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Hi, I'm pretty new to Hypermiling (well aware of what it is, but never tried until recently) and was wondering how to get the best FE out of my car.

I already spend a good deal of my time in neutral, especially when going downhill or on roads where I won't get rear-ended by aggressive drivers for going too slow, and was wondering what would be most effective to get the most for my money.

Also, how good of an investment would a ScanGauge be?

Normally you can't tell what techniques and methods make an improvement until you've been doing them for an entire 300 mile tank. With a scan gauge, you can tell instantly what makes a difference and what doesn't. So just from a time perspective, you can learn in a day what you'd normally learn in a year with your car if you have a scan gauge.

Pulse and glide definitely yields the best fuel economy. You need to air up your tires to their max sidewall pressure so that you can go the furthest on your glides. The way I drive, say the speed limit is 45mph. I'll speed up to 50 mph, and then put the car in neutral and coast down to 40mph, and then speed back up to 50mph and repeat. Pretty much got me about a 20% improvement in fuel economy over what I was getting before by just driving slower and not using my breaks as much.

Also...do you carry a lot of extra weight in your car? Now, I do keep my back seats and my spare tire in my car because my family does ride in my car from time to time and I work late some nights so I would NOT want to be without a spare tire (there are some who do take out the back seats and the spare). But if you have things like notebooks that someone left in there or some CDs that you don't listen to anymore, take them out! I think like my friend...he's a pilot. One of the things that the captain told me once was that when he's flying cargo planes, EVERYTHING from the item to the bubble wrap to the box affects the fuel required to fly the plane. The heavier the item, or the more you have of an item (ie, bubble wrap), the greater the fuel consumption during the flight. Same thing applies here.

Also...do you carry a lot of extra weight in your car? Now, I do keep my back seats and my spare tire in my car because my family does ride in my car from time to time and I work late some nights so I would NOT want to be without a spare tire (there are some who do take out the back seats and the spare). But if you have things like notebooks that someone left in there or some CDs that you don't listen to anymore, take them out! I think like my friend...he's a pilot. One of the things that the captain told me once was that when he's flying cargo planes, EVERYTHING from the item to the bubble wrap to the box affects the fuel required to fly the plane. The heavier the item, or the more you have of an item (ie, bubble wrap), the greater the fuel consumption during the flight. Same thing applies here.

Lol I don't even think my back seats would come out without a fight.

But the only things I keep in there are the things I use on a daily basis for school.