^^ well said, plus only spending two digits a month for gas sounds a okay to me!!

plus I like to believe, its not the vehcile that's the guzzlers, its the driver. Give me a SUV and ill show you how to get 30 mpg with it.

 

Hypermiling is a hobby and is competitive for some of us even though nothing is even or fair in anyway between any of us (kinda silly really). I have huge advantages in my commute that most people don't have but some others might have it even better. We all do things that someone might call cheating. For example one of the guys takes an ice chest that uses electrical energy from the house to keep cool. Is that cheating(after all since it is using energy from the house it is like a plug in hybrid)? Is drafting cheating (getting "sucked" along by another vehicle)? Is having a longer commute so there is less warm up penalty cheating?

I wouldn't call having a longer commute cheating but it is an (perhaps unfair) advantage. Losing all the data for the first half the life of the car, is that cheating?

My point is that it really isn't fair for any of us to compare the mileage we get with anyone else cause all our situations are different. If we ever really wanted to have an MPG "race" that was fair we would all need to run the same route at the same time in the same traffic in the same weather with the same car....... anyway you get the point. We are never going to be comparing apples to apples.

In spite of the lack of standards and general lack of fairness it is nice to see what others can get and then see if you can match em or beat em.

In a way I feel that nothing is cheating so long as the info posted is honest and we are all admitting what we do.

 

For me it is money, resources, and a game, but mostly money and a game, like hotgeorgia. I also agree with everything lakedude said in comment #32. That was basically my point. I know others who think what I do is cheating, but we all have our own standards of what is acceptable. There are no rules. So I acknowledged from the beginning that "cheating" was too harsh a word, but I could not think of a more delicate word to make my point that pushing the car seems beyond the pale. But if we disclose our tactics, we can each assess the merits of the performance of the others. Having the information disclosed is the key, but this really isn't serious business anyway, it is a game. So if a person does not disclose their tactics, who is harmed?

 

I used to think 30 mpg was doing good, but now that still seems like guzzling to me.

I have tried to improve the typical 15 mpg and I can't get better than 22mpg out of my Durango. It won't glide. As for whether it is the vehicle or the driver, I think it is both. My Durango is a sled. The difference between 15 mpg and 22 is too small for me to care. Percentage-wise as an improvement, it may be comparable to taking my HCH from 50 mpg to 80 mpg, but the numbers and dollars saved is too small for me to care.

But the HCH and some other hybrids are simply built for good mpg. They glide farther, they have smaller engines, they have the hybrid advantage, so they start with a much higher base mpg with room for much higher improvemnet based on driving tactics (but a similar percentage increase).

That is where the driver comes in. My kids have asked me why I have such a slow car. I told them I don't have a slow car, my car has a slow driver.

When I think about the money I am saving, I know that before my HCH I put all of these miles on my Durango at a horrendous cost. So for me, I compare the 70 mpg in my HCH with the 15 mpg I used to get. When I think about the cost of gas and the number of miles I drive, those savings make my HCH car payment.

 

Thanks for alll your responses. I agree with you all--there is no denying the game factor. I took a short break after my last tank--but I am back at it again. We'll see if I can break 60mpg again.

 

Fantastic, we are all on the same page!

While it is all in good fun I'd be dissapointed if I found out someone was lying, adding uncalculated gas, or photoshopping. Hypermiling is kinda hard, it sucks not using AC in the summer sit would hardly be fair if someone was cruising around in air conditioned luxury and posting false results. I expect my posted info to be believed and some joker posting lies would just muck it up for all of us.

BTW I have absolute faith in the honesty of all the top hypermilers. We all seem to go out of our way to post pics and other data as proof of our accomplishments.

 

dang i was hoping the durango would coast far just because its heavy weight and the earth's friction has a limited amount of stopping power when coasting. Hm I guess I was proven wrong on that one.

Aha well honestly plays a big role when sharing you numbers, even though I have a hard time already trying to convince those who don't believe! Oh wells its not like them guzzling gas is going to affect my mileage anyway, just sometimes when they are right at my tail is when goodddd mileage is going down.

I'm still in confusion to what makes a good car coast, like i've read that accords coasts better than civics what gives?

Forgot to add: now that i thought about it, i think 45 mpg is pretty guzzly too lol. I blame all the top hypermilers that are getting more than 600 mile tanks they have poisoned my mind until I get to experience what they get to experience when they get behind the wheel.

 

lake dude:

thankyou. I know without the regen braking -i wont get as good as you guys get in the hybrids. We dont drive the highlander enough to hypermile in that. So i will give the escort a try. What exactly is a 'Scan gauge'?

cheers