Hypermiling

[niky]

Higher tire pressures. Pulse and glide hills. Take advantage of drafts (though don't tailgate. That's dangerous). Coast where you can.

 

[homeforsummer]

Higher tire pressures. Pulse and glide hills. Take advantage of drafts (though don't tailgate. That's dangerous). Coast where you can.

And better anticipation. There are always improvements to be made. You know you've got it right when you barely ever need to use the brakes, because you've already slowed to the right speed as you approach traffic or you've only accelerated as much as you need to to merge/get through the next stoplight on green/etc.

Good anticipation isn't just good for economy, it's good for speed too. Lot of crossover between skills needed to go fast and skills needed to use as little fuel as possible.

 

[Danoff]

Ok, so time for a sanity check. Let's say you drive 25 miles round trip per day on a commute. Your car normally gets 25 mpg during that commute but you can hypermil it up to 50 mpg. A gallon of gas where I am is about $2.50. So normally you spend $2.50 per day, 5 days a week, let's say 20 days per month, so you spend $90/month on gas. By hypermiling you get $45/month savings.

Awesome.

Now imagine someone told you they'd magnify the horsepower and braking of your car by a factor of 5 and you could actually enjoy it. Worth $45/mo? Absofrigginlootly.

Your life is worth something, spend it enjoying yourself instead of pinching pennies, pissing off other drivers, and raising your risk of a car accident (yes you do when you drive slower or less predictably than other drivers are expecting). And definitely do not own a sports car or spend time posting in a forum about sports cars or racing if you spend your time sacrificing fun on the road for a few bucks. That's absurd.

Edit:

Next time I get an opportunity I'll hit the redline just for you guys.

 

[Fastcarguy]

Ok, so time for a sanity check. Let's say you drive 25 miles round trip per day on a commute. Your car normally gets 25 mpg during that commute but you can hypermil it up to 50 mpg. A gallon of gas where I am is about $2.50. So normally you spend $2.50 per day, 5 days a week, let's say 20 days per month, so you spend $90/month on gas. By hypermiling you get $45/month savings.

Awesome.

Now imagine someone told you they'd magnify the horsepower and braking of your car by a factor of 5 and you could actually enjoy it. Worth $45/mo? Absofrigginlootly.

Your life is worth something, spend it enjoying yourself instead of pinching pennies, pissing off other drivers, and raising your risk of a car accident (yes you do when you drive slower or less predictably than other drivers are expecting). And definitely do not own a sports car or spend time posting in a forum about sports cars or racing if you spend your time sacrificing fun on the road for a few bucks. That's absurd.

Edit:

Next time I get an opportunity I'll hit the redline just for you guys.

It all depends on your situation. I have a 2002 Audi A4 5 speed quattro. Its a fun little car with a turbo. However, it's my first car and I'm still in high school. The only reason I have it is because I got a good deal at $2800. It was owned by the daughter of a mechanic that my brother works for. I make minimum wage working on the weekends. I can't work on weekdays because of sports and homework. It makes more sense for me to save as much gas as possible. I could go out and have a lot of fun and burn through my gas tank twice as fast, but it just doesn't make sense.

 

[Obelisk]

@Danoff hypermiling is fun in a different way. And it's practical. In my car, the average range is 425 miles for a 13 gal tank - or about 32.6 MPG. My average MPG thus far (according to my car) is 33.7 MPG. That means I get an effective range of 438.1. But I actually average around 39-40 MPG on a normal day - which translates into roughly 520 miles per tank. See why hypermiling is a popular thing?

It also helps with costs and frequency of gas refills. Twice a month could become once every 3 weeks.

 

[Danoff]

It all depends on your situation. I have a 2002 Audi A4 5 speed quattro. Its a fun little car with a turbo. However, it's my first car and I'm still in high school. The only reason I have it is because I got a good deal at $2800. It was owned by the daughter of a mechanic that my brother works for. I make minimum wage working on the weekends. I can't work on weekdays because of sports and homework. It makes more sense for me to save as much gas as possible. I could go out and have a lot of fun and burn through my gas tank twice as fast, but it just doesn't make sense.

