How I improved my MPG by 30% . . . Bill Rogers

A few months back, I caught part of a radio interview with a Wayne Gerdes. It dealt with the subject of “hypermiling,” a term I never heard before. What really caught my attention is when Mr. Gerdes said the best mileage he ever got was 180 miles to the gallon. WOW. It was with a hybrid and under ideal conditions, but 180 MPG is unreal. He also said he drove from Chicago to New York City on one tank of gas, plus many other achievements.

I jotted down his website at http://www.cleanmpg.com/ and started doing some homework. I won’t repeat here what is on his site, but it's worth your time to surf around there to learn some of his tips. Here’s what I did during July 2008 to help improve my MPG. Would you believe I increased my mileage by 30%? Repeat – 30%. I went from 19.6 MPG to 25.8.

1. Tire Pressure – I checked my tires for the first time in wayyyy tooooo long and discovered all four were under the recommended pressure. So I inflated them to the manufacturers recommended level.

2. Coasting – I was amazed at how easy this is to do. I now discover that I am coasting blocks at a time in city and county travel and miles at a time on the highway and back roads. I just returned from a trip where I drove about 180 miles. I estimated that I coasted over 10 miles during the trip using virtually zero gasoline. The vast majority of experts say to not shift your car into neutral as there is virtually no gas savings. There is also a big question if this could cause damage to your transmission. Just coast by not touching your gas pedal.

3. Keep Moving – If you are sitting in your car waiting for the light to change, you are burning gas and getting zero miles to the gallon. Once you start moving, your MPG increases. So it’s only logical to keep moving and avoid stopping and waiting for lights to change. Mr. Gerdes pointed out on his radio interview to quit looking at the next stop light but to start looking blocks past it for the second and third stop lights.

Adjust your driving so you roll through all the lights as they change and avoid stopping and burning up gas. Right now, I estimate I am driving through 60%-70% of the stop lights in my travels. My goal is to increase this to 70%-80%.

4. Going Down Hill – When you’re going downhill, take your foot off the gas pedal and coast. I was surprised how often I kept my foot on the pedal and continued giving the car gas when I really didn’t have to.

Here’s what happened to me. Before I adjusted my tire pressure, I filled my tank and jotted down the mileage. This was tank #1. When I filled it the second time, I calculated the miles per gallon on the first tank and discovered I got 19.6 MPG. I drive a 2001 Nisson Maxima. I was a bit disappointed as I thought I was getting over 20 MPG. Of course the last time I checked my mileage was about 6 years ago and about the last time I checked my tire pressure.

When I filled my tank for the #2 test, I filled my tires to the recommended air pressure level. My second MPG test was on. I started coasting as much as possible and started paying better attention to the stop lights. When I completed this tank of gas, I checked my mileage again and discovered I got 23.5 MPG on this tank, an increase of almost 20%. WOW.

Now I was ready for my third tank of gas and test #3. While the previous ones were mostly city driving, this tank was for highway driving. I had a trip out of town and drove about 180 miles with most all of this on an interstate highway or local county roads. I estimated I may have coasted more than 10 miles during this trip. About half was on the Interstate and half on county roads. I checked my mileage, filled the tank and calculated my miles per gallon. I was pleasantly surprised to see I averaged 25.8 MPG – which is an increase of over 30% from the MPG when I started this project.

OK guys and gals in credit union world, why don’t you give this a try. Do some homework and visit Mr. Gerdes website at http://www.cleanmpg.com/. Write up a short article on your experience and send it to us to share with our readers. Thanks

You won't have any idea how good you can do . . . unless you try.