Mileage Champs See the U.S.A. at 67.9 M.P.G.
09-16-09, 05:07 AM
#1
Lexus Champion
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Stuttgart
Posts: 1,651
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Mileage Champs See the U.S.A. at 67.9 M.P.G.
Hello, Och. 
Mileage Champs See the U.S.A. at 67.9 M.P.G.
By JAMES BARRON
THE Volkswagen Jetta TDI rolled gently to a stop at the red light — no squealing brakes, no smoking tires. On the dashboard, the trip computer display read 62 miles per gallon.
For John Taylor, that was not very good.
Days earlier, Mr. Taylor and his wife, Helen, had completed a 48-state drive averaging 67.9 miles a gallon: 9,505 miles in 19 days, filling up only 13 times and spending a total of $371.03 for diesel fuel. That beat the Guinness record of 58.8 miles a gallon they set a year ago on nearly the same route in an almost identical 2009 Jetta TDI.
One difference this time was the tires. The Jetta was fitted with Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires, low-rolling-resistance models that will be standard equipment on the 2011 Chevrolet Volt.
Goodyear, a sponsor of the Taylors’ drive, says the new tire reduces rolling resistance by 27 percent compared with the conventional Assurance tire it replaces, which translates to a 4 percent improvement in highway fuel economy.
In Goodyear’s testing, at least. But the record-setting Taylors, who are Australian, have long made a specialty of going as far as possible on as little fuel as possible, and they hold more than 40 Guinness records for fuel-efficient driving.
They do not care what kind of fuel they are conserving. They have set some records in cars powered by diesel engines, like the Jetta, and some in cars that run on gasoline. They have set records in cars with manual transmissions like the 6-speed Jetta. They have set records in cars with automatics.
They have driven long distances in spartan subcompacts like the Ford Fiesta, and they hold records for fuel-sipping in thirsty luxury cars. Three years ago they drove around the world in a Volkswagen Golf using only 24 tanks of gasoline, averaging about 52.2 miles a gallon.
Still another of their records is for driving a Jaguar with a V-8 engine 680 miles on less than one tank of fuel — about 32 miles a gallon, not quite double the car’s highway fuel economy rating.
All this raised an obvious question: Is it possible to get better-than-average mileage in New York, the world capital of dashboard-pounding, outta-my-way driving?
It took less than an hour to find out. Mr. Taylor did the driving, even though, he said, his wife was better when it came to getting the highest mileage.
From the back seat, Mrs. Taylor said that they had stopped doing mileage demonstration runs for reporters the way they once did: put an egg under the accelerator, drive for a while, then let the reporter try to equal their mileage.
“We never broke the egg,” she said. “The journalists did.” Car companies were not happy about the mess.
So now their demonstrations are egg-free, but their tips and tricks for going easy on the gas are the same. Among them: no jackrabbit starts, no high-speed cruising, no hard-braking stops and no idling at traffic lights.
“Simple behavioral stuff,” Mr. Taylor said, heading north on the West Side Highway from Midtown Manhattan. They have posted a list of 30 tips on their Web site, fuelacademy.com.
Within seconds, Mr. Taylor put several into practice. One was to shift into the highest possible gear as soon as practical. Another was to keep an eye on traffic conditions ahead. He explained another when the Jetta was going about 40 miles an hour in fairly heavy midday traffic and the traffic light half a block away changed to red.
“There’s no point in racing up to a red light,” Mr. Taylor said.
He had set the mileage indicator to give moment-by-moment readings, not an average for the trip. It showed three dashes, as it does while coasting, when the fuel consumption is so low that the numbers are meaningless. He rolled to a gentle stop, using the brakes lightly.
When the light turned green, Mr. Taylor started out gently too. He was the last off the line — the cars in the other lanes sped away and were long gone by the time he reached 45 miles an hour. That was fine with him. “If you’re over-revving,” he said, “you use a third more fuel on the takeoff.”
As the Jetta headed toward the George Washington Bridge, Mr. Taylor held his speed between 40 and 45, even though the speed limit was 50 miles an hour. “We’re sitting 5, 6, 7 miles under the legal limit,” he said.
And getting 74.8 miles a gallon, according to the car’s mileage indicator.
No, he said as the Jetta slowed down again, he was not worried about speedsters from behind. “If they run up our derrière,” he said, “they’re going too fast to begin with.
“And if you’re riding the next guy’s tail, you’re hitting the brakes all the time. The key is patience. You don’t need to hurry. If you got a world-champion racing driver in a Ferrari, guess what? At the next light, you’ll see the Ferrari.”