You have the wrong car. Ok, so it's what was convenient for you to get, and you got a good deal. But the reason you're trying to conserve fuel so much is because fundamentally something about it is wrong. That's fine. You're compensating for a non-perfect fit.

@Danoff hypermiling is fun in a different way. And it's practical. In my car, the average range is 425 miles for a 13 gal tank - or about 32.6 MPG. My average MPG thus far (according to my car) is 33.7 MPG. That means I get an effective range of 438.1. But I actually average around 39-40 MPG on a normal day - which translates into roughly 520 miles per tank. See why hypermiling is a popular thing?

It also helps with costs and frequency of gas refills. Twice a month could become once every 3 weeks.

On a tank of gas, you're saving 3 gallons, or about $8. No, I don't see why it's a popular thing.

 

[Obelisk]

You have the wrong car. Ok, so it's what was convenient for you to get, and you got a good deal. But the reason you're trying to conserve fuel so much is because fundamentally something about it is wrong. That's fine. You're compensating for a non-perfect fit.



On a tank of gas, you're saving 3 gallons, or about $8. No, I don't see why it's a popular thing.

You ignored the time aspect of it. Being able to push off the inevitable refill has its benefits. You can plan it more appropriately and dodge rush times at the gas station.

Edit: Also, consider per-month cost. If I only have to fill up once a month (every 3 weeks), that means my gas cost for that month is only $30 instead of $60)

 

[homeforsummer]

Your life is worth something, spend it enjoying yourself instead of pinching pennies, pissing off other drivers, and raising your risk of a car accident (yes you do when you drive slower or less predictably than other drivers are expecting). And definitely do not own a sports car or spend time posting in a forum about sports cars or racing if you spend your time sacrificing fun on the road for a few bucks. That's absurd.

It's weird when people like different things, isn't it? Even weirder that I enjoy the challenge of driving economically as well as the challenge of driving quickly (though it's possible to do both at once - even weirder still!), driving on track, driving on a frozen lake, off-roading, or trying to max out a car on an autobahn (176 is my record, but a shameful one as the car should've been capable of 190mph).

Incidentally, if you're pissing off other drivers you're doing it wrong. I can't speak for others here, but when I'm "hypermiling" I'm still going quicker than most other traffic on the roads. I had to overtake something pretty much every day on the way to work when I owned my Insight, and that was doing 65mpg on the very same commute.

Edit: Incidentally, gas here is currently around $5.40 a gallon, so it's a little more worth attempting to use less of it than it is over there. Irrespective of whether one enjoys the challenge.

 

[lbpomg95]

I was pissing off other drivers long before I tried hypermiling. Perks of having two cars - one with a 973cc 3 cylinder engine and another you've spent so much money on you're terrified to knock it on these crap British backroads.

The 3 cylinder is a Vauxhall Corsa with the GM family-0 1 litre petrol. It's 0-60 time is counted on a calender and it wasn't exactly an efficient engine to begin with. I'm pretty sure that most of the car's rivals could get better MPG at the time. Regardless, I love the car.

A VAUXHALL?! I know, right?

Anyway, because it has no power, you do have to be rather generous with the throttle pedal to get it to do... anything, really. I stripped out the rear trim, seats, plastics and some other stuff I was carrying around. Amounted to around 50kg probably. Maybe the MPG went up by about 4 or 5-ish. Still, the car's more fun to drive for it. I also use high octane super unleaded. I'm sold on the stuff because it makes a hell of a difference to how smooth the car runs. As for MPG, it maybe added 1 mile per gallon tops, so it doesn't pay for itself. Other than that, I do a lot of the usual, coasting in-gear, use the brake as little as possible, etc.

I managed 55.8MPG average over about two thirds of a tank. Round about 300 miles in my miniscule tank. (filled the tank up, reset trip counter. Next time I filled up took down mileage and amount of fuel put in, calculated it from there.) Not bad for a wheezy little 3-pot hatchback. Sure, I'd rather just rev the nuts off it all the time, but being an Ecotec engine it will definitely explode if I do that. Plus the hypermiling challenge can be fun.

The other car is an old, 2 litre petrol Volvo with the aerodynamic properties of a building. I'll be lucky if I see 25MPG, so screw hypermiling that damn thing.

