howdy all

[ghostwalker]

I discovered hypermiling by being seriously broke and needing to do my normal $2o/week driving for $10/week for 2 months. A quick goggle search on fuel economy brought up a very weak overview of hypermiling that basically said "coast on the downhill and up to stop lights and stop signs." Okay I'll try it I said I have a 5 speed car so coasting is easy and my route to work is all up and down hills with 5 stops. Well it worked. Partially because I was able to coast about 1/3 of the time while still hitting the speed limit and because my previous driving style was ahh...sporty. Also I dropped a grade of the gas I was using so I got a little bit more for my dollar.

I was amazed and thankful that it worked because when I tried to bike it there was no way it was going to work just to many hills. I did make it to work on the bike and even on time, but i was too worn out and bruised in very uncomfortable places.

Oh and my car is dun dun dun daa....a 5.0 police package mustang

So where am I now? Initially I considered building an ebike for work commuting and might yet because I've become fascinated with EV's. Also a bike could be very enjoyable with help on the hills and a MUCH more comfortable seat. A friend offered to sell me his 2 year old Yamaha scooter at a serious discount since he's upgrading to a motorcycle. That would work...sort of but it wouldn't fill all roles and I would have 2 vehicles to insure and get inspected, ect. hmmm.....

I started doing research and eventually found this site and spent countless hours reading the posts. I basically see two paths one buy a Geo (no I have no interest in owning another Honda) , remove the unnecessary stuff and adjust the nut. This would involve finding a car that is an unknown and hoping for the best. I've been down this road before and it had a lot of pot holes but for max gas mileage this is the path.

The other path is the answer to the question "how MPG can a V8 mustang achieve?" I saw the 115 MPG mustang and I was rofl. Horsepower and torque are functions harnessing a chemical explosion into mechanical energy. The bigger the explosion (more gas and air) the more power an engine makes at a given RPM. So he claims almost double the factory horsepower and 5 times the FE? I call BS! I don't care if he is using an adjusted scale for ethanol I still call it. The only thing I see that that he has going for him is he has a notchback which is the lightest 5.0 ford made (3100 lbs according to my door tag). end of rant

So how much can a 5.0 LEGITIMATELY achieve? It's an interesting question and will probably be the path that I take for now.

My apologies for the length of a post that was I just supposed to be saying hello but my brain just started churning and I couldn't help myself. cheers!-gw

[moonmonkey]

used toyota echo's and corollas can get near 5o mpg, and are avalible used for from $1000-(for a fix er upper) to $3000 for a 100k model but still solid ,,and up .i have a 1996 corolla with 337,000 miles on original motor and trans (just drove it hot and blew a head gasket 2 weeks ago. r.i.p. , but my echo (see profile) has achived 50 mpg or close to it on most of my tanks, i drive 100 miles a day to work and back ,,and do engine on coasting, and stay under 65 mph, point being you dont have to buy a honda or a geo if you dont like them, my echo has 160000 miles on it and only changed brake pads and oil, (it does drive like a go-cart though) a 5.0 mustang depending on confifuration should be capable of 30+ mpg ,,,,,,,,,,,,oh by the way welcome!

[Bicycle Bob]

If you can make it to work by bike once, in two weeks you can get past the discomfort. It might help to train on alternate days until you get more used to it. If your legs get tired on hills, shift down. If you run out of breath, shift up. You save a bundle on health care, and feel a lot better, too. After a month, not riding feels bad.

[ghostwalker]

Thanks for the input guys I appreciate it and the welcome moon.
I think I'll split this up

Bob
Your right except for my bruises I felt wonderful after riding to work but my job is VERY physically and mentally demanding. I spend most of my day on my feet lifting steel. The stuff that I lift weighs anywhere from a few ounces to 125 LBS. The lighter the part the faster it runs and the faster I have to move. The fastest part I run takes 13 seconds which is like doing light aerobics and taking a math quiz at the same time for 8 to 12 hours a day. We don't have quotas we have "why the heck did it take that long for that job!" Which is based on no known measurable standard...sigh.

The bike is still in the back of my mind and with electric assist it would be much more viable. Also it would be a great thing for my health as you pointed but it wont fix my transportation problems completely. Also for the assist part of it I would probably have to scratch build something do to my weight of 285 (think lineman not couch potato) and the serious hills between work and home. If I did get it working then it would be excellent I could adjust my workout on the bike to what I believed I was going to face that day at work. The negatives are that I can buy a running Metro for the same price as a good assist and rain would really suck. Like I said it might be my fair-weather choice in the future and I thank you for reminding me to keep it on my list.

Moon

For some reason I never think of Toyota. I not down on any brand (okay maybe Yugo and I see hazing Camaro guys as a duty) but Toyota just never comes to mind. I checked the EPA on the stats and was impressed with the Echo. A quick local Craigslist search showed not a single one under $4000 in my area. Geo's run between $200 to $2000 around here many with the 1.0 5-speed so they are a more likely choice at this point. Also Metro parts are dirt cheap.

As far as my Honda it was a 1988 accord auto and I thought it was one of the most well designed cars I have ever seen. Okay it would have been more enjoyable as a 5-speed but the their use of space was excellent. For a car of that size it had amazing (to me) passenger and cargo space. I got the auto because my ex refused to drive a stick. She drove it 80,000(200,000 total) miles in 3 years and wore it out.

At that point we come to my problem with Hondas. Every time I told someone I needed Honda parts I could almost see dollar signs roll up into their eyes. Just a re-ring kit was $475 at the part store. For another $100 I can get a rebuild kit with better then factory stuff including new pistons for the 5.0 which has DOUBLE the number of cylinders. A guy at work got all excited when I told him about it and said "you can buy a whole used motor with low miles strait for Japan" So I looked into it yep I sure could for $2000 which was $750 less then I paid for the whole car. A couple weeks later the transmission lost overdrive and that was basically the end of the Honda. I got $275 out of it from the junk yard they probably grabbed a drivetrain form another for it and resold it.

Okay now for a question how well do 90's Saturns do on FE and reliability? Because there's a lot of them around here for cheap prices? cheers!-gw

[Bicycle Bob]

Ahh, it is good to meet someone who moves their bod at work, although I can't recommend the labor market. I guess the cube-square law is working against you on a bicycle seat, but there again, a week or so of acclimatization can help a lot. The real solution for bike seating is a recumbent. Adding a power assist just puts more weight on the seat instead of the pedals. Mopeds are changed to make them more comfortable for coasting, but hell to pedal.

I drove Toyotas for years at an average of $200 per year for parts and depreciation. Now, I'm into the 3 cyl cars, and loving it. You can pull the engine without a hoist, although you need some support during alignment for re-installation. I know a few guys who make money on them.