Comments on: Gas Crisis?? What Gas Crisis

By: DirtCrashr

DirtCrashr — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:22:08 +0000

My old ‘95 6-cylinder F-150 was toast. In Feb we got a used ‘06 V-8 with only 22k on it - paid cash.
I’m bad at math so I’ve never done the whole MPG thing with any assurance, but now I have electric windows, a second door(s) to keep groceries out of the rain, and a 6-speaker sound system now - and it’s a 4×4 without the big *!!4X4!!* stickers - very discreet. I can still stick the bike in the back.

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:32:11 +0000

For my 1993 (not so grand) Cherokee, w/140K on the odo, I switched up from a 235/70-16 (29in tire) to a 265/75-16 (32in tire). My 60mph rpm went from 2000 to 1700 and I got an increase of 5mpg (18mpg to 23mpg) for my 52 mile per day commute.

Seeing as how the price of the pushwater keeps increasing, I’ll probably be be trying the keeping it at or below 60mph thing in the not too distant future.

By: dave

dave — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:41:51 +0000

can I add:
#5. use cruise control as much as possible.

at least in my Jetta, using cruise control gets me an average of around 29MPG whereas not using brings me closer to 25mpg.

By: Homer

Homer — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:30:48 +0000

I didn’t do quite as well as you, but I boosted my 4WD from 16.5 to 18.5 with a ScanGauge II that plugs into the ODBII connector and reports MPG minute-by-minute. Still, 12% is nothing to sneeze at. A 10-12% across-the-nation MPG improvement would produce a big drop in gas prices as demand declined. For all the whining about $4/gallon I see most people still driving like gas is free.

Like you, I saw a big difference above 60; OD kicks in at 54, so driving 55-57 beats the heck out of 45-50.

Biggest thing that helped: looking deep. Crowd the center line so you can see brake lights 20 cars ahead, coast when you do, accelerate gently when clear, slow flow beats stop and go.