 

[Obelisk]

My commute to work today.

@Danoff that number in the picture, 40.8, was achieved in a suburban/urban setting where 33 MPG is a generous number for my car. Instead of thinking of it as a penny-pinch, think of it as a different kind of performance driving! Instead of pushing the car to its mechanical limits for the best lap times, it's putting the driver's abilities with the car to the test - gas efficiency IS a measure of performance.

 

[niky]

raising your risk of a car accident (yes you do when you drive slower or less predictably than other drivers are expecting).

This has already been answered, but it can't be stressed enough, if you are driving less predictably than everyone else, you are doing it wrong.

I hypermile every day. And I still overtake people on my daily commute. I still stop at the same stoplights (actually, I stop fewer times) and I still follow the same speed minimums and maximums as everyone else. Hell, a hypermiler is just as likely to be doing 40 in a 20 as anyone else. 20 is too slow for economy.

And yet: Yes, I drive slowly in some parts. But predictably. Hardcore guys will pulse and glide on perfectly level ground and draft inches off an eighteen wheeler. There are hardcore enthusiasts who likewise peg the limiter every time they're on the highway or pull over one gee every time they hit an on ramp or off ramp during the rush hour.

That doesn't mean everyone who loves hypermiling, speed or handling is like that.

All three are aspects of motoring I love. I go to work and wrangle cars through cones or peg the limiter on an airstrip or a track. Then I go home and see if I can't just squeeze an extra fifty or sixty miles out of my next tank.

I'm enjoying myself just as much, either way. And yes, I still redline the car. An Italian tune up every once in a while helps keep the baby purring.

Hypermilers are still enthusiasts. We're just a tiny bit weirder than the guys who do time distance rallies

 

[Danoff]

You ignored the time aspect of it. Being able to push off the inevitable refill has its benefits. You can plan it more appropriately and dodge rush times at the gas station.

Edit: Also, consider per-month cost. If I only have to fill up once a month (every 3 weeks), that means my gas cost for that month is only $30 instead of $60)

Nope. You'll hit a month where it's $60. It's not $30/month. Time at the gas station vs. time added to travel, how does it stack up?

It's weird when people like different things, isn't it? Even weirder that I enjoy the challenge of driving economically as well as the challenge of driving quickly (though it's possible to do both at once - even weirder still!), driving on track, driving on a frozen lake, off-roading, or trying to max out a car on an autobahn (176 is my record, but a shameful one as the car should've been capable of 190mph).

Incidentally, if you're pissing off other drivers you're doing it wrong. I can't speak for others here, but when I'm "hypermiling" I'm still going quicker than most other traffic on the roads. I had to overtake something pretty much every day on the way to work when I owned my Insight, and that was doing 65mpg on the very same commute.

Edit: Incidentally, gas here is currently around $5.40 a gallon, so it's a little more worth attempting to use less of it than it is over there. Irrespective of whether one enjoys the challenge.

So you chose the right car for the job first of all. Secondly, if you're not driving like a 'hat, and you're driving an insight, I can see why you'd try to find something fun about it, like squeezing more mileage out of the tank. The higher the cost of gas, the more the endeavor is worth spending time on, of course. Naturally a motorcycle would save you more gas. But the insight will have creature comfort advantages over the bike.

View attachment 592096
My commute to work today.

@Danoff that number in the picture, 40.8, was achieved in a suburban/urban setting where 33 MPG is a generous number for my car. Instead of thinking of it as a penny-pinch, think of it as a different kind of performance driving! Instead of pushing the car to its mechanical limits for the best lap times, it's putting the driver's abilities with the car to the test - gas efficiency IS a measure of performance.

Awesome... what's the point again?

This has already been answered, but it can't be stressed enough, if you are driving less predictably than everyone else, you are doing it wrong.

To an extent, you're by definition driving less predictably than everyone else because you're trying not to use your car. Your car has two (possibly three) fun pedals, and you're trying to keep your feet off them. Hypermiling gives you a nice little score at the end to let you know how well you avoided having a good time.

All three are aspects of motoring I love. I go to work and wrangle cars through cones or peg the limiter on an airstrip or a track. Then I go home and see if I can't just squeeze an extra fifty or sixty miles out of my next tank.