He turned around in Yonkers, shutting off the engine at a traffic light that was red for nearly a minute. Soon the Jetta was headed back to Manhattan and the mileage indicator showed the three dashes again.
“It’s a 45 zone,” he said. “This is what we did 14 hours a day for 19 days. It’s not rocket science.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/au...o_interstitial
Mileage Champs See the U.S.A. at 67.9 M.P.G.
By JAMES BARRON
THE Volkswagen Jetta TDI rolled gently to a stop at the red light — no squealing brakes, no smoking tires. On the dashboard, the trip computer display read 62 miles per gallon.
For John Taylor, that was not very good.
Days earlier, Mr. Taylor and his wife, Helen, had completed a 48-state drive averaging 67.9 miles a gallon: 9,505 miles in 19 days, filling up only 13 times and spending a total of $371.03 for diesel fuel. That beat the Guinness record of 58.8 miles a gallon they set a year ago on nearly the same route in an almost identical 2009 Jetta TDI.
One difference this time was the tires. The Jetta was fitted with Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires, low-rolling-resistance models that will be standard equipment on the 2011 Chevrolet Volt.
Goodyear, a sponsor of the Taylors’ drive, says the new tire reduces rolling resistance by 27 percent compared with the conventional Assurance tire it replaces, which translates to a 4 percent improvement in highway fuel economy.
In Goodyear’s testing, at least. But the record-setting Taylors, who are Australian, have long made a specialty of going as far as possible on as little fuel as possible, and they hold more than 40 Guinness records for fuel-efficient driving.
They do not care what kind of fuel they are conserving. They have set some records in cars powered by diesel engines, like the Jetta, and some in cars that run on gasoline. They have set records in cars with manual transmissions like the 6-speed Jetta. They have set records in cars with automatics.
They have driven long distances in spartan subcompacts like the Ford Fiesta, and they hold records for fuel-sipping in thirsty luxury cars. Three years ago they drove around the world in a Volkswagen Golf using only 24 tanks of gasoline, averaging about 52.2 miles a gallon.
Still another of their records is for driving a Jaguar with a V-8 engine 680 miles on less than one tank of fuel — about 32 miles a gallon, not quite double the car’s highway fuel economy rating.
All this raised an obvious question: Is it possible to get better-than-average mileage in New York, the world capital of dashboard-pounding, outta-my-way driving?
It took less than an hour to find out. Mr. Taylor did the driving, even though, he said, his wife was better when it came to getting the highest mileage.
From the back seat, Mrs. Taylor said that they had stopped doing mileage demonstration runs for reporters the way they once did: put an egg under the accelerator, drive for a while, then let the reporter try to equal their mileage.
“We never broke the egg,” she said. “The journalists did.” Car companies were not happy about the mess.
So now their demonstrations are egg-free, but their tips and tricks for going easy on the gas are the same. Among them: no jackrabbit starts, no high-speed cruising, no hard-braking stops and no idling at traffic lights.
“Simple behavioral stuff,” Mr. Taylor said, heading north on the West Side Highway from Midtown Manhattan. They have posted a list of 30 tips on their Web site, fuelacademy.com.
Within seconds, Mr. Taylor put several into practice. One was to shift into the highest possible gear as soon as practical. Another was to keep an eye on traffic conditions ahead. He explained another when the Jetta was going about 40 miles an hour in fairly heavy midday traffic and the traffic light half a block away changed to red.
“There’s no point in racing up to a red light,” Mr. Taylor said.
He had set the mileage indicator to give moment-by-moment readings, not an average for the trip. It showed three dashes, as it does while coasting, when the fuel consumption is so low that the numbers are meaningless. He rolled to a gentle stop, using the brakes lightly.
When the light turned green, Mr. Taylor started out gently too. He was the last off the line — the cars in the other lanes sped away and were long gone by the time he reached 45 miles an hour. That was fine with him. “If you’re over-revving,” he said, “you use a third more fuel on the takeoff.”
As the Jetta headed toward the George Washington Bridge, Mr. Taylor held his speed between 40 and 45, even though the speed limit was 50 miles an hour. “We’re sitting 5, 6, 7 miles under the legal limit,” he said.
And getting 74.8 miles a gallon, according to the car’s mileage indicator.
No, he said as the Jetta slowed down again, he was not worried about speedsters from behind. “If they run up our derrière,” he said, “they’re going too fast to begin with.
“And if you’re riding the next guy’s tail, you’re hitting the brakes all the time. The key is patience. You don’t need to hurry. If you got a world-champion racing driver in a Ferrari, guess what? At the next light, you’ll see the Ferrari.”
