Yeah, I'm sure my preference for the AC doesn't help. I don't understand what braking has to do with the gas, though.
It has a lot to do with it. If you're breaking quickly a lot, then you're going faster than you need to be. If you were going slower when you break, you wouldn't break as much. (And if you were going slower, you were using less gas to start with.)
Plus, if you slow down ahead of time, before you're up right behind someone, you may never need to stop at all. It takes a lot more gas to start from a stand still than it does to just ramp up an already moving car. May not seem like much, but it can make a difference if you do it regularly.
The first point where you husband appears uncomfortable: I like to keep the "prescribed" following distance of 2 seconds. Look for a spot on the road; when the car in front of you passes that spot, "one thousand one, one thousand two." Sometimes you can't keep that distance and avoid someone cutting in every quarter mile but if that spot reached you at the end of "two" you're in a good place. What does the distance buy you? A gentler gas pedal.
Engines tend to be more efficient when running at a constant level. When you push the gas, the fuel wants more air but it only gets what it gets so the combustion is less efficient. Pushing hard on the gas pushes this inefficiency. Having more time to slowly react to someone in front of you gives you more efficiency in your burn by not "pushing it" too much to correct for their abrupt speed changes.
Taking off from a stop is sometimes necessary but you can probably be more gentle without annoying folks. Look at how fast other cars take off from a standstill and realize that from a green light, you end up way ahead of the person next to you most of the time when you're in front. You can go slower and not piss people off, but certainly be safe even if your instincts want you "safer" with respect to those behind you but not (apparently) to those in front of you.
I've been the passenger when a driver chooses a half-second following distance (or less!) and I end up with my stomach in my throat for much of the drive. Matching speeds at that distance has to be active gas/coast/gas/coast: not terribly good.
There are those on this board who think the AC demands only a partial load when the thermostat is set to something in the middle. Try it at a "comfortable" level for a while rather than hot/cold/hot/cold. (I'm sensing a real pattern here).
Slow and steady may work better in driving and comfort. Or at least steady.
As far as shifting goes, it depends if you need power or not. If you're accelerating, you might shift into 2nd at 20 mph, 3rd at 30, 4th at 40, and 5th at 50. Accelerating onto a highway, I'll take 3rd all the way to 50 and 4th to 65. When not accelerating hard, you can be 10mph slower, no problem (2nd at 10, 3rd at 20, 4th at 30, 5th at 40). 2nd gear feels like it has the most range; I'll use it from 5 to 35 depending on conditions and needs (coasting versus power).
If you feel the engine "shuddering" at 35 mph, it's because (for reasons that escape me) the transmission felt 5th gear was appropriate as indicated by the blinking up arrow when you're in manual mode at 35. Pure bunk. If I hear the sound of engine "strain" with the thumpity-thumpity attempts to accelerate, I'll switch from D to manual mode and downshift. I would *so* love a transmission that goes for best performance rather than what appear to be some pretty arbitrary shifts at times.
When I drove a friend's Prius for a few days, I tried to be exceedingly gentle on the gas pedal. Some suggest imagining there's an egg between your foot and the pedal that you don't want to break. For the Prius I imagined more of a worm that I didn't want to squish. Gentle, gentle pushing. I got 50mpg for highway travel there pretty readily but still manage a little less than 40 on my Smart. But I'm not dealing with worms on this car.
I like the suggestion of a ball on the passenger seat as long as you don't go diving for it every time it rolls off. I don't think the bell will do much for you outside of "what the heck did you just do?!" reports.
There are those on this board who think the AC demands only a partial load when the thermostat is set to something in the middle. Try it at a "comfortable" level for a while rather than hot/cold/hot/cold. (I'm sensing a real pattern here).
I must say, that is one thing I like about the smart is having a thermostat with actual temperature readings rather than the American blue-to-red dial. It is easier to relate to 70 degrees than mid-range somewhere between the two colors. For that reason, I never put the AC on the coldest setting, and usually keep the fan on "1".
The gentle-driving MPG tricks mesh well with my observations. I've got an instant-read MPG display on my Ford Explorer (5.7 liter V8)... Same route, same traffic, I apply two different driving styles to my 4.5 mile route and get a big difference. Normal "I gotta V8 and I'm gonna use it" gets me 10MPG. Gentle gas and brake like I use with the Smart... I get 13.5MPG. That's a 35% increase in MPG simply by a behavior change. I was spending $300/mo on the Explorer, and that 35% represents $105/mo. To me, that much money's worth taking it easy. If some dude in a Corvette passes you 3 seconds after the light turns green because you took that extra second, he would have passed you later anyway even if you floored it.
The different driving style adds about a second to getting up to speed at a green light, and forces me to leave about a 3-5 second margin in front if I can without disrupting traffic. As a result, I don't use the brakes nearly as much and they'll last 3 times as long. That saves me another hundred or two a year.
The gentle-driving MPG tricks mesh well with my observations. I've got an instant-read MPG display on my Ford Explorer (5.7 liter V8)... Same route, same traffic, I apply two different driving styles to my 4.5 mile route and get a big difference. Normal "I gotta V8 and I'm gonna use it" gets me 10MPG. Gentle gas and brake like I use with the Smart... I get 13.5MPG. That's a 35% increase in MPG simply by a behavior change. I was spending $300/mo on the Explorer, and that 35% represents $105/mo. To me, that much money's worth taking it easy. If some dude in a Corvette passes you 3 seconds after the light turns green because you took that extra second, he would have passed you later anyway even if you floored it.
The different driving style adds about a second to getting up to speed at a green light, and forces me to leave about a 3-5 second margin in front if I can without disrupting traffic. As a result, I don't use the brakes nearly as much and they'll last 3 times as long. That saves me another hundred or two a year.
I totally believe this. Today I had the ... ummm... pleasure (?) of sitting in the backseat of my son's GF's subaru for what felt like Mister Toad's Wild Ride! I couldn't believe the urgency in acceleration, the fast breaking and the speeding of 5-10 miles over the limits on surface streets. All habits I eliminated in my smart months ago. It felt very strange and a bit scary.
And for what?
A few seconds gained (maybe) at the cost of hundreds of $$ extra in gas and earlier replacement of tires and breaks.
The best advice i can offer is to anticipate changes in velocity...
so, let up on the gas when approaching stop signs and stop lights: no need to race to the finish line, so to speak. Also, try taking of smoothly and gently from a complete stop. Don't worry about those behind you, they're going to be pissed off no matter what you do.
On surface streets and freeways, try to "go with the flow"...try to stay off the brake pedal and instead try changing lanes and flowing through traffic.
In very congested stop-and-go traffic, or in slow parking lot/mall/college campus/residential areas where speeds are 30mph or less...just switch to full auto trans...the smartmobile is super efficient at low low speeds.
On the freeway: you'll mostly be in gear 5...sometimes 4 for the hilly sections. In the mountains, gears 3 and 4 seem to do a good job.
Anyway...look down the road and anticipate change. If it's a red light a block away, do you really have to race there just to stop?
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