Factories jumping on the bandwagon

[Fat Charlie]

I just had a good laugh. I came across an $87 gauge that plugs into the OBD port. The Mopar Ecometer "reads current fuel economy, average fuel economy, RPM, and vehicle speed. The red, amber, and green lights indicate how well you are doing at keeping the vehicle in the most fuel efficient driving mode."

Of course, they won't include real gauges from the factory but they'll gladly make a buck pretending they care by selling stripped down accessories. ScanGauge and UltraGauge have got to be running scared.

[deathtrain]

actually the 11 Durango and other new mopars have a "green line" on the tach along with a "red line"

http://www.dodge.com/shared/2011/dur...oto_int_11.jpg

[graydonengineering]

My 08 Sentra has a re-settable average mpg display. It was a major selling point for me before I knew about the aftermarket add ons with far more options. My firends Speed 3 also has real time MPG built in. I like the add on type setup because you don't have to spend an extra $3,000+ on a fully loaded car just to get MPG. Base models get better FE anyway.

[Fat Charlie]

My car came with an instant/average mpg display, and it's very good. Dodge is hurting the eco-driving case with gratuitous accessories like this, though.

[gone-ot]

...actually, that's just an after-market AutoMeter model 9100 Eco-meter. I have one (don't use it anymore). Here is the review I did on it: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...auge-9586.html

[slowmover]

All is not woe: the 2011 and later FORD diesel trucks (perhaps the others) are breaking out engine hours in two categories: idle time and for travel. That will be a help to anyone using these trucks for business. Diesels are long-life reliant (in a manner of speaking) on 30-mph plus averages (distance divided by time). I know of at least one contractor mending his ways after finding that he'd been idling nearly 100-hours in the first five months of ownership. That his truck is a mobile office (and battery power insufficient) has him looking at some alternatives. A $60k truck is expensive to buy and operate.

I keep mine at above 30-mph, but would genuinely like to have this break-out.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by slowmover

All is not woe: the 2011 and later FORD diesel trucks (perhaps the others) are breaking out engine hours in two categories: idle time and for travel. That will be a help to anyone using these trucks for business.

Having that on a display yould be great, but at least the ECU does log it. I love listening in to the "comversations" where the tech explains to the guy that X problem isn't covered under warranty because 40% of his run time is at idle. The response is always an indignant "but diesels are meant to idle!" That gets "If by idle you mean put out real power at a lower rpm than gasoline, yes- but they're not meant to spend so much time without load."

And I'm watching it all wondering if Mr. Landscaper leaves his mowers and weed whackers running while they're on his trailer going from job to job the same way he leaves his pickup running when he's at the job. He probably complains about how expensive fuel is, too.

[jakobnev]

It's so depressing seeing people drive around with gauges like this and just trying to minimize instantaneous all the time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O05xscPhG5c

That's is not how you &¤"#&%¤#& do it!