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I have two cars. One of which I drive like a non-extreme hypermiler and the other that I drive like a racing driver wannabe. In both cars, I am the same general age.
The grandma thing is a stereotype.
Meaningless. You have a tool and you have a toy. They both happen to be automobiles, but there the relevant similarity ends.
The techniques I use are deliberately chosen NOT to be a hazzard to traffic. I drive 65 on the freeway in the right hand lane. Its no hazzard to anyone because the cops are on you like white on rice if you go even 5 over the limit.
I accelerate slow on side steets and do coast to stop lights, but there's almost never anyone behind me. On major city streets, going 40 in the right lane is a little slower than the flow of traffic, but lots of other people also ride that speed also, so its not unusual. I do tend to coast when I see red lights ahead. No sense speeding up to the lights and then slamming on the breaks. So far, I've checked my MPG on 900 miles driving like this and I'm getting over 30 MPG on a Buick LeSabre, but that is mostly highway miles. What it proves is that if you drive resonably, you don't have to drive a little car to get little car MPG.
Hypermiliing can be dangerous. Overinflating tires increases risk of a blowout.
Mileage gains from inflating tires is not linear. 5 psi under the number posted on your door costs you a few percent.
Inflating to the max listed on the sidewall will improve handling and gain you another few percent,
but going 5 psi over that is just stupid and might not even get the user 1% more mileage.
The car has to press down on the tires and generate rolling friction. Gravity is a law, not just advice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom
... on city streets ... coasting to stop lights, ... is a hostage drama.
Sounds like we have a drama queen on the road.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom
In this case *you've* decided how every one else around you will drive.
No. The red light made that decision. You will be coming to a stop.
It's your choice whether you want to do that at a higher speed than the coaster.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom
Whether you like it or not, how you drive affects everyone else, especially when they can't get around you.
When the light is red. Why do you care?
Once the light is green, I go the speed limit +5. ( I'll accelerate much faster than you will. )
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom
You're making other people crazy, and they will do crazy things and cause accidents.
If they are buzzing around me, they are already crazy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prairieparson
I accelerate slow on side steets and do coast to stop lights, ....
Accelerating fast or slow doesn't make a difference. It's coasting to stop lights that makes the difference.
From a theoretical standpoint, you don't actually use any energy until you hit the brakes and turn kinetic energy into heat.
In reality, you are always losing energy because of friction, but waiting to let off the accelerator when you know you are
going to be waiting at the red light ahead is what is "crazy."
We got a Prius gen-3 last fall, after that I started following the Prius-chat forum. Some of those posters are huge into hypermiling.
A month ago we made a cross-country 4100 round-trip for our eldest son's wedding. We had four large adults along with all luggage for attending a wedding. We averaged 62mpg on the trip.
I don't hypermile per se, but I do certain things my friends constitute as Hypermilling. such as:
1) Using cruise control on the freeways when there's no traffic.
2) Driving no more than 65.
3) Gradually accelerating and braking.
Many of the more aggressive hypermilling techniques are too dangerous, imo.. if you get into an accident, you negate the pennies of savings you gained from saving gas.
My car gets about 20% more MPG than the EPA combined estimate but then again, I live in California so the overall warmer weather might be the reason.
That's pretty much my extent of hypermiling, also, plus removing any unnecessary weight in the car and using A/C with windows closed to reduce wind drag.
I try to maximize MPG by doing sensible things like coasting to stops and accelerating slowly, but I'll never try to do all the thing that hypermilers do.
It's even better with adaptive cruise control. No tapping needed.
Yes, if we had paid for the radar assembly.
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