04-14-2008, 04:41 AM
"- Coasting when possible (I drive a stick, so it' s possible)"
I tested this after Davester's recent post about coasting in neutral vs in gear. There's a hill coming home from work that I can accelerate up to 30 at the top, hit 40 by the end, and coast all the way home in neutral. Going back and forth between 5th and neutral I can see that being in 5th uses slightly less gas. But, I can't coast even close to all the way home in gear, so I have to give it more gas to get home. It has to be close to a wash. Of course, this is just my particular situation, so others are undoubtedly different.
I also do what I think you guys are calling "surge and coast". I figure out how fast I have to go to get to the next stop sign without gas. Once I know (trial and error), from a stop sign/light I accelerate quickly and coast to the next stop sign/ light. I do the same thing in less familiar places by hitting neutral when I see a red light ahead, etc. I can usually time things pretty well.
With everything it's a lot easier to coast in neutral than in gear, so I'm not going to worry about the small difference.
I get 4-5 mpg better by doing this stuff. And I have a little spirited driving mixed in there, so that's a constant. I don't think it's enough to make a big difference.
When I drove my previous car (a buick regal) one sit at a drive-thru cost me almost a whole mpg per tank. Sitting/idling sucks for mileage. kj.
I tested this after Davester's recent post about coasting in neutral vs in gear. There's a hill coming home from work that I can accelerate up to 30 at the top, hit 40 by the end, and coast all the way home in neutral. Going back and forth between 5th and neutral I can see that being in 5th uses slightly less gas. But, I can't coast even close to all the way home in gear, so I have to give it more gas to get home. It has to be close to a wash. Of course, this is just my particular situation, so others are undoubtedly different.
I also do what I think you guys are calling "surge and coast". I figure out how fast I have to go to get to the next stop sign without gas. Once I know (trial and error), from a stop sign/light I accelerate quickly and coast to the next stop sign/ light. I do the same thing in less familiar places by hitting neutral when I see a red light ahead, etc. I can usually time things pretty well.
With everything it's a lot easier to coast in neutral than in gear, so I'm not going to worry about the small difference.
I get 4-5 mpg better by doing this stuff. And I have a little spirited driving mixed in there, so that's a constant. I don't think it's enough to make a big difference.
When I drove my previous car (a buick regal) one sit at a drive-thru cost me almost a whole mpg per tank. Sitting/idling sucks for mileage. kj.