| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 8:02:37 AM | Ok...i am supposed to have a 12 (US?) gallon/48 liter tank on my car. But...seeing as it has a leak in it (soon to be replaced) I can't figure out what I'm getting for milage!
Best I can figure is about 25 miles per gallon...not bad for a 10 year old car that is in need of a tune-up. (ford Excort Wagon...could be better I suppose.)
So what are you getting? How do you increase your mileage? | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 9:21:50 AM | | One of the most effecient ways of increasing your mileage is to decrease the weight of your car. Removing some of the fluff in your car will improve your mileage, also finding ways to reduce power drain from secondary functions. Installing a solar power supply on your dash for your air conditioner will also help with fuel effeciency. Of course I wouldn't suggest installing it on a car that is a decade old, it could turn out to be a waste of money in the near future. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 10:11:10 AM | | With the air on, my car gets about 6 MPG less than with it off. So I don't run the air in the mornings when it's cool. On the way home from work, in 90 degree weather, well, that's another story! | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 10:14:20 AM | | I get 45 mpg on a Honda Hybrid. My car is new though. It actually tells me the MPGs on every trip. I don't use the a/c. I prefer the windows down. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 11:08:13 AM |
So what are you getting?
My car gets 24 (highway). I don't see much of a decrease if I'm doing "spirited" driving.
My SUV gets about 16-18 (city). That's a rough guess..maybe less for all I know. Gas mileage isn't a priority for this one so I never really paid attention to it.
A guy I know with a C5 Corvette (automatic, not 6 speed) gets 30 highway. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 12:01:53 PM | I have a 2003 VW TDI (diesel)
I get 38-40 City. I average at least 50 Highway and have gotten close to 60 once. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 12:12:20 PM | | if you have a car with realtime mileage readout you will see that most cars get a lot less MPG than the sticker said it does. Real world driving is not comparable to that test. My van says it can get up to 34 mpg on the highway but only if you drive way slower than the actual speed limit. Also realtime monitoring really shows you when you are going up hill or carrying a heavy load or bucking a head wind that it knocks the crap out of the MPG. If you want maximum MPG you have to drive no faster than approx. 50 mph and no heavy acceleration. Virtually nobody drives that way so dont ever expect to get what your vehicle says it can. My ponitac montana(2007) gets around 20 to 25 mpg. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 1:26:01 PM | 25 unloaded...20 with a boat
platinum 2 plugs, cold air intake and lower temp thermostat.
i actually refuse to own another automatic, love my 5 and 6 speeds | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 2:23:15 PM |
I get 45 mpg on a Honda Hybrid. My car is new though. It actually tells me the MPGs on every trip. I don't use the a/c. I prefer the windows down.
At hwy speeds you will get better gas mileage with AC than windows down. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 2:53:01 PM | I stumbled across this tip years ago while staying up too late at a friends house. I was looking through a big coffee table book of Escher drawings. You know the ones; he drew those optical illusion pictures where the stairs could be going either up or down, and the geese were fish, and so on. Well, this one picture of minions or plebes, whoever they were, on the stairway, half of them seeming to be going up while passing the other half who seemed to be going down, only when you look ahead to the rest of the stairs, somehow the up-going people would wind up passing the down-goer's at the next level, which was both up and down, depending on who was climbing or descending, the stairway being free from normal constraints and able to be both directions in open defiance of convention. If you have seen the pictures you know what I mean and if you haven't, well, it's not too late. Where this is leading up to, or down to, is that as Escher proved in his drawings, the up and down of uphill and downhill, as well as of upstairs and downstairs, it's based in perception. As such you can alter your perception to achieve whichever effect you prefer. You can decide on a whim, now I am going upstairs, now I am going downstairs; these stairs go up, these stairs go down. The knowledge is a key that unlocks your power of choice.
So, when I am driving and I know it takes more gas going up a hill than coasting down one, whenever I come to a hill that looks up and steep I just squint a bit until it starts looking down, then I coast down it. When I get to the bottom and the road looks about to start uphill again, I squint the other way, reverse my perception, and continue coasting downhill using barely any gas at all. Whereas before I would have to pay out the standard monies for typical gas usage based on varied topography, since I found out this secret I saved thousands if not tens of dollars on gas that previously would have been wasted going up hills.
That revelation was a major milestone in my transportation strategy. I've been going downhill ever since. Try it for yourself! | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 2:55:09 PM | | Hmm my Volvo turbo 240 probably gets 20, unless I drive like a grandma Then I MAY get mid 20's as long as I stay out of boost. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 3:31:09 PM | did farceur basically just say he willed his car to get better gas mileage? =/
-PEdro | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 6:18:12 PM | 27.5mpg hwy driving 80 with the A/C on and an occasional romp on the loud pedal, 22 mixed driving, what I have observed.
6-speed 2001 Ram Air WS6, 325 horsepower GM rating,@ 350hp actual (same as the 'vettes of that year).
Not bad I don't guess. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 6:37:52 PM | My Olds was using 9.5 liters for 100 kilometers....figure that one out. Big 6 in it.
This one (Escort wagon) is a 4 cylinder..I figure with a decent tune up and such it should get dang near 30 to the gallon....The Huyndai Sonata I had was getting about the same as the Olds...never saw a difference.
I tanked up just outside of Quebec City and used about three quarters of a tank to go to Ottawa. Tooled around there a couple days before tanking up again...then the tank started to leak...sheesh...was wondering "WTF??!!" when I saw the gas gauge and smelled the gas fumes.
