What MPG Would Satisfy You?
 

Recently I’ve been doing a bit of soul-searching as far as fuel economy is concerned. Being the co-founder of EcoModder and an active user on the forums, it’s obvious that the interest is there. But recently, I’ve been wondering how there it really is. Earlier this summer I swapped a new engine into my CRX, which [...]

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I don't know if I'll ever be satisfied. However, there is a point at which I'll get sick of trying hard for those little gains. I'd be fine to maintain my current MPG and fueling costs IF my emissions decreased drastically or IF there was a big benefit to oil independance. Otherwise, I'd like to see my mileage continue to increase. In short, there is just a lot more to it than MPG.

30 mpg out of my explorer sport.

then i'll sell it.

why? i want something more fuel efficient, but its really hard to sell an suv right now. so my explorer will be my "crash course" in eco-mods and eco-driving. i'll take what i learn and do it better next vehicle (triple-whammy on mpg gains: better vehicle, better mods, better driving). plus, the explorer should be easier to sell if i can show a potential buyer it will get 30 mpg (like my gas mileage excel spreadsheet).

I think it is simply human nature to want more, and the more you have the more you want. The reason we can fly to the moon is due to that simple human trait.

Hrm...

So, we're parsing the word 'there' :confused:

I agree with Daox! Nobody is satisfied with their gas mileage.

The question is, how much are you willing to tolerate, e.g. suffer? And, I would *guess*, not much, given the amount of obduracy on this web site!

Personally, I would be satisfied getting 50 mpg with my little rice rocket, but I know it's NOT going to happen. So, I would be satisfied with the impossible...

Therefore, since I cannot accomplish something that is impossible, I will never be satisfied... :cool:

Could look at it in economic terms:

10,000m/year; $4/g gas:

20mpg = 500.0 gallons = $2,000
30mpg = 333.3 gallons = $1,333
40mpg = 250.0 gallons = $1,000
50mpg = 200.0 gallons = $800
60mpg = 166.7 gallons = $667
70mpg = 142.9 gallons = $572

Jump from 20 to 40- hell yes! That's worth it!

Jump from 40 to 60- eh, that'd be nice but it could be hard justifying the expense to get there.

So, 40 is my magic number for now.

As you can see Blue doesn't even average 30. I'm not satisfied with that. But the car I use most is pretty close to 40.

I'm in the same boat as you svoboy, with a d15z1 powered crx. Just drove up from LA yesterday back to Mammoth and averaged 45mpg. I was initially disappointed with the mileage, but all things considered it wasn't so bad. During the course of the trip you gain 7500ft. It was really windy through the desert plus it was 95+F during the day so that meant windows down under 50mph and cracked a couple inched 50+mph. It also involved stop and go traffic in la plus driving 75-80mph to keep from getting killed on the 405.

So yeah, 45mpg. It could be better, and I would be stoked to see 60mpg...but on the 300 mile trip it would save me just over 1.5 gallons of gas. By simply slowing down I should be able to accomplish that, suffering through the mojave desert with no a/c for an extra hour just doesn't seem to justify the extra $5-6 saved...esp when the gf is riding along (tough enough to get her to ride in it anyways).

Overall, to be getting the same mileage that normal drivers get with their prius except for a fraction of the cost makes me happy.

Trust me, nothing is impossible ;)

and thats all i'm saying about that

As for me, i'm shooting for a average between 70-80

I'm satisfied when at the end of the day I know I did my best to save fuel given the circumstances.

SVOboy -

I say "1 MPG more than I'm getting right now". That way, what I am driving doesn't matter. But, each MPG is a steeper hill to climb, and you eventually reach the summit, and then what?

For my current drivetrain, I'd like to hit 50 MPG in one 90 day segment. That would put my conventional circa-1999 ICE in direct comparison with existing hybrids. I know it is possible because people like diamondlarry could get 50 MPG in a Saturn S-Series, but I don't think my urban environment will let me hit that apex. However, I am thinking that my "summit" will be around 45 MPG ... and then what?

CarloSW2