Sometimes you don't realize the things you do to save fuel.... Often it takes someone else to point it out.

Thats what happened when Xcel stopped by for a visit last week. Via GH and private messaging, I gave him all of my tips so he would be ready for a test drive when he got here. He did quite well for several segments, until it was time to switch drivers. He pulled into a gas station, put it in park, and powered down... Noooooooooo I exclaimed!

The last time I had a reaction like that, my wife had accidently reset my MFD while wiping the pesky dust off of it. She told me that I looked like someone just shot my dog.

Anyway, I realized that I forgot to tell Wayne one of the basic rules that I have, don't power down unless you don't plan on powering back up again for awhile. I use 15 minutes as a guide. This is because for whatever reason, you take a substantial MPG hit while powering up, even if the ICE is nice and toasty. It seems that regardless of the ICE temp, some program automatically kicks in which runs the air/fuel mixture very rich for 30-60 sec. After that everything is back to normal, except that you could see 0.1 to 2 MPG shaved off of your average, depending on how far you are into the tank.

So when I am out running errands, I just keep her powered up as I bounce from Walmart to Pepboys to Home Depot, etc.... When I walk away, the car just beeps at me for awhile. When I get back in the car, the yellow light shaped like a key goes off and I proceed to the next stop.

It is my assumption that without the key near, no one can drive off with it, although I haven't actually checked. I live in a low crime area so I'm not too concerned about anyone stealing it, especially when it is parked in my garage. In my particular case, this works well for me. I would rather trade 1 or 2 bars on the battery icon for 1 to 2 MPG on the MFD.

I'm not encouraging anyone to actually do this. I'm just telling you what I do. Currently I have 896 miles on this tank and will be filling up on the way to work at just over 900 miles. I will also be trying out a radical new tank filling technique which will hopefully increase the capacity of the bladder/tank.

It's a Wonderful Day for Science!