Well...knobette got the licence plate frame that says "My Red Wagon"...so I guess she is a going to keep this thing for a bit! Wish I knew a bit about cars to maintain it...and wasn't injured so that I could crawl under it...or even change a sparkplug or something.
 | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 7:55:02 PM | | I get terrible city mileage, average 13 mpg or so (if my digital read out can be believed). Highway is a lot better by far, I'd say about 30 mpg on average (I do a lot of travelling as of late on country roads). But I drive an '86 Cadillac Fleetwood, so what you gonna do. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 8:22:50 PM | I miss my Ford Escort Wagon with a manual transmission! (I never thought I'd say that) It got great mileage.
I did a little road trip on the weekend in my 2004 Camry with an automatic transmission and air and used 40 L for 500 K . I'll survive. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/20/2009 10:50:06 PM |
since I found out this secret I saved thousands if not tens of dollars on gas that previously would have been wasted going up hills. So which one is it, thousands of dollars, or tens of dollars? Enquiring minds want to know.
I have serious doubts that your car has the same 'perception' of whether you are on an incline or decline. More likely, you are simply decreasing your gas foot pressure on both the ride up as well as the ride down. (Either way, that post smacks of being a troll.)
About all I can do to increase my mileage is to leave the tailgate down on long trips. I travel four or five times a year to the Houston, Texas area which is about 1,050 miles from where I live.
My 05 GMC pick-em-up has a 24 gallon tank. If I leave with a full tank, I can get there after two more stops for gas. (I only stop to empty my bladder and fill up with gas.) I arrive with close to half a tank, but, with the tailgate up. I have had to stop in the past and add more to my tank in order to get there.
As a PS to poster 11. When my parents lived in the mountains of Tennessee I would visit them even more often. They lived at a much higher elevation than I do but my gas mileage going UP there was always less than my gas mileage coming back, and this was always with my cruise control on.
I guess I 'perceived' the mountain roads all wrong? | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/21/2009 6:14:01 AM | | http://www.hypermiling.com/ | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/21/2009 7:32:15 AM | I did 320km once in my race car on $22 of juice, but I feathered it most of the way and it was when petrol was about 75 cents a litre. Bloody thing was a monster though with a triple bank of carbies and rip snorting cam grind, so it was a fricken amazing distance, spun my passenger right out.
We build 'em pretty good in Oz. Built this myself, tuned and balanced it almost daily. You could rest a flyweight on the pedal and average 130km/h no prob.
I should mention though if you were heavy with the right foot, well let's just say I emptied the tank once within about half an hour. Lifted the left front wheel, worth it! Another time tried to catch a set of lights and lit up the rear tyres at about 80 on a warm summer night. I get that you yanks have some pretty big engines so this probably is no big deal, but it's hella news down under for a street car.
Used to get fellers lining up to drag me at the Calder Park raceway every time I took it. Seriously, one bloke asked the race judges if he could jump the line to race me. | |
|
avpd
|
Joined: 8/5/2009
Msg: 20 | |
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/21/2009 7:47:55 AM | | One easy thing is to make sure your tires are inflated to the proper PSI. You will get better milage with them infltaed higher than that, but that will also wear them out faster. After that the best thing you can do is accelerate slowly and coast a long while before stopping. Driving the speed limit helps too! I drive in QC a lot and see how fast people go! They seem to enforce the speed limits over in Ontario better. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/21/2009 10:56:55 AM |
We build 'em pretty good in Oz. Built this myself, tuned and balanced it almost daily.
Wierd, we only balance and blue-print the engine and/or flywheel once and it seems to do just fine. Whatever was wrong with your car sounds like it was rather destructively serious. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/21/2009 11:36:11 AM | I have a '91 Escort wagon that still gets 36 mph hwy/ 27 mpg city driving. Manual transmission.
I also have the original clutch. I'm a "gentle" driver - no jackrabbit starts. I also don't drive very fast.
My scientist friend, who loves to track and analyze things, found that slowing down boosted his mileage way more than he ever imagined.
Don't keep excess weight in the car. When I see a red light ahead, I take my foot off the gas and start coasting (assuming I'm not slowing to an annoying pace if there's someone behind me). Keep your tires inflated.
I doubt the magnets do anything but enrich the seller. There's lots of bogus things out there that claim to boost your mileage and don't. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/21/2009 11:48:06 AM | One easy way to increase gas mileage is to avoid ethanol contaminated fuels. Seek out the independent gas stations that do not get their fuels from the ethanol mandated pipeline providers. Most will advertise their fuel as "ethanol free".
Even 10% ethanol in gas will noticeably reduce mileage. I have a flex fuel Caravan with a mileage gauge that reflects the severe mileage decline on the one occasion I tried e-85. Check out the government ratings..
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/byfueltype.htm
There are more 2009 models to compare. It is not uncommon for a 25% reduction in mileage when using e-85.
Even at 10% ethanol contamination, there is between an 8-12% decrease in mileage, in addition to lower octane and increased pinging under load.
http://www.americanfuels.info/2009/02/closer-look-at-ethanol-and-fuel-mileage.html
The ethanol scam is unsustainable, an environmental disaster, subsidized at 50 cents a gallon at the pump, subsidized by our lowered mileage, wrecking lawnmower and boat motors, and is really only benefiting the ADMs and Monsantos of the world. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/21/2009 12:05:46 PM |
My scientist friend, who loves to track and analyze things, found that slowing down boosted his mileage way more than he ever imagined.
That is because wind-resistance is not linear in relation to speed.
Yes, HUGE +1 to avoiding ethanol crap. | |
|
| Gas milage!
Posted: 8/21/2009 12:32:01 PM | I have 96 Escort LX, my "Gypsy Wagon" Was told I would get 26-27 MPG, didn't..
put in a gas additive to ungum the fuel injectors, then did get 26 highway. | |
|
Home
login 
