When I picked up my new Driftwood on September 30 I did some highway driving with rapid on ramp runs etc. Aside from the break in period caveots I am now totally traumatized as I try to recover my lifetime mileage totals that I wreaked during my period of youthful indisgression (aside from the spousal driving impact-see seperate thread). As an oldtimer with 254 miles I have managed to creep up from 43.3 mpg (at 30 miles) to 49.3 today. New owners who suspect they may become mpg junkies should keep that in mind when they pull out of the dealer lot the first time.
Dear me. Didn't you read the owner's manual before driving off the lot? It cautions against "hard braking" in the first 200 miles and "excessive speed" in the first 600 miles.
ahh peking.... u r alreeady showing signs of addiction.... i no how u feel, i am an mileage addict also... at first i told myself that if i could just make 50 mpg, i would be happy...then it was matching the EPA and i would be truly thankful...but that wasnt enough either... now its 56.... 57.... 58....WHEN WILL IT EVER STOP!!?? every day a new challenge....its getting tough, it has consumed my every driving moment!!!
Mr. Duck, When you refuel, the avg MPG starts over, so you have a lifetime full of do-overs. Its all good!
Hi all. New to the site and I must say, what a wealth of information and friendly conversation. So not to get off the topic of this thread, I have a funny if not embarrassing story when it comes to being an MPG junkie. I began my obsession well before I picked up my '05 Prius (just last week). My previous commuter vehicle was a '00 Jetta GLS. I commute up one side of a mountain and down the other on a daily basis My Jetta would average about 28mpg.....until.....I got the bright idea to throw my car into neutral on the downside of the trip. I would get enough momentum to make it over the small uphills on the way down and not touch the gas at all until I arrived at my offramp. Sometimes I would even hit a green light at the end of the offramp and coast almost to my street. I began to average 35mpg! This worked for about a year until......the timing computer on the car began to get confused as to when it should shift and began idling sporadically and shifting at weird times. Not a totally expensive repair, but anything that has to be done at the VW dealership is going to be abnormally pricey. I'm so stoked that I now have a car that handles all this for me. I start on a full week's commute tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing if the downhill commute helps my mileage overall.
Let's see, I picked up Priapus Aug 26th and I'm still learning to be a less aggressive driver. It's a really hard habit to break. I am in stop and go traffic almost my entire 2 hours-per-day commute through residential and light commercial areas. I never see the interstate and rarely have open road to cruise. This last tank was 49.9MPG and I was fighting to get it up to 50. Everytime it would get up, it would come down even faster. My best tank so far is 50.4MPG. The problem is that this car will get up and go. I've never owned a sporty car before. I love accelerating through right turns and hugging the curb, leaving that big truck hugging my @$$ in the dust. But it comes back to haunt me when I notice that I've dropped 0.2MPG in less than 10 seconds. I feel like I'll have to limp around for ten minutes to get it back. But it's interesting to think that we are actually putting forth an effort to conserve gasoline. We've taken something responsible and made it fun. You could have warned me about this five years ago and I'd have laughed at you.
My mileage (now have 385 on the first tank) is going down. The initial 130 mile drive home from the dealer was pretty optimal, 90 of it was 30 - 55 two lane road with few traffic controls, then 40 miles of 69 mph on the interstate. 54.3 mpg. Now just over 48 mpg as I do the 9 mile morning commute (the AM temps are in the 40's), short 1 mile trips to dinner, 3 to 5 miles to the rink, etc. Down to 2 bars on the gauge and without a longer trip in the offing, I don't imagine I'll make 50 mpg on this initial tank. With winter coming on, I might not see one until next spring when it warms up and the engine is broken in.
