Fuel shortages and higher fuel prices have some people worrying about the fuel economy of their vehicles. Do you care about fuel economy?
I care about fuel economy quite a lot. If a vehicle I’m driving is getting less than 20 mpg it better be because it’s towing something or because it’s absolutely massive. It’s the number one reason I dislike my fiancee’s Dodge Dakota so much. It gets 10 mpg on a good day and really has no reason to.
For some, fuel economy can be a game. Hypermilers do everything possible to score higher mpg numbers from catching the draft of semi-tractors to bolting on bits to make their cars more slippery through the air. Others will strip their cars of unnecessary weight, drive painfully slow and lock the transmission into the highest gear possible.
I employ a few hypermiler tricks on long journeys. I’ll keep the transmission in top gear and choose a route that is least likely to give me a heavy headwind.
On the other hand, some people laugh at the idea of fuel economy and just send it. Forget fuel economy in the teens, some people daily drive vehicles that get solid single digits. The owner of a lifted Hummer H2 once told me that they don’t pay attention to fuel economy, they just lighten their wallet by about $100 every time the low fuel level light comes on. Ouch.
Do you care about fuel economy? Do you have a nifty way of improving the fuel economy of a car?