Real-World Anecdote: How You Drive is Very Important for Fuel Economy
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 09.15.08
No, It's Not Always the Car's Fault
Trikkonceptz, a poster on the EcoModder forums, has a nice anecdote about driving behavior and fuel economy (as his forum-signature says: "The biggest FE mod you can make is to adjust the nut behind the wheel").
He works at a car dealership and is really into hypermiling (he modified the front end of his vehicle to make it more aerodynamic). Some one day a customer came in for the third time complaining that his Sport Trac truck was getting 6.9 MPG and that there must be something wrong with it (it's rated at 13 MPG city, 20 MPG highway for a 2WD)...
Improving Fuel Economy 101
After looking and not finding anything mechanical wrong with the vehicle, Trikkonceptz decided to have a closer look and do an educational drive with the customer.
First thing I noticed was that his tires were flat, then I asked if I could get better results with him in the truck would he agree that the problem was with the way he drove and not the truck. He agreed, claiming he was a safe driver. I advised that a safe driver and one conscious of [fuel economy] are two different animals.
After inflating the tires, they went for a 20 minutes drive.
The route covered 10 miles city driving and 10 miles highway driving. All I did was obey the posted Speed limits and coast to a stop in gear, A/c on and everything.My results; 17.7 city 23.9 hwy @ 65mph. He then cried that I drove like a grandma, to which I replied, "If you still think you have a leg to stand on with a lawsuit against anyone about this, remember this drive and remember that I was driving the speed limit."
So apparently "Safe Driver" to him meant as fast as possible without getting caught for all these years.
Well done. These kinds of basic driving tips should be part of all drivers' education before getting a license. It won't stick with everyone, but it will be better than nothing. Many people would love to save money on gas, but they don't realize how big a difference driving style makes.
Technologies like Nissan's ECO Pedal can also help.
Via EcoModder Forums
Fuel Economy
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Hypermiling Becoming More Popular as Gas Prices Rise
Hypermiling Couple Gets Two Entries in Guiness World Records Book
6.9 MPG? damn.
6.9 is bad, but at least he knew about it. I'm sure lots of people are driving around getting under 10 mpg without ever realizing it.
A nice anecdote, but I would guess proper tire inflation made a huge difference.
I do wonder how bad most drivers are. People are still complaining that cars don't get the advertised mileage even with the revised EPA estimates. I have an 8 year old Toyota Echo and regularly get well above the estimated mpg without doing anything special. In a rather old car.
The only thing I've noticed is most drivers I've been in the car with don't really get how to drive a constant speed; they stomp on the gas and then let go, stomp on it again, let go. That's no way to maintain speed. It makes me carsick and kills the gas mileage. I've just never had any problem keeping a constant amount of pressure on the accelerator.
It is one of the simple truths that you have just demonstrated. The facts are there. I feel very sorry for the vehicle owner that demonstrates ignorance squared. It is part of the entire fuel based community. The company's do not make fuel efficient cars. They advertise heavily on their worst performance cars. They want money from the government because their business has tanked, and they think the oil companies are their friends.
How do you cure stupidity?
A lot of it really is the driver. If people obeyed posted speed limits, kept their tires inflated, and maintained their cars better, we could save millions of barrels of oil a year with the cars we have now! As much as I like hybrids, it's frustrating to know that for every efficient car out there, there are four drivers who will get terrible mileage no matter what they drive because of their own habits behind the wheel.
Bird said:
"How do you cure stupidity?"
Well, as anyone who has ever worked in customer service knows, if stupidity could be cured, it would have been done years ago. There are significant cost savings and financial incentive to do so for most businesses.
However, there is also significant financial incentive to take advantage of stupidity. Many business plans rely on it.
6.9 mpg... fully loaded buses get better than that.
I have to say that many driver's education programs are basically a joke. A LOT needs to be done to improve them before we start asking them to teach people about fuel economy. I am from Long Island, NY (driving age 18, 17 if you take driver's ed through your high school). I got my license at 17. Luckily, I had parents willing to teach me how to drive themselves.
Most people in my driver's ed program had never driven before that first day in the car. The whole course was only about 16 hours of classroom instruction and 16 hours in the car with 3 other students, so you drove just a few hours. The time in the car was spent almost entirely on how to parallel park and make a 3-point turn. The teacher mostly just reminded people to signal and look, which is all the people who administer the road test actually look for. Classroom time was spent watching videos designed to scare you into not driving while intoxicated, playing loud music, and whatnot. You never saw a main road, let alone a highway. Shifting lanes isn't even part of the road test; you're not legally required to know how to do it.
Many people I've met in college don't know even basic right of way rules, let alone the less common ones like how to deal with traffic circles and blinking lights. Neither they nor any of my high school friends ever even read the booklet they give you when you apply for a learner's permit (it is about the size and complexity of a video game manual and contains all the important driving laws).
cool story. did it really happen?
i dont know why people are complaining my civic epa reating is 40 city 45 highway. all i drive is city and i commonly get 47 mpg. If your getting less than the epa rating chances are the problem is you not the car.
A few years ago they changed the EPA testing protocol to higher speeds and more aggressive driving because it didn't match the way people really drive. I though that the discrepancy was an indication that we needed to change the way we drive, not an indication that we needed to change the testing protocol.
Note, that 'today's' estimated annual fuel cost is now approx $2856, an increase of $817 from when this MPG sticker was made sometime in late 2007 I presume.