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Last week, a co-worker went out to lunch in my car. He was busy talking on the way back. Asked him if he realized what I just did? He never noticed the FAS. :D

I'm amazed. My husband notices and comments if I even drop below 60mph on the highway. Doesn’t anyone here (besides me) have friends or family that complains or warns you about your "unsafe" hypermiling habit?

I generally don't fas with the wife and kids in the car.

It does concern the wife.

Hi Tarabell:
Doesn’t anyone here (besides me) have friends or family that complains or warns you about your "unsafe" hypermiling habit?
___Oh boy and how :( My wife begins getting ancy as soon as I start to get the car moving down the drive from a push to the time the key goes off under the first FAS. My first 3 FAS’s arrive as we are coasting down to stop signs! In the MDX, she gets 16 - 18 and I am usually beyond 30. Sometimes I have to pay the price and let her drive “her car” but in the Accord, she takes it or doesn’t come along :)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

The trip was two miles from work thru residential and retail sections. I did one FAS, then asked him if he noticed. Think the trip was 58mpg - not bad for a short trip.

My girlfriend saw me FAS in the Accord a few times, though I generally toned it down with her simply because I didn't want to hear it. With the Prius there isn't really much to it...my right foot does the work and transitions are pretty darned smooth. She does complain a bit that I drive the limit or less on the highway...she's more a 70-75mph driver (down from 90). The only question now is how the Prius will do with the A/C on, as she WILL NOT tolerate the same kind of temperature range that I do. X2 when it comes time to move south of the Mason Dixon.

Ha, my 65 yr old mother who has 8 grandchildren from toddlers to teens thinks I drive like a "little old lady". Did I mention that Mom is only about 5'3" tall?

It's a running joke in my family, but they are all good humored. My big concession is that I let most anyone in my family drive my Prius. My overall goal is to reduce US oil dependence, so the more miles put on my car and the less put on others, the less gas my family as a whole burns.

When I have passengers I usually get worse numbers since I run with AC on and drive WITH breaks, especially on turns. My kids still usually sing out in chorus "Whheeeee" when I turn now, regardless of the amount of break I use.

I did promise my wife that I'd invent means to factor her out of my mileage calculations since she knows it's my current hobby and doesn't want to negatively impact it.

I note it in my posts as an asterisks "*" beside calculations that have had drivers factored out.

11011011

He never noticed the chit eaten grin on your face lol?

My wife used to mildly complain when I would employ my hypermiling techniques. By the time Wayne got done with me in August, she gave up and never says anything anymore.:D

The wife doesn't have the patience to put up with my driving when I "do the gas thing". Even my sons grumble a bit. Last summer I would try to park in the shade at work and refrain from running the AC on the drive home. When my wife asked about the sweat soaked shirts, I told her I was trying to increase gas mileage by not running the AC. I just recovered from a case of kidney stones, brought on, according to her, by dehydration during a spring break trip working on houses damaged by hurricane Katrina. Anyway, she read me the riot act telling me I was going to be back in the hospital. So now she asks if I have been using the AC, as if I was hitting the bars or something?? ;-)

So now she asks if I have been using the AC, as if I was hitting the bars or something?? ;-)

Husband gets on my case too -–it’s obvious when I come home looking wrung out after a hot afternoon drive. “Why didn’t you use the a/c, why do you let your car run your life?” Mostly he’s worried my slow driving is going to piss someone off and they’re going to either ram me or threaten me. Or that I’ll get in an accident from being distracted. I do appreciate that his concern comes from wanting to be protective, not just a killjoy, but I just don’t talk about things I do alone that would drive him nuts like not wearing a shoe or getting off the freeway early to go down a better road in an iffy neighborhood. Trucks....forget the subject. He is correct the effort is not worth the few dollars of gas saved, but can’t grasp it’s not why I do it.

