For noobs: Smart Car mileage limits

[unicycle]

Summary: I think that if a smart car is babied, you can easily average 45 mpg, and if you work hard (P&G, etc), you can maintain an average of 48 mpg.

Hi, gang. Some of the old timers (those grey-hairs with 2008s, like me) have read my posts, so I'm directing this to you new Smart owners (congrats! and welcome!).

I'm a hypermiler. I do what I can to save gas. Mainly I drive as slowly as the highway allows (I don't mean legally; I drive slowly without messing up other drivers). I also P&G (pulse and glide), putting the car in N on the glide. And I turn the car off when I'm approaching a light (never on the highway) and drift forward (in N), hand on the key and ready to turn the car on. I also keep the tires inflated to a few psi above the stated maxima. My techniques are totally unorthodox, but I've got nearly 32,000 miles on the car since May, so I'm fairly certain that I'm driving carefully.

As for fuel, I generally fill up in NJ, where they use a 10% ethanol mix, tho occasionally I pay more for NY gas without ethanol. I haven't noticed an appreciable difference. I always go for the most octane I can, which is 92 or 93, depending on the station.

Type of driving: I figure that I'm h'way 85-90% and quiet roads 9-14%, with an add'l 1% of NYC driving.

Now the #s:
On my two most recent fillups, I hit over 400 miles on each tank, arriving at the station both times with 0.2 gallons (and a 1-gallon gas can in the car!). Today's tank had hit 413 miles before I pulled over. Last week, I hit 425 miles. Each time, my mileage was in the high-40s. Today was 47.6 mpg, and last week I was up to 48.6. My average over 101 fillups is 44.5, and that includes 2 or 3 tanks where I had to race at 75 mph for about 85 miles.

Looking over my most recent fillups, I note that I had two in the low 40s. One involved a rare rush home, and the other came when I took the car in for service (who knows what they do to my mileage while they tune up the car?). Ignoring those, my five most recent gas station visits produced amazing #s.

I hope this helps.

David

[tinysmart]

not bad, my dad hit 53 MPG once, and he's trying to do it again.

[misscatears]

I stay within a 5 mile radius of my home at all times (including work, groceries, and friends' house) unless someone else is driving so I don't think it would make much of a difference to do these things.

I filled up once and it averaged out to 39.5 mpg for the first tank. Does that sound right? It seemed high to me.

[SuperGeek]

39's just a little high for city driving unless you're really coasting a lot. I get 35 average in town with a 4.5 mile commute (measured over several full tanks), and the Scangauge shows MPGs are much lower on my first morning trip due to warmup. Lunch and coming home aren't quite so bad, I guess the engine is more efficient after a 4 hour cooldown than after a 14 hour cooldown. I've gotten 43 MPG once and 47 MPG once in the city (single trips) because the planets aligned just right with the stoplights and there was no traffic, so the identical commute meant I could run a steady 50mph with almost no stopping.

So if you're seeing 39, it's possible, but not easy to accomplish. Most likely is that you've fiilled up a half tank or less and the margin of error's pretty wide on that. But if you put in 8 gallons and measured 39 MPG, congrats.

[misscatears]

Let's see... the car had 8 miles on it when I got it, I drove 200 miles home, then drove around town until it had 275 miles on it. When I filled up, I put 6.958 gallons in. That is all I know

[Bill Marshall]

Originally Posted by unicycle

Summary: I think that if a smart car is babied, you can easily average 45 mpg, and if you work hard (P&G, etc), you can maintain an average of 48 mpg.

Hi, gang. Some of the old timers (those grey-hairs with 2008s, like me) have read my posts, so I'm directing this to you new Smart owners (congrats! and welcome!).

I'm a hypermiler. I do what I can to save gas. Mainly I drive as slowly as the highway allows (I don't mean legally; I drive slowly without messing up other drivers). I also P&G (pulse and glide), putting the car in N on the glide. And I turn the car off when I'm approaching a light (never on the highway) and drift forward (in N), hand on the key and ready to turn the car on. I also keep the tires inflated to a few psi above the stated maxima. My techniques are totally unorthodox, but I've got nearly 32,000 miles on the car since May, so I'm fairly certain that I'm driving carefully.

As for fuel, I generally fill up in NJ, where they use a 10% ethanol mix, tho occasionally I pay more for NY gas without ethanol. I haven't noticed an appreciable difference. I always go for the most octane I can, which is 92 or 93, depending on the station.

Type of driving: I figure that I'm h'way 85-90% and quiet roads 9-14%, with an add'l 1% of NYC driving.

Now the #s:
On my two most recent fillups, I hit over 400 miles on each tank, arriving at the station both times with 0.2 gallons (and a 1-gallon gas can in the car!). Today's tank had hit 413 miles before I pulled over. Last week, I hit 425 miles. Each time, my mileage was in the high-40s. Today was 47.6 mpg, and last week I was up to 48.6. My average over 101 fillups is 44.5, and that includes 2 or 3 tanks where I had to race at 75 mph for about 85 miles.

Looking over my most recent fillups, I note that I had two in the low 40s. One involved a rare rush home, and the other came when I took the car in for service (who knows what they do to my mileage while they tune up the car?). Ignoring those, my five most recent gas station visits produced amazing #s.

I hope this helps.

David

And you call all of this "easily averaging 45 mpg"? I don't see anything "easy" about it . . . but it did give me a chuckle.

BTW, I'm averaging 38-39 mpg, driving conservatively.

[Macaw]

I'm almost at the 43-mpg average on our pure that's with probably 80/20 highway/in-town mix no tricks just easy on the gas. On the few ocassions I've had straight highway 45mpg is was easy just stayed at 65mph. Did have one run 60-65 mph running behind big trucks (at least 100 feet or more) for a tank and hit 50mpg. But also did one tank (well broken in) like I was driving my old porsche and dropped down to 39mpg but that was expected and fun! Drive the car slow and steady and you should get the rated mpg....

[Kermit]

A lot of this is about location too. Weather, road construction material etc. Just like everyone else said though - slow and steady and you should get minimum EPA estimates. Once the car breaks in you may even exceed them.

Now that the weather is warming up down here my mileage is going UP UP UP! I'm loving it! Can't wait to see the next few tanks.

[Suze]

I average 37-38; some highway, some heavy traffic, a bit in town and A VERY big hill (both ways) every day... and I do not drive conservatively. I tried conservative driving techniques, but it wasn't that much fun.

I guess I'd rather have fun getting 38 mpgs then be bored getting 45.


I'll prolly change my tune next year when gas is close to $5/gal.

[unicycle]

Wow, Suze, that is some pink! I love it! And I get what you mean about having more fun by driving fast, but thanks to my audiobooks, I almost don't want my drive to be over.

Bill, what I meant by 'easily' getting 45 mpg is that all you need is slow highway driving. The other 5% comes from the little techniques I mentioned. Keeping your speed down is pretty easy if the conditions allow for it. By the way, I meant to add to my post that if you want to quote just part of a long post, you just quote it and then delete whatever isn't relevant to your point.

MissCatEars, SuperGeek was right about margin of error. It's usually irrelevant to cite the mileage of a single tankful because of margin of error. Maybe one gas station has pumps that shut off too early and another station's shut off a bit later. If you drove identically and measured mileage based on just each tankful, you might see a 10 or 15% difference in apparent mpg. That's why you need a bunch of tanks and have to average it out. Visit fuelly.com if you'd like a site that foes the math for you. It's also available as an iPhone app.

If you get a ScanGauge, you have to calibrate it over several tanks, too. Mine now accurately predicts how much gas I have left and what mileage I'm actually getting.

Happy trails!