Fuel Efficiency Tests

Okay....so I commute approx. 35 miles each way to work and I drive a mid 90's Honda Civic. The road I travel on includes 3 mtn ridges and so my fuel consumption is rather poor (small engine...automatic...poor hill climbing). I was only getting an average of 26 mpg. So, I decided to run some tests to see if I could improve my fuel efficiency by changing the way I drive.

First test....one week of dropping from 74 mph to 65 mph.
Okay...so I felt like a snail as everyone passed me on the highway. However, the sweet spot for most vehicles is somewhere around 55 mph and so I knew that I should see an improvement by simply dropping my speed. After a week I found that my fuel use was now at 31.5 mpg! That's a 21% increase. My refill was at $4.05 / gallon. So, let's see. If it originally took 1.21 gallons to travel the same distance that it now takes 1 gallon to travel then that means I saved approx. $.85 over that distance. With my tank refill over the tested time being 8.5 gallons, I saved $7.22.

Second test....one week of 65 mph as well as slow acceleration and deceleration and minimizing the use of brakes (brakes cancel out the gas it took to get up to the speed you are slowing down from). Some people get really crazy about these things, but I took a more moderate approach. I just try to be aware of them and take advantage of the ideas as the possibilities arise. The result, 33.5 mpg. The refill was at $4.13 / gallon. So, the jump from 26 mpg to 33.5 mpg is a 29% increase. That is a $1.19 per gallon savings. My refill was a little over 6 gallons so that was approximately $7.14 worth of savings.