It’s not easy to save gas driving in crowded urban streets. Nonetheless, city drivers can increase their mileage substantially above EPA estimates by changing their driving habits in modest ways. None of the following tips will do a miracle in itself or on every trip, but collectively you'll notice a large difference.
I’ve restricted myself to what I feel can be done safely, with courtesy to other drivers, and without being too much of a pain to implement.
Let’s look in turn at: 1) making changes to your car, 2) choosing better routes, 3) driving to save gas, and 4) increasing coasting.
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5 comments:
Had an inspiring coast today, three miles down an advertised 6.5% grade. The brakes needed a couple of taps to keep the speed at 60. The Scangauge read mostly from 290 to 305 mpg. What a hoot!
Mark
As strange as it may appear to someone living in a warmer climate, it still pays to use an engine block heater every morning, even in summer.
My cars computer shows as low as 4.5 MPG when first moving out of my garage and for the first couple of hundred yards.
When plugged in for about 30 minutes (on a timer) I can start with anywhere from 20 to 30 MPG showing on the computer (the car is a 2007 Sentra S).
On my 40 mile commute in can make a difference of about 3 MPG overall.
Using this and other fuel saving techniques I achieved 42.5 MPG for the commute this morning (50% city, 50% highway) in a car rated 30 MPG city, 36 MPG highway.
I have achived as much as 53 MPG on the highway (not exceeding 60 MPH).
As soon as the engine is really broken in that will probably be even better!
Thanks for all the good tips!
Thanks for adding that tip about the engine block heater, which makes perfect sense for cold climates. I live in Tucson so am thinking more of how to avoid wasting gas when it's 115F (like today).
When you coast, how do you retain control of the car? You don't, because you might need to quickly accelerate. I think coasting is very dangerous and not worth the risk.
Anonymous, in a stick-shift you retain full "control" of your car in neutral. Steering and brakes work fine, and you are but a shift away from gear. You could even coast with your foot on the clutch and the stick in gear if you wanted to. I find braking provides me more quick emergency "outs" than the need to accelerate. Accelerating is too slow to get me out of many jams compared to instantaneous braking and steering. Also, I recommend coasting at the speed of traffic so you're not running problems.
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