Week of March 12 to March 18 (Nat’l Avg $2.526)

Today , it's 33.5 deg F , wind W7. 35.1 miles , 60.08 MPG.

 

storm of the week...

 

You poor people are just getting buried. Wow!

 

39.1 - 4.4 mi. to work this morning, -1*F. Overslept a bit with the time change and was running late. Had a couple of traffic issues but pretty sure I wasn't driving my best.
Made up for it on the trip home. I found a way to plug in and it warmed up nicely as well.
65.1 - 5 mi. home, 31*F.

Tank at 46 - 269.6 mi. at about half mark.

 

I'm pretty sure I'm just a wimp and complain too much. I never hear YOU complain. Something like, "I say, it's a bit nippy out." Meanwhile you have frostbite and a finger just fell off.

Glad you found a way to plug in.

 

ROFL. Oh, I think I'd be complaining a lot if we got that much snow all at once. The cold has it's challenges, but I can dress warm and still get around.

 

Today , 27.5 deg F wind NW7. 35.1 miles , 56.73 MPG. Could be worse.

 

42 and change again. I can't seem to put together a whole, good tank even though I am nailing some segments and have gotten the in-town routine down pretty well. It's the freeway stuff that's killing me and the prevailing crosswinds, too. I can't feel the crosswinds pushing me around, so I think I wrongly figured they weren't affecting me as badly as in the Echo, which acted like a spinnaker in any cross wind.

 

It's really tough when you have to drive at excessively fast speeds. You may be able improve some with technique, but wind drag (read fuel consumption) goes up exponentially with speed and you can't change that. You might try some simple mods to try and improve aerodynamics if you can't drive slower.

44.4 - 4.3 to work, 8*F.
71 - 5 mi. home, 33*F.

 

55-60 is my usual range on the freeway. I sometimes let 'er drift to 65 on a favorable slope, and my rock bottom speed is 50. It's got large portions with a 75PSL and is more heavily trafficked than a lot of stretches going 100mi out of a major metro. Maybe I'm not being creative, but I'm not sure what techniques would be useful.

Aero is something I have a hard time grasping. Upper grille block maybe, and some wheel spats for the front?

I have known issues with one tire which won't hold pressure well, and a P0135 code for a bad upstream O2 sensor heater, but the latter shouldn't affect highway mileage much, and in fact my trendline hasn't changed since it showed up last month.

Then again, I have had the car for almost a year and only spent about $200 for fuel, so I'm really fighting myself more than anything else.

 

42.3 - 4.3 mi. to work, 6*F and fog.
66.1 - 5 mi. home, 32*F, 14 mph headwind.

 

I remember you talking about the high speed limit before and assumed you were driving that fast. I'm no expert on highway driving as most of my hypermiling is in town, but I have had some success "Driving with load" and with "P&G" on the highway. There are some guys getting incredible mileage out of those old Civics on the highway so there's got to be a way. Do you have a kill switch? Having easy access to EOC is sure nice if you do P&G. Here are the best links I know of for techniques.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/community/index.php?posts/8387/
http://ecomodder.com/forum/EM-hypermiling-driving-tips-ecodriving.php
Maybe Pale Melanesian has some better suggestions.

Besides those, you could do a front air dam or a belly pan. They are out of sight and usually help some. The aero mods that help the most are the strange looking, highly visible ones that you have to be really committed to before you install like kambacks.

 

Oh no, if I were getting that mileage while driving the prevailing speeds, I'd be celebrating both the actual mileage and the ability of a 20 year old car to do it. I have tried travelling at those speeds and it's a 35mpg performer, basically matched what the gub'mint says.

I don't have a kill switch aside from the key and DFCO. I do have frontage roads I use on the way to Dallas to help me out, but on the way back I haven't really found a good route.

Highway P+G would likely help, but the road is so densely trafficked that I am too sheepish to use it.

Aero is this dark art to me. I'm not unscientific, but I can't grasp any of it enough to have any terribly original ideas. I certainly can't look at the car and call out any areas which need improvement, let alone posit how to improve them.

 

Basjoos (sp?) did it. But not everyone is that brave.

 

I don't know why, I'm getting that déjà vu feeling... Yes, another mid-week one for New England.