How To Squeeze More Miles From Your Car

[black gold man]

[TomoHawk]

I let mine idle, in the winter, but only long enough to scrape the ice off the window and defrost things. In the summer, I let it idle for about a half minute, until the engine settles down from starting, then I drive very casual for a mile or so, until the temperature gauge needle starts moving. Boy, do people get mad! They gotta get to work or the kids to school NOW, and here's this old "1990s econobox" holding them back (on a road where the speed limit is 25MPH.) Stopping for stop signs is apparently optional before 11am too, I think.

But otherwise, I usually drive about 2MPH under the speed limit (people hate that too!) and the speed wackos go zooming by, so I usually get the road or highway to myself, until the next pack of zoomers catches you.

A light touch on the pedal (or sssslllooooowww acceleration) does save a measurable amount of gas (I have the logs to prove it) but people who drive new cars, performance cars, 4x4 trucks, SUVs, minivans, Hondas, BMWs, or just about any other kind of vehicle get mad about it (one guy yelled at me in the Z even- "Can't you go any faster!?")

I wonder what they'd say about modern cars with fuel-injected engines.

[Mikes Z car]

I tend to go easy until warmup so as to preserve the engine. I coast down hills in neutral if it is a long run (against the safety recommendation in that video). I actually got pulled over for going too slow once on the East Coast. I was driving a Triumph GT6 and it was overloaded and not handling too well so I was going slow and getting constantly passed on the multilane freeway. An odd thing further because I had just gotten pulled over ten minutes before that pullover but I never knew why for the fist one, I wasn't straying from the limit and had just pulled out of a parking lot where I had spent the night. Out of state sports car?

Edited March 25, 2013 by Mikes Z car

[TomoHawk]

I thought it was interesting that the Z was in that film. I thought it as ironic at first, but it might be to show that even with a sporty car, you can drive in a way that saves some gas. Maybe it was even a subliminal plug to sell the 260Z?

[Fred Sigarto]

I tend to coast a lot too. Driving around the city, I usually shift from 1st to 2nd to 4th, if coming to a light I put it in neutral and coast. Coming home after breakfast I can shift it into neutral and coast for a mile to the next light going down a hill.