Why? To what end? I have fun saving money too, but not if the balance of what I have to give up is too high.

=============================================

Ok, so if you spend all day racing cars around and you just want something to convey you home at the lowest cost, be my guest. I will be the first to admit that there comes a point when you're done having fun driving. Especially if you're about to do it again the next day. I'd still choose comfort and time over the money, but that balance is determined by how much your time is worth. I encourage everyone I meet to value their time and enjoyment highly, I think it puts you in a frame of mind to succeed in life. Devaluing your time and enjoyment has effects that permeate many aspects of life.

 

[Obelisk]

I'd say adding an extra week of travel at the cost of 5 fewer minutes at the gas station is a big bonus.

Awesome... what's the point again?

Instead of thinking of it as a penny-pinch, think of it as a different kind of performance driving! Instead of pushing the car to its mechanical limits for the best lap times, it's putting the driver's abilities with the car to the test - gas efficiency IS a measure of performance.

You don't seem to want to understand hypermiling. It's actually quite fun - you could maximize MPG while going through a windy road.

Example: Near my house, there's a winding suburban road called Highland Street. It curves left, right, up and down. And yet, that road is where I get some of my best per-minute numbers in the Mazda's system. Why is this? I can coast down the entire road at 45 MPH without needing to apply gas, and 45 is super fast on that road.

 

[Danoff]

I'd say adding an extra week of travel at the cost of 5 fewer minutes at the gas station is a big bonus.





You don't seem to want to understand hypermiling. It's actually quite fun - you could maximize MPG while going through a windy road.

Example: Near my house, there's a winding suburban road called Highland Street. It curves left, right, up and down. And yet, that road is where I get some of my best per-minute numbers in the Mazda's system. Why is this? I can coast down the entire road at 45 MPH without needing to apply gas, and 45 is super fast on that road.

If you do that in a RWD vehicle you're irresponsible. There are times when you need to apply throttle for safety.

I've done it. I did that in an RSX-S coming out of Tahoe. It was a windy road, mostly down hill, and I kept it in neutral and stayed off the gas (and brake) as much as I could and checked the mileage at the end to see what a great job I did. I know what you're talking about. I should have just concentrated on enjoying driving that road.

 

[Obelisk]

If you do that in a RWD vehicle you're irresponsible. There are times when you need to apply throttle for safety.

I've done it. I did that in an RSX-S coming out of Tahoe. It was a windy road, mostly down hill, and I kept it in neutral and stayed off the gas (and brake) as much as I could and checked the mileage at the end to see what a great job I did. I know what you're talking about. I should have just concentrated on enjoying driving that road.

Who says you can't enjoy the road while hypermiling? I think you're looking at this in too narrow of a perspective. (Automatic RWDs should be fine afaik)

 

[Danoff]

Who says you can't enjoy the road while hypermiling? I think you're looking at this in too narrow of a perspective. (Automatic RWDs should be fine afaik)

You need to be able to apply throttle in a RWD or AWD vehicle under certain sliding conditions.

 

[Obelisk]

You need to be able to apply throttle in a RWD or AWD vehicle under certain sliding conditions.

That's a given. But for the most part, people drive small, gas efficient FWDs. Which are usually really fun or really boring to drive, but that's a topic for a different day. These FWDs have a lot more potential than the manufacturer MPG numbers, so us hypermilers want to draw out that potential. It's fun, too, since you can do stuff you wouldn't usually do in other cars.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Hypermiling gives you a nice little score at the end to let you know how well you avoided having a good time.

It may not be a good time to you, but to some of us we enjoy it. And I'm not sure how much of a "good time" you could have on arrow straight roads with stop lights every 1/2 mile or less.

It was a windy road, mostly down hill, and I kept it in neutral and stayed off the gas (and brake) as much as I could and checked the mileage at the end to see what a great job I did.

Horrible, because coasting in gear uses no fuel where as coasting in neutral does.

 

[Danoff]

Horrible, because coasting in gear uses no fuel where as coasting in neutral does.

