Living vicariously through you guys

[cowmeat]

I sold my beloved 98 Land Rover Discovery to buy a 93 Ford Festiva. Not the most glamorous of swaps, but I went from about 75 bucks a week to 15 bucks a week in gas. The savings pays the electric bill, and I live in central Florida!

But if you're gonna keep the beast, if you can squeeze another 5 mpg out of it, you'll increase your mpg 33%! And don't give up on mods, because the biggest mod of all (changing your driving habits) doesn't cost a dime!

Welcome, and good luck!

[elhigh]

Changing your driving habits will have a bigger effect than almost anything else you can do, and the best bit is it doesn't cost you a thing.

15, ouch. But I assure you, you can do better. The first thing you have to do is to stop driving like everyone else around you.

All those people are driving with one goal - their intent is to have arrived. In order to improve your vehicle's fuel economy, you must drive it with an eye not toward having finished driving, but how you're going to be driving it in the next ten seconds, and then ten seconds after that, etc. Like most people you probably follow a few specific routes to your usual destinations: work, the store, Uncle Bob's for Sunday dinner, etc. Well, you know them so well, you can avail yourself of advantages. Steep uphill approaching Uncle Bob's? Don't just drive right up it: at some point you can let off the gas and allow yourself to coast to a near-perfect stop, rather than rely on the brakes. You both save a little fuel and a little brake wear that way. It's a smoother ride, too.

See a light in the distance that's green? How far off? If it's far enough, you might be pretty sure it's going to be red by the time you get there. Oh, well, no point in hurrying toward it then, is there? Back off the gas and coast. If you want to hold a little more speed on your coasting, shift into Neutral. If it goes to red before you arrive, you might just be able to coast long enough that it has changed back to green before you get there! Woohoo! I love when that happens.

DON'T turn your engine off for coasting. That's for manuals and only a few automatics. Research carefully before trying it with your machine.

There's a sticky called 100+ hypermiling/ecodriving tips and it's full of good advice. I look forward to seeing how well you do.

Start a garage page and fuel log for your ride. You can't manage what you don't measure, and once you know how well you've done, you can start to maximize what works best.

[chillsworld]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

OP, you will find this site is accepting of people with all forms of opinions, lifestyles and driving habits. You don't have to be an eco-friendly driver to be accepted here. I really hope you stick around, pitch ideas and, most of all, enjoy yourself. You will however be poked at by us people who get 4x you mileage (such as me, I get 45mpg) :P. Anyway, start a fuel log, it won't do any harm to keep track of your expenses, that's what I mainly use it for. It helps me budget for the next month knowing how much exactly I'm spending on gas.

Oh I'm completely ok with people poking fun of my truck and it's phenomenal gas mileage hahahaha

Originally Posted by elhigh

Changing your driving habits will have a bigger effect than almost anything else you can do, and the best bit is it doesn't cost you a thing.

15, ouch. But I assure you, you can do better. The first thing you have to do is to stop driving like everyone else around you.

All those people are driving with one goal - their intent is to have arrived. In order to improve your vehicle's fuel economy, you must drive it with an eye not toward having finished driving, but how you're going to be driving it in the next ten seconds, and then ten seconds after that, etc. Like most people you probably follow a few specific routes to your usual destinations: work, the store, Uncle Bob's for Sunday dinner, etc. Well, you know them so well, you can avail yourself of advantages. Steep uphill approaching Uncle Bob's? Don't just drive right up it: at some point you can let off the gas and allow yourself to coast to a near-perfect stop, rather than rely on the brakes. You both save a little fuel and a little brake wear that way. It's a smoother ride, too.

See a light in the distance that's green? How far off? If it's far enough, you might be pretty sure it's going to be red by the time you get there. Oh, well, no point in hurrying toward it then, is there? Back off the gas and coast. If you want to hold a little more speed on your coasting, shift into Neutral. If it goes to red before you arrive, you might just be able to coast long enough that it has changed back to green before you get there! Woohoo! I love when that happens.

DON'T turn your engine off for coasting. That's for manuals and only a few automatics. Research carefully before trying it with your machine.

There's a sticky called 100+ hypermiling/ecodriving tips and it's full of good advice. I look forward to seeing how well you do.

Start a garage page and fuel log for your ride. You can't manage what you don't measure, and once you know how well you've done, you can start to maximize what works best.

As far as logging goes, my odometer and speedometer are both inaccurate I have used my iphone for average speed and distance traveled, but if i lose service (which I do often where I live) then the data is wrong. I'm going to get a good GPS like the ones overland explorers use... Then I can track my usage accurately no matter where I go

Thanks for the tips and encouragement you guys.

[chillsworld]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

I sold my beloved 98 Land Rover Discovery to buy a 93 Ford Festiva. Not the most glamorous of swaps, but I went from about 75 bucks a week to 15 bucks a week in gas. The savings pays the electric bill, and I live in central Florida!

But if you're gonna keep the beast, if you can squeeze another 5 mpg out of it, you'll increase your mpg 33%! And don't give up on mods, because the biggest mod of all (changing your driving habits) doesn't cost a dime!

Welcome, and good luck!

I do like me a good Rover, but saving enough for the power bill is awesome!

I agree, I need to try and get a bit more out of her... If nothing else see if I can tweak my habits.

Thanks!

~C

[Mustang Dave]

Originally Posted by elhigh

... The first thing you have to do is to stop driving like everyone else around you...

That's excellent advice! I may have to add that quote to my signature.
That RED LIGHT up ahead is NOT the FINISH LINE!