My car came equipped with all kinds of bells and whistles, some indispensable (who can get through winter without seat warmers!) and others rather silly.
One of the niftier gadgets that I ignored for some time is an instant miles per gallon indicator that can be displayed under the speedometer. A number of cars--especially hybrids (which mine is not)--now come with these. At first, I didn't think much of it, but after gas prices headed back up recently I started paying attention.
Most of my driving is around town, and I was getting a paltry 16-17 mpg unless I went on a long trip. (On the highway, I get a very respectable 27-28 mpg). After I started paying heed to the instant mpg indicator, however, my around town mpg went up to just over 20 mpg, about a 20 percent improvement.
How to squeeze out those additional miles per gallon? It's pretty much what you've always heard: don't slam down the accelerator everytime you start up from a stoplight; don't drive 80 mph (hard to do around town anyway). Most importantly, try to maintain a smooth ride, with gentle acceleration and deceleration. Let the car begin to coast earlier if you see a red light or stop sign ahead; stay far enough behind the car in front of you that you don't need to brake if it slows slightly--all this allows you to coast more, which, as the indicator will tell you, gets you over 50 mpg!
So here's an idea for those idiots in Congress who wanted to give everyone $100 so they could keep guzzling gas: why not instead require car companies (or give them some kind of incentive) to put instant mpg indicators in all vehicles as a means to encourage conservation.
In my case, seeing was believing. And a 20 percent reduction in gasoline consumption (saving most people much more than $100 over a year) is nothing to sneeze at!
1 comment:
What I'd like to see is an after-market instant mileage indicator that can be added to any car.
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