Coasting in gear would have slowed me down to the point where I'd need to use the accelerator. There's no way the loss of momentum due to engine drag would make up for idling the car for that period of time. I'm not talking about coasting to a stop where you'd have to apply the same acceleration on the other side anyway, I'm talking about coasting down a windy road many miles long with no stop signs, but the occasional uphill crest.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Coasting in gear would have slowed me down to the point where I'd need to use the accelerator. There's no way the loss of momentum due to engine drag would make up for idling the car for that period of time. I'm not talking about coasting to a stop where you'd have to apply the same acceleration on the other side anyway, I'm talking about coasting down a windy road many miles long with no stop signs, but the occasional uphill crest.

Depends on how steep the road is. I coasted in gear down a local mountain when I lived in Colorado in my turbo Miata, never had to use the accelerator, and ended up with 38mpg on that tank. Then I promptly beat the crap out of it in the canyons a few days later, so it evened out.

 

[Obelisk]

Coasting in gear would have slowed me down to the point where I'd need to use the accelerator. There's no way the loss of momentum due to engine drag would make up for idling the car for that period of time. I'm not talking about coasting to a stop where you'd have to apply the same acceleration on the other side anyway, I'm talking about coasting down a windy road many miles long with no stop signs, but the occasional uphill crest.

And as a matter of fact, if you leave the car in a high gear you don't use gas. That's why automatics put you in the highest possible gear when you aren't accelerating.

 

[Danoff]

Depends on how steep the road is. I coasted in gear down a local mountain when I lived in Colorado in my turbo Miata, never had to use the accelerator, and ended up with 38mpg on that tank. Then I promptly beat the crap out of it in the canyons a few days later, so it evened out.

And as a matter of fact, if you leave the car in a high gear you don't use gas. That's why automatics put you in the highest possible gear when you aren't accelerating.

The RSX-S is a 6-speed manual (no automatics). As it was I still had to apply the occasional throttle, even without keeping the car in gear. So there was no chance of avoiding using throttle with the car in gear. Coasting in gear would have cost me fuel.

...and I'm already feeling like I've wasted my life just talking about this.

@Obelisk, do you have a belt-driven radiator fan on the Mazda? Because you could replace that with an electric fan and probably save some mpgs. Or do you only care about fuel savings when you can get it by not using the car? You should also not have a spare tire, or anything extra in the car. Are you using "regular" when the car could take premium? Do you have low rolling resistance tires (at the expense of stopping distance)?

 

[Obelisk]

The RSX-S is a 6-speed manual (no automatics). As it was I still had to apply the occasional throttle, even without keeping the car in gear. So there was no chance of avoiding using throttle with the car in gear. Coasting in gear would have cost me fuel.

...and I'm already feeling like I've wasted my life just talking about this.

You were doing something horribly wrong, then.

 

[Danoff]

You were doing something horribly wrong, then.

"Horribly". I was doing something "horribly" wrong by preserving vehicle momentum by idling the car so that I could make it over the next uphill section without using fuel...

I came in here to encourage you guys to take back your lives and I've started giving up my own. I need to cut this off.

 

[Obelisk]

"Horribly". I was doing something "horribly" wrong by preserving vehicle momentum by idling the car so that I could make it over the next uphill section without using fuel...

I came in here to encourage you guys to take back your lives and I've started giving up my own. I need to cut this off.

As R1600 said, coasting in neutral burns fuel. Next time you drive, try coasting in high gear.

And most of us don't actively go out to get the best MPG possible - we just do it on our commutes.

 

[Danoff]

As R1600 said, coasting in neutral burns fuel. Next time you drive, try coasting in high gear.

The RSX-S holds pretty high RPM in 6th gear.

 

[Tornado]

I came in here to encourage you guys to take back your lives

After all this time, and it turns out that you do have a sense of humor.

 

[CodeRedR51]

And most of us don't actively go out to get the best MPG possible - we just do it on our commutes.

Yep. Day to day driving back and forth to work on arrow straight roads, through stop lights, and then setting the cruise control on a couple long roads with no stops. Not sure how you could make that any more fun outside of trying to get the best mileage possible. I'm averaging 35mpg in a car that is rated at 34 highway, 28 combined.

If I cruise to Tucson and go up the local twisty mountain road, my thoughts are certainly not on fuel mileage at that point.

