39.6 miles per gallon

[iluvstrats]

I took my first semi long drive (2.5 hour drive from Atlanta to Lake Oconee) in my sport last night. One other adult in the car beside myself. All freeway and kept it at 60 on cruise control and coasted down any hills. Kept my tach under 3000.

39.6 miles per gallon! Has anybody else had gotten this kind of mileage or beat it?

I don't plan on always driving like this but I just wanted to see what was possible.

 

[micronesia]

I took my first semi long drive (2.5 hour drive from Atlanta to Lake Oconee) in my sport last night. One other adult in the car beside myself. All freeway and kept it at 60 on cruise control and coasted down any hills. Kept my tach under 3000.

39.6 miles per gallon! Has anybody else had gotten this kind of mileage or beat it?

I don't plan on always driving like this but I just wanted to see what was possible.

I'm guessing there's a large error in your measurement. Either you didn't reset the trip odometer, or you didn't full up your gas tank exactly the same, or the car's device for measuring fuel economy was erroneous for one reason or another. That's just too good.

 

[phototk]

I would recheck that - 39.6 is very unlikely considering the drag coeficient, weight, torque curve, and gearing of the 3. A sustained 45mph might net that figure but I would have to see it. Coasting down hills doesn't make much of a difference since coasting can't save nearly what was used to climb the hill in the first place. Check it again.
The larger question is how can you drive for 2.5 hours at 60 and not either fall asleep or go stark raving mad?

 

[FrequentFlyer]

Is this reading off the mpg display on the dash? If so, it's not accurate. At 60mph, you'd probably get around 32-34mpg real world. I got about 30mpg doing 70.

 

[iluvstrats]

I guarantee this is accurate. Trip meter was reset. Gas is always filled the same way. Mileage calculated by dividing number of miles driven by number of gallon used to fill tank.

This was verified by the person driving with me.

Listen, I'm just as amazed by you but I truly got this mileage.

 

[Jasnall]

I drive 60 on the freeway...in my 94 f150 (yawn)

nice work though

 

[robin2660]

I took my first semi long drive (2.5 hour drive from Atlanta to Lake Oconee) in my sport last night. One other adult in the car beside myself. All freeway and kept it at 60 on cruise control and coasted down any hills. Kept my tach under 3000.

39.6 miles per gallon! Has anybody else had gotten this kind of mileage or beat it?

I don't plan on always driving like this but I just wanted to see what was possible.

What does coasting mean to you, throttle steady and speed up, or lift throttle to maintain constant speed? That is moot anyway since you were on CC. Your car would coast for you. So, did you put the car in neutral, or just lift off the gas/release CC?

Perhaps a consistent 20mph tailwind would help produce those numbers. No one else has been able to get that close to 40mpg.

 

[dandydaniel]

I'm sniffing B.S. =/ 40mpg?

 

[Hyun]

ms3 > Prius
ROFL

 

[techspeak]

with the right method, entirely possible.

below ~3000rpm cruising load, the DI system operates in a super efficient mode where it injects the fuel late in the compression stroke instead of on the intake stroke like med-high load. In that mode, it gets better efficiency than the port injection NA 2.3L

 

[iluvstrats]

What does coasting mean to you, throttle steady and speed up, or lift throttle to maintain constant speed? That is moot anyway since you were on CC. Your car would coast for you. So, did you put the car in neutral, or just lift off the gas/release CC?

Perhaps a consistent 20mph tailwind would help produce those numbers. No one else has been able to get that close to 40mpg.

I put the car in neutral when I'm coasting.

 

[ottawaP5]

Are you calculating this by using imperial or US gallons?

 

[micronesia]

How many gallons did you fill, and how many miles did you go?

 

[happy and angry]

I put the car in neutral when I'm coasting.

Be smart about when and how you do that. In gear and off throttle, the injectors shut off entirely, and you use zero fuel. In neutral and off throttle, your motor keeps turning by running on idle fuel levels.

If you're coasting for long distances and trying to carry speed with you, it's probably better to go into neutral. If you're just coasting up to lights or down hills sometimes in traffic or down off ramps or what have you, you'll be more fuel efficient by staying in gear (surprisingly).

 

[pointysticks]

nice! you are officially a "hypermiler"! those guys are crazy, and get crazy mileage from a gallon of fuel.

i believe him. coasting alot saves fuel

 

[hilmar2k]

I believe that with hypermiling, you are actually supposed to coast uphill, and accelerate downhill. Drives people behind you nuts.

 

[J-Villa]

yeah they did a whole segment on the early show about it.

They took 2 prius's and 1 did the hypermilage and the other drove normal. the hyper milage prius got 70 something MPG and the other got ~50

It's accually pretty cool b/c you never coast high in the RPM range of the vehical. It works. I try to do it around town w/ my 3 cruising @ 50-60mph on the long 2 lane roads.

But if you're behind a "hyper-miler" then prepared for extream road rage. B/c the #1 rule for them is never go over the speed limit.

 

[hectik1]

I've gotten 32 MPG using the cruise at 65-70MPH.

 

[udontknowjack]

someone will shoot me down if i drive 60 mph on freeway

 

[Boosted333]

I don't think its impossible, but its tough. I get real good highway MPG if you are doing 55~60 mph and using cruise control. I also throw it in neutral on the downhills... I got 30 mpg with a 50/50 mix of city/highway, 400 miles to the tank. So if it was all highway, I can see it happening.