The New Cool Way To Drive
Instead of driving fast, driving enthusiasts are turning to another “cool” method of driving. No, not drifting and not drag racing… hypermiling. Hypermiling is defined as a driving technique that maximizes fuel economy. I am going to go over the positives and the possible negatives of driving with these techniques, and also how to use hypermiling in your every day driving!
First, I am going to teach you how to drive like the “professional” hypermilers. One guy is achieving nearly 59 miles per gallon on average in his Honda Accord… a car that is supposed to get 27 in the city and 34 on the highway. I bet you’re wishing you knew how to do this after hearing that aren’t you? He has slashed his fuel bill in half… something us normal drivers only dream of!
To hypermile, you are going to need to drive like a total menace. You are going to irritate a LOT of people, and you are going to be very selfish. The first thing you are going to need to do is turn off all the luxuries that you use in your car. Air conditioner, never again can that be turned on, defroster, seat heaters, etc. Next, you are going to need to learn how to use cruise control to your advantage. Turn it on when you are going up hills and on flat land, and turn it off when going down hills. Also, you are going to need to turn your engine off at stop lights and if you want, when you are rolling down hills. Remember, most cars shut their power steering off when you turn the engine off. Another thing that you can do is brake MUCH LESS. Let off the accelerator much sooner than you would normally. You don’t need to brake to stop at a red light… If you can time it correctly you can coast right up to the red light. This saves a lot of not necessary acceleration. You should never go faster than fifty five miles per hour, and you should never accelerate to 55 in less than 20 seconds. With these couple methods you should be able to increase your mileage by at least ten.
The good things about this is that you will save a lot of money, you will cause a lot less wear on your cars parts (brakes, engine, and transmission), and you will be able to brag about your cars awesome mileage whenever you fill up! But then there’s the negatives…
By turning off your vehicle down hills and at stop lights, you are going to become a lot more susceptible to accidents or fender-benders. If your car is off at a stop light, someone behind you might see your brake lights off and think you are about to accelerate and they will accelerate when they notice that. This could cause a rear-end collision which will put a burden on you. The accident could be a lot worse when going down a hill. Since you are slowing down while going because your car is off yet your brake lights aren’t on the person behind you could rear end you. Another problem with hypermiling is that you are going to cause a lot of drivers to be very angry with you. This isn’t that big of a deal but it could endanger other people on the road because the angry driver will now have road rage for the next ten to fifteen minutes.
Don’t let these people stop you though. If you are short on money because the economy is so bad, go ahead and use these techniques to save a couple bucks here and there. Personally, I try not to use these methods that often because I drive a Civic which gets nearly 40 miles to the gallon already, which is good enough for me! Another cool thing about hypermiling is that it is very easy to do and will relieve you of a lot of stress. Sometimes seeing all the angry drivers is actually kind of funny because of how stressed out they are. Go ahead and give hypermiling a try if you want to save a few bucks.
