The Art of Zen Living

Back in April, I traded my beloved 1990 Volvo 240 DL for a more fuel efficient 2000 Toyota Corolla.  Over the course of 4 tanks of gas, I found I was averaging around 31 miles to the gallon if I mostly avoided running the AC, or 30 miles to the gallon if I was mostly running the AC.  Both of those numbers seemed pretty good compared to what I was getting in the Volvo.  Then I started reading about “hypermiling”. Hypermiling is a combination of strategies designed to help maximize your fuel economy. I started wondering just how effective some of these techniques are. So the last time I filled up, I decided to test it out.

I’m not the first blogger to try this out, but I wanted to make sure I was checking milage over the course of a tank of gas. My thought process was that if you are just looking at the “Average Mileage” readout for a single trip, you might get lucky.  Not that it isn’t good to have great mileage on a single trip, but from a budgetary standpoint, good mileage on a single trip isn’t all that useful.  There’s a second reason I measured the total mileage for the tank - I don’t have an “average mileage” readout in my car.  I have to do the long math - this many miles and I just pumped in this many gallons, that means I’m getting x miles per gallon!

OK, so the math isn’t that long.

Short answer: I got an extra 46 miles out of my tank of gas.  I always fill up when the little “low fuel” light comes on, and it always takes right around 10 gallons.  If gas is $4 a gallon (today I paid $3.949 per gallon) then an extra 46 miles per tank is SIX DOLLARS per tank back in my pocket.  I drive a lot less than I used to (another good technique for saving money on gas!) but if I was still commuting to work and using a tank of gas a week, we’re talking over Three Hundred Dollars per Year saved by doing a few simple things.

I was talking about this with my father, and I found it a little painful to watch the grin creep across his face as I described some of the techniques.  I was calling it “hypermiling”, and he was calling it “driving like dad does”.  We were both right.

Details on exactly what I’m doing inside!

So let me tell you a little about how my dad drives:

1) He accelerates really, really slowly.  When I was a kid, it was painful.  Doesn’t matter if it takes a mile to accelerate to 45 MPH, you’ll get there.

2) He watches WAY down the road, and if he sees a red light coming up, he lets off the gas and will coast the last half mile.  I took this one step farther and I put the car in neutral for the coast to the red light.  Quite often it’s green when I get there because of the delay of coasting in.

3) Dad doesn’t do this, but I turn off the engine.  If I get caught at a red light and I know I’ll be there for more than 10 seconds, I shut off the engine.  Yes, the urban myth is that it takes more gas to start an engine than it does to leave it running.  This may have been true when cars had carburetors.  Today’s cars have fuel injectors that spray exactly the same amount of gas into each cylinder whether the car is running or starting.  Even if you can cut the engine for 10 seconds, you’re saving gas.

4) Dad drives slow.  It’s the reason I teased him for 10 years when he got his last speeding ticket.  As you can see on the graph at the beginning of this article, your best gas mileage is between 30 and 60 miles per hour.  40 to 55 seems to be the sweet spot.

That’s pretty much it.  I also try to coast into turns - conservation of momentum.

My experience is that you learn to ignore other cars - and they end up learning to ignore you.  Today, on my way to the farmer’s market, the driver behind me was clearly irritated by my slow acceleration.  She made her displeasure known by tailgating me rather than going around me even though the left hand lane was wide open.  Finally, I stuck my hand out of my window and waved her to go around me.  She did, whipping out into the left hand lane and accelerating away.  About a minute later I coasted up beside her at a red light.  She studiously avoided looking my way, and took off like a shot as soon as the light turned green.  About a minute and a half later, she was stopped at another red light.  This time, it changed from red to green just as I was coasting up, and I floated past her at 20 mph.  She punched it and got way out in front of me.

I parked next to her when I got to the market - she was just getting out of her car.  She’d saved herself about 4 seconds.  I gave her a friendly smile, and shrugged.

A side benefit I didn’t expect is that I enjoy driving more when I’m not in a hurry. I lose no time, save a little money and reduce my stress.  Seems like a lot of benefits for some minor changes.

I am going to make 2 more changes suggested on some of the hypermiling websites - I’m due for an oil change, so I’m going with a light, 5w-20 synthetic which should reduce engine drag, and I’m going to put an extra 5 PSI of air in my tires.  I’d recommend the oil trick for everyone.  The over inflated tires I’d only recommend if you’re confident in your ability to change your driving habits and make adjustments for the change in handling.

Next time I need to fill up, I’ll be sure to let you know what effect, if any, those two adjustments have on my next tank of gas!