wife success
 

My wife took the Vibe to visit friends in Indianapolis, which is about a three hour drive. She posted this on facebook when she got back. Hopefully it's big enough to read...

http://i337.photobucket.com/albums/n...arlie/FB13.jpg

I congratulate her on getting over 40 mpg on the way home and call her a 'motorized vehicle virtuoso.'
Her response says; "I am so glad you are proud of me. I averaged 42 miles per gallon. I kinda like that scan gauge! Wish I could have one for the station wagon!"

But it's a '94, so I'll 'have to' build a MPGuino. :p

Great news Tango! Sometimes getting the other half on board is harder than finding new ways to pull better mpg's. Not sure which is a bigger feat...getting the wife on board or her getting 42 mpg's...I think both are impressive!

And...when you enter your next fuel log...it's got over 42 mpg included in it for 3 hours...quite a rush of excitement I'm sure!

What kind of station wagon?

That's good stuff. Build the woman a Guino, quick! :D

It's a Buick Roadmaster that we affectionately call "The Bomber". I don't even try to track the mileage on it. :o

It's a nice looking car, but I've got a laundry list of things to fix on it before I feel comfortable taking it out of town. Right now it's a secondary car for the wife to drive around town when I'm at work.

My wife was amazed today to find out that she'd gotten an average of 28 MPG in Granny... she actually drove the whole tank, too.

Now she's a little more interested in getting better mileage, although she's not ready for advanced techniques, due to limited driving experience.

She checks her tire pressure and fluids, does her own oil changes and such (when she's not pregnant), and maintains her car pretty well on her own, I just supervise and answer the "what ifs" that eventually come about.

Congrats on getting wifey onboard with the program, TC!

Now, if I could just get her to notice if the extension cord is plugged into the block heater BEFORE she backs out of the garage... :eek: :mad: :rolleyes:

Maybe a light in the car that shows the heater is active? Or maybe just a sign in front of the car where it's parked in the G'rage...

There are other obvious alternatives, but they require work... like making the car not start unless the thing is unplugged... but then she'd probably come inside complaining that the car is "broken". If she's anything like my wife, anyway.

This just adds to my Vibe envy. So much more roomy than my little zx2.

You've got to be less than an hour from me as I'm about a 3 hour drive from indy. Small World. Can you say any more specific than northern indiana?

I'm only 2hrs from Indiana...

Big ol sign and put it face down on the windshield.

The Vibe is a great little car. It does have a few shortcomings. It's a little noisy. The interior is kinda cheap. And it burns gas. ;) But overall, it is a great little car. Mine's got over 150k on it and its little Toyota 1ZZFE is still going strong.

I'm in Goshen, IN. About 45 minutes east of South Bend (Notre Dame land). You can see on the frappr map. Unforgiven is about 5 minutes from me, but we've yet to meet up.

wagonman, I like that idea! Simple! I'll just hang the sign on the wall of the garage, and when I plug in, I'll lay the sign on the windshield! Ya! :thumbup:

Woo missed this thread almost. Congrats to the wife Terry!

Congrats to your wife! With living in Indy area and driving to East Race Whitewater Park in South Bend, I can understand how difficult it can be to get good mileage on hwy 31.

I lived in Indy for several years. I miss it.
Yeah, 31 sucks. Especially through Kokomo. (No offense, ATaylorRacing.)
I've heard rumors that they're gonna bypass the bypass...

A coworker of mine is an avid kayaker. Flat water, though. He hauls them on top of his Honda Element. Makes me just shake my head, thinking of what his Cd must be. :p

I'm not sure I want to know what my Cd is with them on my roof rack. I know it is really bad since I lose between 6 - 12 mpg. This past weekend I only got 27.x mpg on a kayak trip when I have been getting between 34.5 and 36.x mpg without them. I should probably take the time to determine my car's Cd with and without the kayaks to give me something to gage where I am at and how to improve on it.

On another note, I am doing better than many of my kayaking friends. They always tell me to quit complaining and that they would love to get the mileage that I get.

I noticed in your fuel log that you carried *three* kayaks and three friends. That is a pretty significant increase in weight, coefficient of drag, and frontal area. Also, a lot of ecomodders find that they sometimes drive a bit less conservatively if they have others in the car.

All of these things may have conspired to hurt your FE. Also, your previous tank seems to be your best tank ever. Chances are, that tank was a short fill, so this one required extra gas to compensate.

It is possible, because I think that I got worse mileage than the 27.x. We were running late to the meeting point and I was running 80 mph with a 10 mph head wind for 1.5 hrs to try to catch up. Also, I went to a Marathon for the tank that I am on now and got a short fill. I am about 35 miles short on this tank. The Marathon stations seem to do this to me quite often.

My fiance doesn't exactly like going under the speed limit either. I don't blame her. Riding in the car for long periods of time hurt her tail bone which she broke a couple years ago. Now that I think about it, she should probably bring a pillow (or the Jackson Sweet Cheeks) to help reduce the pressure on it.

My toaster-driving coworker says he only loses 1 to 2 mpg with his long, skinny flat water kayaks on top. I guess the Element is just that poor to begin with.

You might consider a trailer. For $1000 you can get a kayak-specific trailer that will hold four boats plus a spacecase carrier. They're pretty slick. You could sell the roof rack to recoup some of the cost. Saves wear and tear on your back, too. Ouch!

Thanks for the suggestion! A kayak specific trailer with motor cycle tires and a hitch are already planned for 2011 (getting married and buying a house in 2010) at a cost of $1600. The trailer holds four kayaks and has gear storage above the kayaks. I saw one of these trailers at East Race last year being pulled by an Element. They even fold up for easy out of the way storage.