Have you ever been told that you drive like a grandma? If so, good for you! If not, after reading this, you might want to change your ways.
At first glance this should seem like an insult, however, I fully believe it should be taken as a compliment. What “you drive like a grandma” really means is that you’re a cautious driver that gets the most out of your vehicle’s gas mileage.
However, for those of you who drive like speed demons, here are the top five reasons why your grandma gets better gas mileage than you:
- She goes from 0 to 60 in 12 seconds. While it’s certainly annoying to gets stuck behind a little old lady that takes a while to get up to the speed limit, it’s probably a heck of a lot better for your gas mileage than the way you usually drive. Using moderate acceleration, as opposed to simply flooring it or accelerating so slowly that you bog down the engine, is a great way to maintain peak gas mileage.
- She obeys the speed limit. According to FuelEconomy.gov, for every 5 mph you drive over 60 mph, you’re essentially reducing your car’s gas mileage by 8%. While in most instances you’re probably not going to drive right at the speed limit, the slower you drive the better your gas mileage tends to be.
- She never leaves the right hand lane. According to Edmunds.com, weaving in and out of traffic does not significantly reduce your travel time, so not only does this mean that she’s not driving at Mach 4 zig-zagging through traffic (and subsequently saving gas), it also means that her drive is probably a lot less stressful.
- She keeps the inside of her car immaculately clean. She doesn’t carry around golf clubs in the trunk of her car, there aren’t three or four CD books lying around, any of that extra stuff that needlessly adds weight to her car.
- She doesn’t drive a truck or an SUV. As I’m sure you’re well aware, SUVs and trucks, due to being less aerodynamic and heavier than “regular” cars tend to get relatively bad gas mileage. Because your grandma never felt the need to be cool and get a Hummer H2, she’s probably getting much better gas mileage than those of us who went ahead and purchased a gas guzzling vehicle.
I guess the phrase “you drive like a grandma” isn’t so bad after all, especially when it means you’re improving your car’s gas mileage between 5% and 15%.
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I’ve recently started “driving like a granma” and I already notice a huge difference in gas mileage. Usually I’d hit three-quarter tank left at about 100km, and half tank at just under 200km. Right now I’m at 170km and just below three-quarter tank left. I’m thinking I can probably get around 450-500km on this fill-up as compared to the usual 380km or so (filling around 38-40 litres). That’s a pretty good increase in gas mileage.
1) Slow acceleration doesn’t necessarily make your car more efficient. Fuel is fuel. Fuel is energy. And it takes a fixed amount of that energy to get your car up to speed. As long as you stay in your engine’s most efficient range, you get the most mileage. So bogging down the engine where it has a horrible efficiency will not help your mileage. However, lower RPMs due result in lower frictional losses.
2) A more aerodynamic car will help too. Driving a brick of a car won’t help your mileage.
3) While I hate zig-zagging people who take risks at other people’s expense, that point has nothing to do with fuel economy.
4) Clean doesn’t mean better. It only really matters if you’ve got heavy items in your car. I think someone quoted for every 100 lbs it’s a %1 drop in MPG, but don’t take number that without a grain of salt.
5) One of the biggest problems other than wind resistance is braking. Every time you brake, you remove the energy you put into your car by releasing it as heat in the brake pads. So for a heavier car, it takes more energy to get it going but it would still _stay_ going for longer (due to inertia). So you’d be getting the same mileage. However, it takes more energy to stop the heavier car so now you’re releasing more energy as heat every time you brake.
So if you see a red light coming up, don’t accelerate because you’re going to have to remove that energy in a moment to stop.
@ Chris
3) While I hate zig-zagging people who take risks at other people’s expense, that point has nothing to do with fuel economy.
The above statement is wrong. Draw a straight line from point A to point B. Now draw a line weaving from side to side from point A to point B. Measure both of the lines, which one is longer? The weaving line will be longer. Now apply that concept to driving. Longer distance = more gas.
An independent study concluded that European variants of U.S. cars average 60 percent better gas mileage.
The study compared base models of eight compact-size passenger cars available both in the United States and in Europe. The comparison is based on the mileage of the most fuel efficient engine available for each car in the United States and in Europe.
The eight cars included in the comparison are
. Nissan Versa
. Ford Focus
. BMW 3 series
. Chrysler PT Cruiser
. Hyundai Elantra
. Kia Rio
. Mazda 3
. Toyota Corolla
According to ‘http://gas-cost.net’, highway fuel mileage for these cars averages 32 miles per gallon (MPG) in the Unites States compared to 52 MPG for the same cars in Europe, or a 60 percent difference.
Are you sure they accounted for the fact that the US gallon is smaller than the British gallon?
I’m fairly certain a gallon is the same size anywhere you go.
@Brian: Sorry, you may be “fairly certain” but you’re still mistaken. Try Googling “imperial gallon” sometime.
I would say driving like grandma is only the beginning! The starting point for mileage driving techniques. My Integra is has an EPA combined rating of 28 mpg, last tank I broke the 40 mpg mark. That far exceed’s grandma’s 5-15%, It takes some practice but the principles are simple avoid the brakes, further I coast with the engine off as much as possible, and never let it idle – well for 30 seconds on start up, but my car is 19 years old. There are many things that can incrementally improve your mileage a little at a time, but they do add up.
Fixed amout of energy to get your car up to speed? Slow accelleration won’t help?
I assume it takes the same amount of energy to go from 0-60 in 4 seconds as it does to in 60 seconds. So does it also take the same amount of energy to drive at 60mph for one hour as it does to drive at 30mph for two hours? No! other factors are involved.