Even my daughter about had a fit when she saw me turn off my ignition once. We were stuck last Xmas in a parking garage going down one of those spiraling exit ramps at 1 mph, and I wanted the free ride down. If she saw I had no shoe on either…. I had to tell her please don’t worry and try to keep an open mind. I had to remind her I’m doing this for her and her future children and she better get with the program herself. And she has the “Free Tibet” and “Keep Tahoe Blue” signs on her dorm walls. Huh.

The wife doesn't have the patience to put up with my driving when I "do the gas thing".
+1

I'll never forget the first time my wife was in the car with me after I started hypermiling. We were on our way to meet a friend of hers so I was in "new" territory and didn't know the traffic light patterns. I ended up getting caught at one, and just from the intersection design I knew it was going to be a 3-minute light. I cursed under my breath and cut the ignition to wait it out.

My wife looks at me and asks, "Did you just turn the car off?!". That started one of those "leaving the other person curled up in a ball" conversations because while I'd been researching the hypermiling ideology for weeks and practicing it in the new car for a week or two she'd never been interested enough to get into it with me. By her own design this was the first time she'd ever been exposed to the reality of hypermiling.

She's fine with my hypermiling now and actually enjoys the safer speeds (I do the speed limit now instead of the limit +25%). I don't have her on-board enough yet to get her hypermiling, too, but I have hope. In the meantime I just cringe when I hear, "I'm taking your car to the grocery store.", because although I rationally know it's just a 6-mile round trip my pucker factor goes up because it might mess up a perfectly good tank by .001 MPG.


And she has the “Free Tibet” and “Keep Tahoe Blue” signs on her dorm walls. Huh.
I hear you! This is part of the dichotomy in America and other parts of the world that we need to work on at an individual level. It's like what I read in Time magazine's "Going Green - How Business Saw the Light" article (Jan 2007, Bryan Walsh, Tokyo):

Consumers remain depressingly ignorant about the environmental impact of what they do. They find no irony in getting into their SUVs to drive a few miles and buy recycled toilet paper.

Hi BailOut:

___Great quotes posted and I loved your description “I rationally know it's just a 6-mile round trip my pucker factor goes up because it might mess up a perfectly good tank by .001 MPG.”. I know my wife will take more then just .001 mpg from my tank but sometimes you just got to do what you got to do. I try to look at the bigger picture and say should she take the MDX to the store and back at 10 - 12 or the Accord at 16 - 20? Fortunately she stops on her way from work so she doesn’t need to borrow the Accord that often ;) I wish she would drive the Ranger for that trip in full hypermiling mode as 40 + is almost a gimme with its stick … She refuses to drive a stick :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

My wife prefers I not put it in neutral going downhill because she thinks that somehow it's unsafe - as if I might need to accelerate rapidly for some reason. That's what the shift lever is for.

We went out to lunch again and coasted twice with the engine shut off manually. :D

He did not notice, but the focal point was when he unsuspectingly ate a pepper and had me wondering if I was going to have to rush him to the ICU. :eek: :D

We joked that this spice could be added to "ethanol premium". :D

Well, I did a little more FAS and my co-worker finally started to notice it on the 3rd lunch! :D

It was a mild version of it.

He noticed when on the way back when I told him about a phone interview for a possible article on hypermiling (more on that as it develops).

Hi everyone, I just to make sure I understand. You do FAS because the car is not ready to do AS automatically, when the engin is cold mainly ?

thanks,

Pierre

Hi everyone, I just to make sure I understand. You do FAS because the car is not ready to do AS automatically, when the engin is cold mainly ?

thanks,

Pierre

Pierre,

Since the resturant was just over two miles, part of the reason was the engine was not yet warm enough for autostop to work.

After the engine is warm enough for autostop to engage, it waits until speed is very slow (5mph/7kph?) to engage. I cut the ignition to greatly increase the distance coasting with the engine off.

