Gas + MPG
It's nice to see the price of gas dropping slightly. A week and a half ago, I picked up gas for $4.49/gallon at Shell. I used my $20 monthly Shell gift card from work, so it only cost me $31.71. This weekend I picked up gas at Shell again - but for $4.39/gallon!
I have also been trying an experiment relating to mpg. In Southern California where I live, the average speed on the highway is around 70-80 mph. I have read a few articles and heard people say that to get the ideal/best gas mileage, you need to drive 60-65 mph. Basically that means I need to stay in the right-hand most lane or else I will cause someone to have a case of serious road rage. My Honda Civic had been averaging around 27 mpg for the past few months, but that was when I was doing all city driving and driving 70+ mph on the highway. Since my commute to work takes me 15 miles each way on I-5, I used that for my experiment for my last 2 tanks of gas:
At 65 mph, 11.4 gal tank @ 355.8 miles driven = 31 mpg
At 60 mph, 11.4 gal tank @ 363.4 miles driven = 32 mpg
More than anything else, I am excited that my mpg has increased by 4-5 mpg! It's nice to know that I am getting the most mileage out of my car, especially with gas prices the way they are. Do you do anything like this? How do you deal with the high price of gas?
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I've been trying some principles of hypermiling. I wrote a post about it last month. The biggest thing is giving myself enough travel time so I can focus on getting the best mileage possible, not getting somewhere on time.
http://payingoffmyfuture.blogspot.com/2008/06/hypermiling.html
Hey Money Maus- have you done any informal studies on the effect of air conditioning versus having your windows open on your MPG? My boyfriend is convinced that not having the A/C on is saving a lot of fuel, which I'm sure it is, but I've also heard the argument that having your windows open creates a drag force that will ultimately decrease your MPG. And since he won't let me turn on the A/C unless we're in stopped traffic, the only alternative is to open the windows.
Any thoughts?
that is so smart! I'm going to have to try that. I just tend to drive really fast so that will be a challenge!
I've been trying to drive at 65 mph on highways. I can't drive at 60...it's just too slow!
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