 

[20832]

Decided to give it a try, however since I have a quite a few traffic lights on my way from and to work, I probably didn't have the greatest success.

Anyways, before the reset our Peugeot 2008 had an average of 7.1l/100km, after a week I averaged 5.4l/100km, which is a considerably less. But since it's the car of my parents and my parents obviously don't do it, we're currently sitting at 6.2l/100km which is still quite a bit less. And the 5.4l/100km is actually pretty damn close to the estimated 4.8l/100km Peugeot claims.

 

[niky]

To an extent, you're by definition driving less predictably than everyone else because you're trying not to use your car. Your car has two (possibly three) fun pedals, and you're trying to keep your feet off them. Hypermiling gives you a nice little score at the end to let you know how well you avoided having a good time.

How many people use all three pedals on their car? Considering most only have two?

You're talking about this from the point of view of someone who doesn't hypermile. Standard hypermiling techniques are the definition of predictability. You slow down early for stops and intersections (hell, if you time it right, you never reach any red lights), and you slow down very, very gradually. No sudden deceleration. You don't speed up very, very gradually... instead, you accelerate as normal, because time spent accelerating wastes gas. You maintain a cruising speed without pulling out to overtake if you can. You maintain a rational follow distance because you don't want to slam on the brakes... meaning in a possible twenty car pile-up, you want to be behind a hypermilier.

Why? To what end? I have fun saving money too, but not if the balance of what I have to give up is too high.

As you've noted, you've played the coasting game. And you've driven your car in a spirited manner on the streets. Both are challenges (both are also things you shouldn't do when moving in traffic... which is what you're suggesting in your "less predictable" rant), so what's the big deal? There are people who have fun setting a challenge for themselves and beating it.

-

To this point, I'd like to note that many hypermilers actually match the flow of traffic. Many make it a particular point to "beat the EPA" while going 65 mph, as they know this is the speed their car is rated at.

Ok, so if you spend all day racing cars around and you just want something to convey you home at the lowest cost, be my guest. I will be the first to admit that there comes a point when you're done having fun driving. Especially if you're about to do it again the next day. I'd still choose comfort and time over the money, but that balance is determined by how much your time is worth. I encourage everyone I meet to value their time and enjoyment highly, I think it puts you in a frame of mind to succeed in life. Devaluing your time and enjoyment has effects that permeate many aspects of life.

Commuting is a dull, dreary, dangerous affair. Pointing a car down the highway and matching speeds with everyone else or trying to pick a path between rolling roadblocks is an aggravation. I've driven race cars this way, with tires with a treadlife of zero and cams so extreme I had to keep half-a-foot on the throttle at each stop. It's an utter waste of both the car and your nerves.

I enjoy time on the track or on the occassional empty road. I don't enjoy commuting. Part of my conversion to hypermiling came from the realization that the extra stress of weaving through traffic wasn't really gaining me much time. All of us "rabbits" would end up in the exact same traffic after hopping our way between the "turtles" for half an hour.

So, I'd try to see if I could keep up with the rabbits while driving slower, less aggressively. Then even slower and less aggressively. I started working on strategies of dealing with traffic, finding faster flowing lanes, picking the proper toll gates at giant multi-lane plazas. Using Waze and knowledge of traffic patterns to avoid traffic. My best one over the past two months is where I shaved an hour off my expected travel time during a citywide gridlock by taking backroads and minor arteries. I passed a bunch of friends who'd arrived at the city an hour before I did along the way (literally, they were on an overpass that I drove beside).

Part of saving gas means avoiding idling, mind you. At 0 mph, you get 0 mpg. NOBODY enjoys commuting.

Now if I wanted to go further, and to actually enjoy commuting, while getting my daily dose of speed and adrenaline, while still saving gas, I'd get a motorcycle. Which is arguably the right tool for the job. Not a sedan. Not an SUV. Not a supercar. A bike.

For the meantime, I'm saving gas. I'm having fun. I'm hurting no one and holding no one up*. And that's not a bad thing.

*part of the philosophy includes a caveat about not wasting other people's gas by forcing them to slow down and speed up again... which is why many milers "go with the flow"