He turned around in Yonkers, shutting off the engine at a traffic light that was red for nearly a minute. Soon the Jetta was headed back to Manhattan and the mileage indicator showed the three dashes again.
“It’s a 45 zone,” he said. “This is what we did 14 hours a day for 19 days. It’s not rocket science.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/au...o_interstitial
09-16-09, 06:10 AM
#3
Hello to you too Dustin.
While the mileage and the record are impressive, you might want to read into how these people drive. They fall into the category of the so called "hyper-milers", who drive their cars to get maximum mileage. They go to such extremes as shutting their engines off while coasting downhill, take turns as fast as possible to loose less speed, tailgate trucks, and just otherwise endanger and inconvenience everyone else on the road. Sure, their mileage makes them feel all self-righteous and green, but one day their erratic driving style is gonna get someone killed.
While the mileage and the record are impressive, you might want to read into how these people drive. They fall into the category of the so called "hyper-milers", who drive their cars to get maximum mileage. They go to such extremes as shutting their engines off while coasting downhill, take turns as fast as possible to loose less speed, tailgate trucks, and just otherwise endanger and inconvenience everyone else on the road. Sure, their mileage makes them feel all self-righteous and green, but one day their erratic driving style is gonna get someone killed.
09-16-09, 06:31 AM
#4
Pole Position
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Lake Country, WI
Posts: 2,794
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hello to you too Dustin.
While the mileage and the record are impressive, you might want to read into how these people drive. They fall into the category of the so called "hyper-milers", who drive their cars to get maximum mileage. They go to such extremes as shutting their engines off while coasting downhill, take turns as fast as possible to loose less speed, tailgate trucks, and just otherwise endanger and inconvenience everyone else on the road. Sure, their mileage makes them feel all self-righteous and green, but one day their erratic driving style is gonna get someone killed.
While the mileage and the record are impressive, you might want to read into how these people drive. They fall into the category of the so called "hyper-milers", who drive their cars to get maximum mileage. They go to such extremes as shutting their engines off while coasting downhill, take turns as fast as possible to loose less speed, tailgate trucks, and just otherwise endanger and inconvenience everyone else on the road. Sure, their mileage makes them feel all self-righteous and green, but one day their erratic driving style is gonna get someone killed.
09-16-09, 06:48 AM
#6
Lexus Champion
09-16-09, 06:53 AM
#7
Mr. Taylor held his speed between 40 and 45, even though the speed limit was 50 miles an hour. “We’re sitting 5, 6, 7 miles under the legal limit,” he said.
And getting 74.8 miles a gallon, according to the car’s mileage indicator.
No, he said as the Jetta slowed down again, he was not worried about speedsters from behind. “If they run up our derrière,” he said, “they’re going too fast to begin with.
And getting 74.8 miles a gallon, according to the car’s mileage indicator.
No, he said as the Jetta slowed down again, he was not worried about speedsters from behind. “If they run up our derrière,” he said, “they’re going too fast to begin with.
Trending Topics
09-16-09, 07:03 AM
#8
Lexus Test Driver
09-16-09, 07:57 AM
#11
Lexus Champion
09-16-09, 08:27 AM
#12
Lexus Fanatic
The diesel vs. hybrid argument is (seemingly) going to go on forever, Mike. It's certainly not going to be solved here in CAR CHAT. Both systems have their advantages.....and disadvantages.
09-16-09, 08:34 AM
#13
I quite frankly dont even understand why diesels are being directly compared to hybrids. Absolutely different approach. One is a different engine technology, the other one is just a supplement that helps regain some of the energy that is usually wasted in any type of engine. Hybrid technology can be applied to any engine, even electric engine.
09-16-09, 08:36 AM
#14
Lexus Test Driver
I think hypermiling is for idiots. Trying save a few bucks by tailgating a 18 wheeler, going 45 in 65 MPH zone causing traffic and hazard. I was merely trying to prove a point I made early, diesel engines are generally more efficient on the highway while hybrids are more efficient in the city. Now, only if someone come out with a Hybrid diesel at a affortable price, then we would really have one heck of a car.
09-16-09, 08:53 AM
#15
Lexus Fanatic
I quite frankly dont even understand why diesels are being directly compared to hybrids. Absolutely different approach. One is a different engine technology, the other one is just a supplement that helps regain some of the energy that is usually wasted in any type of engine. Hybrid technology can be applied to any engine, even electric engine.
Diesels, however, are compared to hybrids, if simply for no other reason than they often get similiar mileage.