Huh?

:D

On level ground you should see your best fuel economy when you are traveling the slowest speed in top gear you can maintain without excessively lugging the engine. This results in the least wind drag and most distance covered per engine revolution.

If you really want good gas mileage, although NOT a good idea, drafting can make a big difference. But wreck the car once and there goes the gas savings.

it was a response to rchase who did a long thing ranting about slow drivers and ended up (it seemed to me) calling me a moron, indirectly.

my point being that he was point a 'slow' finger at the wrong person (me who has a proper germanic lead foot).

tom w

It was. Until the old wives tales started coming in.

Hmmm. You don't drive a Prius do you? While my critical comments on your "science" was for you the comment about the slow drivers was a broad statement meant for everyone who clogs the highway being cheapskates. For all of "those" people. If gas is so expensive then STAY HOME! :)

Sorry for the delay. Here is the formula:

( wattage of the stereo / 5 ) + 20 = optimum speed in MPH

Mike

if this is an apology, thank you.

i am sorry but i find your way of saying things difficult to understand.

tom w

Down shift cable
 

Friends,
Most older MB's have a downshift/throttle cable to signal the trans. when to shift. If you lenghten the effective length of that cable the trans. stays in the higher gears longer and upshifts sooner at the expense of power.
dpk

Hey Mike, are you sure about the formula? I don't think it is dimensionally correct. You need a fudge factor man!
Works for my car though ...

JL

this is one of the weirdest discussions I've seen in a long time. All this pontificating and formulizing may yield you what?, 5 miles per tank? Do you really want to change your driving habits that much and stress over an extra mpg? Not to mention that your car will be covered in spit if you're the guy driving down the freeway going 40mph holding up traffic just because you want to optimize your fuel economy.

OK, with that said, when I want to optimize my mileage, I don't look too much at the actual speed I'm travelling, I try to minimize my RPM's. For example, when starting from a stop, gather speed gradually rather than punching it. I try to keep my RPM's below 2,800 at all times and it really saves a lot of gas.

But come on, who's really going to drive a $60,000 car down the highway at 55 MPH?

I do try to use common english. It was not really an apology as it was not my intention to insult you in the first place Tom. But I am not really happy that you felt slighted or insulted by my post so please do consider it an apology if that is the case. It is somtimes difficult to challenge someone's ideas and concepts without them feeling like its personal.

I have read many of your posts in the past and you do have insightful and informative things to add to the discussions here.

Thats part of the problem I think. Some of the cars here that are being discussed are $2000 cars and fuel cost is much bigger an issue since people who drive those types of cars generally have tighter budgets.

If your really looking at fuel economy a Mercedes is probably not the car you should be driving anyway as even the diesels were not designed with economy as their primary trait. A lot of the VW diesels and Japanese cars get much better fuel economy and have a much lower operating cost.

The other thing to consider to save fuel costs is to just stay home. Americans have for years not thought about the cost of fuel because its so cheap. Now that fuel prices are high we want our cake and eat it too with the same amount of recreational driving that we had in the past for the same price. We try to maximize our fuel economy so we can still do everything that we did in the past. Perhaps instead of driving around on the weekends visiting friends and going to dinner you could have dinner at home with friends? Instead of runnining to the grocery store for fresh groceries every day you might want to buy in bulk. Everything we do in our lifestyles no matter how innocent sounding has a cost one way or another. Living in the suburbs might save you some money on a house but does cost you in transportation expenses. Most people in the burbs can't exactly walk to the corner market to buy groceries every day.

P.S. To those who might get insulted by the $2000 car comment I have to point out that there are many millonares driving around in $2000 cars. The president of Ikea and one of the richest men in the world drives around in a 1993 Volvo 240 wagon just like mine. Just because your cheap does not mean your poor! Although I don't consider being cheap a good personal quality myself.

P.P.S Something else to look at that affects your fuel prices. When you buy a product at the big box store take a moment and turn it over and look where its made. hmmm China eh? With a huge portion of our imports coming from China the chinese are becoming quite wealthy and are starting to buy cars. Those cars need fuel. So the great deal your getting on the plastic crap your about to buy is not such a great deal anymore when you can barely afford to drive anymore because of fuel costs.

cheap is buying an expensive meal and tipping the server 5 or 10%.

driving a car that gets good fuel mileage and buying it used is thrifty.

i pride myself on being sensible with my money, but i dont want to ever be cheap.

tom w

Let's not forget that mileage is made or broken not on the highway going a steady 55, or 65, or 85... It takes a beating on the acceleration, idling, stop and go, etc that it takes to get to the highway and in stop and go traffic. If you're heavy on the gas and brake, your mpg is going to suffer. So take it easy out there, pick a speed, stay with it and forget about weaving in and out of traffic all over the freeway just to get to point B a minute quicker. Keep your RPMs to a minimum and enjoy the ride

personally, i like to keep my pontificating concise.

tom w