Hypermiling to Improve Gas Mileage

The average price of a gallon gas has shot up another 17 cents over the last two weeks. It's now $3.79 a gallon.One way to get better gas mileage is "hypermiling," the technique of driving slower, gliding down hills, and avoiding the gas pedal. Some tests have shown it can greatly increase your gas mileage.

By: | News Channel 7
Published: May 19, 2008

The average price of a gallon gas has shot up another 17 cents over the last two weeks. It's now $3.79 a gallon.

One way to get better gas mileage is "hypermiling," the technique of driving slower, gliding down hills, and avoiding the gas pedal. Some tests have shown it can greatly increase your gas mileage.

But would you really consider driving slower? How much longer would it take you to get to work? We hit the road to find out.

Wayne Gerdes has found hypermiling greatly improves his gas mileage. Said Gerdes, "The average driver in this is paying $3.89 a gallon to travel 25 miles. I'm paying $2.00, maybe $2.10 to travel the same 25 miles."

But is driving slower realistic? Or will you be run off the road?

To find out, we drove from WSPA TV in Spartanburg to Roper Mountain Road in Greenville. We maintained our speed at the speed of traffic, which was about 70 miles per hour. The drive took about 21 and a half minutes.

Then we hypermiled, setting cruise control at the speed limit, 60 miles per hour. It felt a lot slower, but also felt a little safer. Cars stacked up behind us, but they usually just changed lanes and passed us.

Then we lowered our speed to 50 miles per hour. Even more cars stacked up behind us. Again drivers just changed lanes and none of them made any angry gestures at us. This time, the trip took 27 and a half minutes, only about six minutes longer.

Another hypermiling technique Gerdes suggests is to avoid idling by turning off your engine at long stop lights.

We asked ASE Certified Master Technician Gary Reynolds at Kirkland Automotive how that affects a car. Reynolds said restarting your car is hard on the engine and can actually use more gas. Said Reynolds, "You're actually going to use more fuel restarting a vehicle. It's like turning a light on. Once its up and running, it uses very little energy to keep it going. Once you shut it off and restart a light, it's a big boost of energy to restart it and keep it going."

But our test did reveal that driving at the speed limit will take you only a few extra minutes to arrive at your destination and could add up to a lot more miles per gallon.

You can read more about hypermiling and ways to improve your mileage at www.cleanmpg.com.