Finally, I wanted to prove a point concerning the flamers on various forums responding to the Mother Jones hypermiling article. Their characture of a hypermiler being like an unsteady farm tractor was something I wished to explode. That my co-worker did not comment on my driving until the late part of the third lunch invalidates the flamer's comments as far as I'm concerned.

Hi Pierre:

___I will add that a FAS improves FE mightily over and above what Honda designed into their hybrids. An Insight can AS at 19 mph and below. The HCH-I’s and II’s plus the AH at much lower speeds. Neither of these designs criteria is good enough for minimum fuel consumption … If you are coming into a stop, you should not be relying on regen and fuel cut for the fuel savings as that is not the most efficient mode of operation.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Well, OK, with my 2 months of experience, I have started Fas last week and only when the engin is cold. When the engin is hot, for the moment, I usually plan my appoach: make a final pulse and glide a zero fuel consumtion, than pass from the glide to the AS without the engin restart. For the moment, Fas for me is a question of circumstance and judgment.

Pierre

Hi Pierre:

___Because you are already questioning the use FAS’ as well as the HCH-II’s built in EV-Glide modes, you will be a good study for improving upon your HCH-II’s current capabilities … The built in tools as well as the forced techniques both have their place but for an all out glide to a slower target with the Glide not being hindered in any way, nothing beats a FAS ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

When I was taking a group of friends on a trip, some of the people in the back asked at one point about having a stick shift, with all my frequent changes I made.

I explained about the differences between N, D, and L, and about using each.

My dad says I actually shift more than someone with a stick.

When I was taking a group of friends on a trip, some of the people in the back asked at one point about having a stick shift, with all my frequent changes I made.

I explained about the differences between N, D, and L, and about using each.

My dad says I actually shift more than someone with a stick.

I'm going to need someone to explain that the next time I drive a Prius, or another HSD hybrid.

Hi Chuck:

___We can go for a ton of rides with the best of the best when HF2007 arrives. Then you will see the differences up close and personal.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Other than getting a better feel for other hybrids, I wonder how Eric gets 90mpg to work, while I'm around 75mpg? Speed is probably part of the answer, but there could be less obvious things at work.

Hi Chuck:

___The Insight can do 100 at 50 but you have to take advantage of everything else around you. I think you are a little to heavy on the pedal at times and one ill-placed accel can wipe out a 100 mpg segment “RIGHT NOW”! Just one poor timed accel can trash a 101 down to a 99. Two poorly time accels can take a 90 to 88 and so on depending on what your commute is like. Eric probably has less traffic to deal with but you must pull back and think of every drop as precious before you even turn the key for the really big numbers. Eric should be in the low 100’s before to long and I hope you will see the same if you can find that alternate non-80 mph Interstate or State route you are currently stuck driving :( And like I tell everybody, RR, RR, RR, and RR some more.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Wayne, you are spot on about the accelerations.

I will describe my commute in more detail in the future, but this is the thumbnail:

Two miles of residentail - three lights
8 miles cruising on interstate
Mixmaster with 50ft rise
11 miles cruising on interstate, 3 miles of gentle climb
miles to High-Five with 75ft rise :eek:
Two miles main roads to workJust a guess - I need to "man up" to do 50mph, then when necessary, build up to 60mph by the time I get to the mixmasters and hills. All with lean burn of course.

I did a NICE-ON down a 4 storey carpark last week. My wife was holding onto the jesus handles as we bumped and turned our way down. I must admit it was the quickest i ever got down it and was quite dizzy at the exit barrier.

Wow, nice wife to put up with that! She is a keeper.

Wow, nice wife to put up with that! She is a keeper.

I think Tom is right.

I think I have a keeper to.:) Today on the way home from picking up my wife at work, I asked her if she wanted to go home first or go with me to the bank. The temp was 83F and of course the A/C wasn't on and even though it was only a 7 mile trip, it takes nearly 45 minutes for the round trip. Her answer: "Doesn't matter to me. I don't have anything I have to rush home to." Now is that love or what?:Banane41::love: