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I'm just curious to see what got everybody into hypermiling in the first place. I'll have a list of events that happened in the past few years or so.

List what is the most important to you, or what was the tipping point.

In my case it was Hurricane Katrina (and the associated rise in gas prices).

I saw wayne on tv, and figured I would give it a shot, worst that would happen is i'd be late to work for a month.

I really don't care about prices, or the environment, I just want a high score. Unfortunately it has been made clear to me, that I need a new car and a scan gauge to get the really high scores, so I may go back to mad rabbit mode soon. :D

What got me started is I am very low income. And the price of gas was killing me. I was only able to put in $5 here $15 there and pray I make it to payday. Then I saw a story about hypermiling, I believe Wayne was in it, I don't remember what station or show it was on. I thought "Hey, that sounds easy enough and could save me a little money in the process." And then I forgot what hypermiling was called, I actually did a search for "supermiling" and "ultramiling." So, I went a few more months driving like a mad man (in comparison to now). Then I saw another story (might have been the same one repeated), and looked up CleanMPG the very next day. Been hypermiling ever since (if you include the couple of weeks I was stupidly close-in drafting semis).

Edit: On a side note I noticed that my mom drives the same car as you koreberg. She's not a hypermiler, but still gets about 40 MPG. 42 on the last tank(rough estimates based on what she's told me).

about 4 years ago I noticed that if I kept my foot out of it my Camaro got pretty darn (for a sports car) FE. I started experimenting with the way I drove, and then I found the site and was hooked.

I was already tracking my mileage and after 2 yrs, was not satisfied and figured I'd do something about it. Saw something about hypermiling on some streaming ABC news video and got me interested. Started digging up techniques to improve my FE and found my way to Ecomodder then later here and gassavers.

Always been a bit of a tinkerer and an efficiency rat so hypermiling seemed natural to me.

For me it started with very very nearly getting a major speeding ticket three years ago. I was doing my usual 80-85 in a 55 zone in the middle lane and two laser troopers got the guy to my left and the guy behind me. Once my heart stopped pounding, I thought "this is no way to live" and started using cruise control to slow down.

Then my sister got an Insight, and that led to me reconsidering the Insight and buying one of the last batch made, two years ago. And it led me here. When I bought it, I had no idea that the Insight would be so much fun to drive, and that it would influence my driving of the other car so much.

I do this mainly because it's tremendous fun and also a personal challenge. The political and environmental concerns are important too, but not primary for me.

I have tracked my FE, on and off, for years. The CRX usually takes around a 10-gallon fill, and that made MPG easy to figure. It was also fun to do long division in my head while driving away from the gas station... (Then I started doing the math on my cell phone, but that's another story.)

I had a few theories about FE (some right, some wrong), but didn't do much about trying them out. I heard an interview with Wayne on the radio, and thought that was neat. A year or so later, and fuel prices are going nowhere but up! I started poking around for Hypermiling on the Web, and here I am. I've been able to get more info on FE, and much more info on how to apply the theories!

I picked the "OCD" option in the poll, though it was a combination of that and fuel prices.

-soD

I had always taken an interest in my mpg, but when gas went thru the roof I knew I had to do more to save $$$.

At $2.65 gas I was tired of paying $45 tank fillups for my minivan. So I bought my HX and learned about hypermiling. But I pay for $45 tanks on my HX at $4.39 gas!

Really most of the above started me on the HM journey. but what really got it going for me was going for a ride with Sean Welch. I was just so amazed at what he could do with his skills, and the scan guage. That really got me hooked :) Now it is past the point of no return for me! Even if fuel gets down under a buck a gallon I will still be cruisin' the sane lane :)hyper for life!:D

MT

I think the scribbles in the back of my owner's manual, with the MPG for each tank dating back to 2003, speak for themselves. If only I'd gotten impatient with 25 MPG a little sooner....

I do want to defend those of us (including me) who chose "fun/OCD" in the poll. I'm down with national security and saving the planet too, of course. ;)

Driving 40-45 miles each way to work, and watching gas prices go thru the roof were killing my pocket book. I can't exactly move closer to work, since my wife works in the opposite direction. A flying buddy (radio control, NO I can not take you up in my planes....LOL) told me how he religiously sets his CC at 55MPH to 1) save gas and 2) avoid speeding tickets. I started following suit and saw a nice increase in my MPGs.

Then I heard some guy named Wayne Gerdes (which caught my attention, since I used to work with a Gerdes for many years in the State Police) on WGN radio in Chicago. Googled "Hypermiling", read for a couple weeks, and now here I am prepping for a one-on-one clinic. Alread I have increased my MPGs from ~27 to almost 34. I even have my wife trying a few things.

Now I am saving for a SGii, to try and get my MPG over 40, and maybe even crack 50. Not sure I'll do that with my HHR, but we all gotta have goals, right? :)

This guy can do 58 mpg in an accord! Beat that punk. ...needless to say I've been trying ever since. I beat around the bush a couple times and when I saw these claims I was in doubt. Got hit with another increase in gas prices and screamed in pain as I came back to find the part of my life that was missing.

I don't think I've ever actually gotten in to it (to the extent I am into it, and not just cheap :-)), because I've never really been anything else. I've always liked small, efficient cars, expecially sports cars (and for the earlier poster, the Camaro is NOT a sports car), and I've had periods in my life where I had very little money, so that every mpg counted.

Never really liked wasting stuff or using resources just because I felt like it. Family always bought moderate vehicles for our needs & few wants. Good idea of MPG before.

Than dog came along, and more trips home from college to see him. I could save a tank of gas each round trip by losing 30min, so I did it. When I got an Apt, dog made trips home with me and safety made me keep it to 65mph.

HM just continued that. I don't go slow, I don't P&G much, but the gas saved at red lights and DWL/DWB adds up little by little.

I saw this video on youtube (its a cnn excerpt), looked this site up, and have been doing everything but >20mph fas ever since:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_3AABDisrc

I wanted a Prius since it was the Car with the most computing power at the time. Found Wayne when I researched the Prius Tech and the rest is History.

For me, I'm bi-polar between OCD and ADHD. Video game car all the way baby!

11011011

Oddly enough, it was because I was trying to figure out how to get optimal use from the SG. I still don't know what half of those gauges are telling me :confused:

+$4.00/gallon, new baby (first one), decision to have wife quit job, I'm in sales (economy woes) - pretty much this is all about pinching a penny. I figured I am currently saving $20 per tank. This is only one small thing we are doing now to drastically change our lifestyle and try to retrain how we spend money. I found being frugal can be just like hypermiling... fun and sort of "best score" mentality.

I vote the OCD lever. I've always written down my mileage. I'd try to see how low I could run a tank of gas without running out. Even to the point of bringing a gallon container in the trunk incase I miscalculated. When I came across the Wanye/Hypermiler connection, I was skeptical and tried to disprove. Then I got hooked.

I vote the OCD lever. I've always written down my mileage. I'd try to see how low I could run a tank of gas without running out. Even to the point of bringing a gallon container in the trunk incase I miscalculated. When I came across the Wanye/Hypermiler connection, I was skeptical and tried to disprove. Then I got hooked.

Yes I was definitely skeptical too.

One of the big problems is that EPA ratings have become "the mpg you will get" in people's minds. They were never intended to be that. The intent was just to help people compare vehicles' FE before buying them. I'm not sure how well they do even that, but unfortunately they have had the unintended effect of taking the driver out of the equation, in the public's mind.

I 2004, I had seen gas at about $2 a gallon. I had to buy another vehicle since my son was about to start driving. It was a no brainer after I looked at fueleconomy.gov and used my 35,000 miles yearly driven number and compared the Insight to others.

It was a combination of things for me. I never saw the point in using more than I need in much of anything, I had very little money to spend on fuel and insurance when I started driving, and once I learned how much pollution a vehicle puts out when running I lost all interest in "fast" driving. Watching the price per gallon get over a dollar and keep climbing, combined with Hurricane Hugo, Desert Storm, 9-11, Katrina, etc have done nothing to reduce my determination. All you have to do is look back in the logs to see that I already had 4.5yrs of tank data for the Elantra when I joined this site, and I had the same log structure for the '70 Beetle I learned to drive in as well as the '95 Elantra I owned before the '02.

I discovered the existence of the Honda Insight when I looked up the most fuel efficient vehicle back in '01. I wanted one then but couldn't afford the asking price and wanted to be sure I had a 4 door sedan to start a family with (eventually). I finally bought one last January (after much prodding from my beautiful bride of less than a year -- I was driving her CRAZY looking at the used listings!) and I figure it was the right thing to do when I see the still increasing used prices and the still high price of oil. This situation isn't going to magically get better and this site has helped me become a master of "to the inch" understanding of fuel usage.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!

My first vehicle was a Suburban. I loved that I could haul ALL my college buddies around, but I hated how much gas it used. I tried the performance mods route - made it faster and louder, but it was still thirsty. I sold it and bought the civic.

I heard about Wayne and thought I'd try his stuff. It worked. I took it as a challenge. I'm not saving much - I don't drive that far anyway. It's now a continual personal challenge.

My "outside myself" reason for doing it is to reduce foreign oil imports.

I've been tracking my milage since the 1980's. I had one one of the first driving computers, the Zemco, and I have used some of the hyper miling techniques all of my driving life.

