More on Hypermiling and Maximizing Your Gas Mileage

This weekend, there were two great articles in the Seattle Times about hypermiling:

• Hypermiler tips for using every drop
• Tricks of the hypermilers

Check them out if you want more information; each article lists several different hypermiling websites if you really want to get into the subject.

One small tip that I had not thought of before was parking nose-out instead of nose-in, because going in reverse when your engine is cold is less fuel-efficient than when it is warmed up. This got my hubby feeling pretty smug because he has been backing into the driveway forEVER (at least the whole time we have been married, going on 21 years).

To Coast is Clear

...or is it? I was about to write a post about how I have improved my gas mileage in the Sienna almost 5 mpg just by not running the air conditioning when I am driving around town, and by coasting in neutral whenever I have a downhill slope or am approaching a red light. I'm very pleased by my results in doing these two things. When I refilled the Sienna yesterday, I was thrilled to figure out that I got just under 20 mpg. I figure there were maybe 50 highway miles out of 300 driven, so that's phenomenal.

I wanted to find an article that I could link to that would illustrate what I would consider the other "way out there" techniques of hypermiling. As luck would have it, I found one right on the front page of msn.com. I was a little disappointed, though, to read that the authors thought that turning off the a/c only helped if you did not roll down the windows and that coasting in neutral was dangerous.

So, take it for what it's worth. Because I don't have to deal with triple-digit heat in the summertime, I am still going to roll the windows down a bit instead of using the a/c, and I am going to coast whenever I can (generally not on busy streets with lots of traffic). An additional 5 mpg is nothing to sneeze at these days.