Hugely dissapointed with hypermiling results

[PaleMelanesian]

How long are your normal trips? If the distance is short, the engine never warms up.

[sn0w3n]

Originally Posted by chuckm

That said, depending on how much stop and go you are actually seeing (ie, how much time is spent at stoplights), it can destroy any gains you might see by hypermiling.

I have a lot of stop signs / lights in my area but I figured I could still hypermile my car to get better FE

[sn0w3n]

my usual trips are like 5 miles (grocery store is about 6 resturuants are like 3 umm beach is like 5 it varies but there not too long). I would ride a bike to and fro but my family usually hangs with me.

[Cd]

You are doing everything right .

What I would do is lay off the hypermiling for a while untill you go through a full tank of gas. This way you can see what kind of mileage that the car is normally getting.

You already know this but.......
Set the odometer at '00000' when you full up, then take note of the mileage on the odometer when you fill up. Divide the miles traveled by the gallons purchased. A reciept is a good way to keep track of things like this.

125 miles is not really an accurate distance to test with, so try at least 300 .... but don't run that thing empty though !

[sn0w3n]

yes CD thank you I am using reciepts and the odometer however, if I understand you correctly your saying I should go longer on a single tank and that I should stop hypermiling for one tank?

[sn0w3n]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Does the parking brake release?

I think you are driving right; I think you should perhaps do somewhat better for fe. Any history of the car's fe?

No sry I don't really have any history of the cars fuel economy my grandma didn't keep track before I had it.

[Cd]

What I am saying, is that to provide a comparison figure, you need to first find the 'normal' mileage of that particular car that you drive.
Just because the window sticker says a certain MPG figure, doesn't mean that every Saturn car like yours will get that same mileage. You could have engine problems, or other things wrong that cause your mileage to fluctuate.
By running through a full tank and keeping note of the mileage, you can see what kind of mileage that the car gets without hypermiling, and then compare the results with the ones that you get from a tank using hypermiling.

( So yes, drive longer between fill-ups - the longer the better ( more accurate ) , and skip hypermiling for one or two tanks till you get a good comparision figure )

Good luck !

[sn0w3n]

gotcha

[sn0w3n]

will do if all else fails but first im going to check tire psi and brake sticking and see if can improve more

[MetroMPG]

Someone already mentioned it, but: you would really benefit from instrumentation if you want to fine tune your driving technique.

ScanGauge or MPGuino