Yes, it's like a video game. I have mileage logs for every gallon I've used in every car I ever owned. I have even tracked the price per gallon. OCD? Maybe!

What really turned me on to hypermiling was Waynes succesful challenge to drive from Chicago to NewYork on one tank. I saw this in the news, joined ths band of merry hypermilers, and increased from a best of 42MPG to 51MPG.

I would like to meet Wayne somtime. He's like a hero to me

Answered Foreign Oil Imports/National Security, but the energy crisis of the 1970's was is what impressed me to start doing something.

It's all about the money for me. A couple of years ago I actually promised myself to build a WVO if gas hit $3 a gallon. Unfortunately, I couldn't scrape together enough money at the time to buy a diesel beater so I started looking into alternative ways to save money. Hypermiling looked like a great idea... $0.75 to pump up my tires at a local gas station and I was hypermiling away. Very happy I did... I got my wife into it also.

I chose "Other."

I had not really driven a really efficient car before. At the time I just got a new Yaris Sedan. Normally I would be busy daydreaming about all the power mods I could put in to a car but I realized I had an econobox--- ie Why would I want to put so much money into a small car?

So at the time I was happy with leaving the car alone. I joined Yarisworld and found a few enthusiasts and started to browse the site. There I found Brian (Bailout) and his post about getting noted by local media for having a high mileage car. That started me on the google journey of "hypermiling." Thus I found Gassavers and then Cleanmpg when Brian suggested it. Around the same time, I realized that I got 45mpgs off the bat (running the dealor's gas calculating after the first fill up).

So I was hooked.

Months later, the ideals of hypermiling (less waste, more efficient) have started to difuse into other parts of my life.

Now the reason is all of the above, mainly costs savings and my distaste for middle east oil.

I had to go with the OCD.

I don’t consider it OCD though. I think it’s just part of taking care of you car. If there is a unexpected change in mileage, there is good chance there is something going on with the car.

I just don’t get it when I ask someone what kind of mileage their getting and they have no idea.

A combination:

1. At first, it was safety. I found myself driving about 90 mph or so (on a section of I-40 outside Knoxville, TN) in the left lane, and there were cars not far in front of me and not far behind. I realized that there would be absolutely no way any of us could avoid a bad wreck if anyone slowed down due to an emergency. :eek: I later started driving in the right lane and keeping back from the pack.

2. I noted that I was under less stress and my trips only took marginally longer when driving more sanely. It also means that one doesn't have to look for the cops all the time. I also realized that there would be less stress on the car, and it would last longer.
=positive reinforcement

3. When gas got in the $2.00 or so range (25k commute yearly :eek:), I began timing lights and using a very light foot. I did not calculate FE then. I only began getting very deliberate about FE when gas went over $3.00

Hmm, I'm quite surprised more people here don't share the long-term goal of green transportation and hypermiling: saving the planet from global ecotastrophe...

I just think of cost savings as a side-effect. Although I can certainly understand the OCD and competitiveness angle...

No more tickets saves money (and gas-money) and the environment, ... also no more running out of gas without the spare can.

"Me."

haha. No wait, let me explain.

My first tank with the Prius was terrible. Now, most people are lazy and would probably just say "oh well, that's what you get". But I remember thinking "41mpg? There's got to be more to the story. Let's do some surfing and....hey, what is this site?"

So, like all of you, the answer is "me". :)

First and foremost I am trying to save as much gas as possible for the environment. I've extended this into all walks of life over the past few years (usually I bike to work, try to avoid "disposable" things, etc.).

Also, I'm a VERY competitive person so there's the competition/video game/personal challenge side (how high I can get that mpg up)

National security isn't as big of a concern for me. Currently we get the minority of oil from the middle east (although I realize that most of the oil resides there).

Currently, I'm waiting for my Prius to be delivered, (only because I can't afford a Tesla :)) In the meantime, I'm trying to be as efficient as I can in my car.

I found cleanmpg.com via an online news article featuring Wayne

I was only able to achieve 41-44 mpg out of this 07 Honda Civic Hybrid. But, I was still pretty happy with that. Then one day, I went back to Honda to buy my wife a new car and the salesman who sold me the hybrid told me about this site. My next goal is to achieve 60 mpg per tank.

I started after I bought a Camry Hybrid and started looking around the net for interesting sites. Found this site and others and have been hooked ever since.

I put other, since it was a combo of a bunch of things

My work had commute doubled in distance, then a few months later when prices hit $3/gal and I pulled the Cougar out of the garage I decided to see what it was capable of. That, and I saw that these oil companies are making record profits and a sense of gaming the system, so there was a matter of principle as well.