I can get 40 mpg out of my Toyota Echo, what about you?

I remember when I was 16 years old, driving around with my friend Tammy. She drove a 1968 Super Beetle that was missing the floor on the passenger side. We thought that we were the coolest people, cruising around West Tulsa (Peoria Avenue anyone?) and the big show - cruising Claremore, Oklahoma. Neither one of us had much money so we were always scrounging change to buy gas. I can remember putting a dollar or two of gas in the car (1980's prices) and driving around all night. Tammy would coast whenever possible and that Beetle didn't even have an air conditioner, just an AM radio. I have since wondered what kind of mileage it got and if it had anything to do with the car, the coating or the rose-colored memories of cruising.

I just read an interesting article in Mother Jones magazine about "hypermilers". It's a group of people that try to wring every last mile out of their gas tanks with astonishing results. Most of these guys drive hybrids, but a pretty good number of them drive regular old Hondas and Toyotas and can get upwards of 80 mpg. Click on the blog title to catch the link to the article.

In the mean time, here is a list of what the hypermilers suggest that we can do to increase our mileage:

• The first step toward saving gas and increasing mpg: Always know your gas mileage after each visit to the gas pump. That way you can keep track of your successful (and not so successful) gas-saving attempts.


• The second step: do you drive aggressively but not know it? Accelerating, speeding and stopping short all use unnecessary fuel. Keeping your speed in the 50 mph range is also good for a few extra miles per gallon.


• The third step: How long are you sitting still at red lights? Hypermilers say that if you are going to be idling for longer than 10 seconds, turn off the car. Modern fuel-injection engines don't use much gas restarting. Idling - 0 mpg.


• The fourth step: Keeping yourself moving in traffic congestion. Don't tail-gate. Leave plenty of coasting room between you and the car ahead of you so you don't have to brake as often. Time yourself to arrive at green lights rather than red ones.


• The fifth step: Slowly accelerate after stops. We all know this is true.


• The sixth step: Your cruise control saves gas (but not by using it they way you might think). Accelerating (my cruise control has the label "resume") with the cruise control is between 1/2 and 1 mile per hour per click on the "accel" button. This is much slower and smoother than you would accelerate on your own.

Maybe some of these tips will help us all lessen our dependency on gas. One thing that needs to also be mentioned is reducing the amount you use your car at all. How many of the little trips that you take per week could have been combined with another trip or eliminated completely? I really think this is the direction that we all should at least take a look at.

Lory out.....