Barb's going to hate me for this, but I've officially joined the ranks of the hypermilers. I couldn't have picked a better time to do it as she's away on business all this week. See, I've been trying to hone my skills on the last few tanks of fuel, but quite honestly, it was driving her batty as a passenger. "Stop driving like a granny" was her common retort, which is only marginally better than the "Make a legal U-Turn" that my GPS shouts when I go off-route and it can't keep up.
Anyway, the inititiation was pretty simple and involved no hazing or car washing. I simply hit up the forums at CleanMPG and registered myself and my car.
Most of the vehicles are small, light and highly efficient like the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius. There aren't too many Hybrid SUVs like we have: we took stock of one of the first Toyota Highlander Hybrids that rolled out of production in 2005. So to be honest, I can't compete with some of these folks that can average 80-plus miles to the gallon for an entire tank of fuel. I've got a few factors against me with the SUV: poor aerodynamics, a 6-cylinder engine, greater weight and the AWD option that kills fuel efficiency in the Pennsylvania winters.
Still, as you can see by the graphic above, my first tank as a hypermiler yielded more than the EPA fuel estimate for my vehicle. And the techniques actually weren't that difficult... I think the hardest part was listening to all of the passengers complain when I was driving under the speed limit. Some of the approaches to fuel efficiency are simple common sense: drive slower and smoothly, maintain your vehicle properly and choose are route with fewer stops. The more advanced techniques? I'm taking them up one-by-one as the situation allows because you still have to drive safely as folks are flying by you on highways. It simply wouldn't be safe to drive 40mph on a 65mph freeway during a peak traffic time.
In any case, I'm allowing for more time for all of my travel these days and to be honest: I'm actually enjoying the ride more. It's less stressful and I'm noticing things on my travels that I somehow missed before. As far as the die-hard hypermilers? When you look at the vehicle logs for all of the registered drivers, you'll see that collectively they've saved over 172,000 gallons of fuel so far. I suspect that's based on how much fuel mileage they see over the baseline EPA estimates. Regardless: you don't need a "hybrid" vehicle to join the ranks. Take a look in the forums and you'll see various cars of all makes and models. You'll also see pleny of passionate drivers that are doing what they can to get the most out of every drop of gas. Take a look: you might learn something that saves you just a few bucks a week. It all adds up and could come in handy when as you save for the next gadget on your wish-list.
Special thanks to Dan Bryant in Houston. Our recent mention of his news spot got me interested in this and James arranged an e-mail intro. Dan even has a Facebook group for the Houston Hypermilers right here if you're interested. While I'm happy with my amateur status, Dan's a professional at this. He participated in a Hypermile Challenge last week and averaged 129 MPG on the 16 mile course!
