using a nasty old 7805.

I'm more fortunate than a lot of you in that Adelaide is VERY flat and the roads very straight, so the terrain lends itself to LOTS of EOC on the slight downhill grades.

Cheers Lads ! Keep up the good work !

Tetsuo

Welcome to the site.

Very impressive numbers from a Camry. Although, they did make them a bit smaller back then.

Have you done any mods yet?

No mods except replacing the spark plugs and fixing a few odd things.

I do a regular route of 50 miles to visit my son twice a week and I've estimated that I spend at least 20% of the drive with the engine off.
There's 3 sections where I glide for over half a mile without power and the rest of the time I'm doing P&G. I've also trained myself to turn off the engine as soon as I see the lights ahead of me change to red OR even if I expect them to change to red. The times I drive are also very light in traffic and I've worked out a route that allows for the most favourable driving conditions [fewest lights, best roads etc] Also as an incentive I only put 10 litres in the tank so I know mentally that I HAVE to make it last 200km to get close to 50mpg US. I did use the A/C a lot the other week and only got 160km out of the 10L, YIKES ! I had no idea it made that much difference :(

I also change gears REALLY early to keep the revs under 2500 and as soon as I get up to 37mph in fifth gear I start doing P&G. THere's about 5km of 62mph zone in which I don't exceed 50. If there's a big long bunch of cars I pull over to let them all go past [45secs] then I have the road to myself to go as slow as I like. I find it hard to P&G properly when there's a lot of cars on the road, I have to keep checking the rear view mirror too much to relax.

Relaxing is the other BIG deal about driving like this, I actually enjoy driving now. I can happily sit at a red light for 3 mins because I KNOW it isn't costing me a cent, just a little time :)

And yes, smaller, car weighs 2700lbs. Or 2920 with me behind the wheel LOL

All those imperial numbers are confusing my tiny little sandgroper brain :p


That car sounds like a prime candidate for conversion to electric! Though I suppose in terms of the fuel economy "game" that's probably cheating. heh

If you have trouble with the numbers you need a program called "Versaverter"

I still think in MPG tho', but it's what a grew up with and it's UK MPG not US Urrgghh SO many standards !!

Suffice to say I'm pretty happy with 5L/100k :)

But If I do any more Engine off Coasting I'll have to convert to a Sail.

Hi Tetsuo- welcome to the forum!

Those are impressive numbers from the old Camry. My dad had a few of that style - but automatics, so not as much potential.

Glad to see you're enjoying yourself - the "game" factor will go way up when you get the MPGuino installed!

I used to commute from Morphett Vale to Mawson Lakes each day so learned very quickly which roads to take and what time of day to travel.

As well as saving a tonne of fuel, it certainly made the drive more pleasurable by not having to stop at too many traffic lights.

Update
 

In order to analyse my driving style, I timed the duration the engine was off in my standard 40 km/55min trip today. Thanks to EOC and traffic lights it was off for 29:15. This explains my good mileage :)

Your average speed & the engine off time sure explains the great economy from that platform. Nice going.