[Vision2020] hypermiling revisited

[Paul Rumelhart]

I've been playing around with hypermiling, which I described in a 
previous post.  I've worked to find a balance between gas mileage and 
the amount of change in driving style I wish to put up with.  The 
results are interesting.

Using my stripped-down version of hypermiling, I gained an extra 5 mpg 
on a trip to St. Maries I took on Saturday.  My car is supposed to get 
30 mpg on the highway, but I was consistently getting 35 mpg driving 
normally.  I drive a 2006 Subaru Legacy with an automatic transmission.  
On my trip on Saturday, I averaged 40 mpg which is a 14% increase.  
Using a price of $3.29 per gallon (which is what Tesoro was last night) 
and extending that mpg out to a whole tank, I either extended my 
effective range by 84.5 miles (from 591.50 to 676.00), reduced the 
effective amount I paid per gallon to $2.88, or saved myself $6.95 I 
would otherwise have paid to go that extra 84.5 miles.  Not bad for one 
tank of gas.

Here is my very simple and easy-to-live-with hypermiling routine I used:

- accelerate slowly, take longer to get up to speed
- use the "sports shifting" feature of my car to control when it shifts 
(like a manual without a clutch)
- allow your speed to fall by 5 mph or so when going up a hill
- use hills whenever possible to help acceleration
- coast to stops (not in neutral) from farther away, in a higher gear if 
possible
- allow your speed to increase to 5mph above the speed limit going down 
hills if you're about to go up another one

That's it.  I was conscious of others behind me - I would accelerate 
faster if I was slowing them down and going under the speed limit.  If 
someone was on my tail while I was going the speed limit, I ignored 
them.  All-in-all, the only difference really was a leisurely drive 
instead of a frenetic one.

Doing this requires some patience, but that's a small price to pay if 
you want to save some gas.

Paul