Another gas sipper thread

This needs to remain a topic of discussion for the foreseeable future IMO.

Gas prices are hitting everyone hard, and its only going to hit everyone harder as time goes by.

People driving gas sippers, what are you driving, and what kind of mileage does it get?

What have you done, if anything, to increase the mileage your sipper gets?

What year/make/models would you suggest to people looking?

I know there was a thread that had this stuff a while back, but I can't find it now, and now is when people need it more than ever.

I'll start:

Where I live, I have no choice but to use a 4 wheel drive vehicle at times. Our roads are semi-maintained, and after a few hours rain, they turn into gumbo. We have a Jimmy SLT (the s-truck type) that we picked up a few years back, but driving the thing killed us monetarily way before 3 dollar a gallon gas.

So we picked up a pre-owned Suzuki swift - 5-speed:



Its a geo metro with suzuki stickering on it (or a Suzuki swift without geo stickering - same car at any rate)

We've been getting 40-ish mpg with it. We couldn't afford a hybrid.

Its a shame they stopped making and selling these great little cars.

It had been at least ten years since I drove a manual trans car when we first got it, but I got back into the swing of it after a day or 2.

I'm contemplating nitrogen in the tires, Some say thats good for 1-2 MPG, and a device called a tornado (which I'm not sold on, but am going to investigate), and am also going to investigate the possibility of mixing small quantities of acetone mixxed in with the gas. Rumor has it that may be good for a few MPG.

If anyone has info on any of the above, please share.

I wish I could get my hands on an early 90's metro xfi. They're rumored to hold the record mpg for mass produced cars in America, at 58 mpg. I saw one sell on ebay over a month ago for over 7 grand.

one ounce per 5 gallons .........it works

What kind of vehicle are you doing that in?

both old cars. to be exact I have two vehicles .......both 1992 vintage .....a 4runner and a subaru ....both benefit from acetone.

I'm amazed that such a small amount of acetone can make such a difference in mileage.

I keep records and it helps

and get your oil changed.

...but wasn't convinced it was really making a difference, i.e. whether or not it helped seemed to be influenced a lot by the sort of driving I did. Same ratio-- 1 oz per 5 gal. It certainly didn't hurt anything, however-- the engine and fuel system were in fine shape when I traded it with 175K miles on it. It was an older vehicle that was never intended to get good mileage, however. I might start doing it with my new Ranger.

also started working properly

http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/acetone.asp

http://fuelsaving.info/acetone.htm

Morticia, my 07 beetle convertible 5 speed. I get about 28 city and around 33 hwy. until i hybrid is available with a stick shift i'm not buying, plus i love my car and it's pretty good on gas and it was on the ok list for the california clean air thing.

I keep the 4runner to get through the snow in upstate NY. It only get 16-18 mpg........but it get me through the snow.

did you know it takes 4000 gallon of fuel to make the average car.....I was not surprised by the numer

(EPA rated at 26 city, 32 highway), thanks to all I've learned by spending time at this site:

www.cleanmpg.com

I urge everyone that wants to maximize their fuel economy to go to this site - a bottomless well of information from hypermilers that get insane numbers from their vehicles!

thanks.

I read the article on hpermilling and I was suprised to learn I already use most of those techniques. Drafting, watching 3 lights ahead, keeping buffers etc. Great info. Wih i could use the hybrid tips.
I drive a manual 96 Civic and get about 34 mpg city.

Manual transmission, 1990 model. It really does. I've been laughed at for years for owning it but nobody's laughing now. The only downside is no air conditioning. They've gone up quite a bit in price recently. I paid $5500 in 1990 for mine and it still runs great.

where will the heat come from....I live in a cold climate,

Possibly some sort of mechanically driven high efficiency heat exchange system...not so much to cool the electric motor, but to sap away enough heat to keep ones fingers from turning blue?

Heat is often from a heating coil. AC is from a high-efficiency compressor. These devices do not use as much energy as some would have you believe. Climate control is not an issue on electric vehicles.

I drove the Chevy Sprint, which was the predecessor of the Metro. It was a wonderful little car and sipped gas. It was a 5 door wagon, so I could fit a surprising amount of stuff in it.

I have a Daihatsu now, it gets almost as good mileage.

I just can't understand for the life of me, why they don't put them into production again, setting aside the logistics of doing so.

The world we live in right now screams for an affordable car like a metro or a sprint, that gets 40+ mpg, and its only going to scream louder tomorrow.

I just don't get it.

I also own a '99 Suzuki Swift.
Bought it new just before the 2000.
The base model Swift has a very nicely designed 4 cylinder as opposed to the Geo's base model 3 cylinder and sold for the same price. Duh...I am so in love with this car.
10% alchohol blend gas costs me average 5-6 mpg less than when i can get non-alky gas. My best was 47 mpg on a trip from Portland to Seattle and I was 7-8 mph over the 70 limit most of the way.

65 years old and have owned a large number of cars and pickups starting in 1956, this one I HEART. hughly

Perhaps I should post this with it's own info title.

A co-worker drives a Dodge Ram 5.9L guzzler. Uses it to haul a race car in a trailer to various venues. Gas both ways is more expensive than the entry fee to race. (btw: the race car uses pure alcohol for its fuel.)

I'd like to direct your attention to the wonders of hydrogen (or particularly hydroxy) as an additive to gas.
Chapter 10 in this link will present some evidence of much increased mileage out of a gallon of gas.
Claims of 20-30%. http://www.free-energy-info.co.uk/index2.html

This co-worker has purchased, from the designer, a simple 'brute force' on-demand electrolyzer called a 'smack booster' that splits H2O using 20 amps of electricity from the vehicles electrical system to produce a small amount of hydroxy gas which is sucked into the air stream entering the air filter intake. Said hydroxy mixed with gas in the combustion process super cleans the exhaust emissions along with the increased mileage.
Plans and a parts list is available to make your own (if you're a geek) using mostly parts from Lowe's or (Hum Despot) or Ace for $60-70
Or buy one ready made for $235.

I guess I'm the designated geek in this endeavor and I'd like to try one also in my Suzy so I agreed to install this in his truck and gain some experience on somebody else's rig :o) first.

I'll keep you posted how it goes if you'd like. There's certainly lots of testimonials of it worth.

also you might google up waterfuel. Lots of info out there.

btw: mines Silver and my 'navigator' has named it SB, for Silver Bullet. It attains freeway speed RIGHT NOW.

"I'll keep you posted how it goes if you'd like."

Please do.

I am very interested in that.

I am probably dreaming, but I'd love to figure out a way...a combination of things maybe, to get another 10 mpg if I can...I'm probably dreaming though...

Just wondering.

The less weight, the better the mileage should be. I don't know if they make special kits for this car like they do for the Honda CRX, but it might be worth looking into. Some guys manage to take quite a bit of weight off their CRX with a little creativity.

You could remove all of the very heavy glass and replace it with ultra light Lexan, which is very impact resistant. Lexan is being used in more and more modern cars. They might even make a Lexan windshield for this car. There are guys on the internet who put flat sheets of Lexan in a mold, heat it, and use a vaccuum process to make Lexan any shape you want. You can find them under bicycle or motorcycle custom fairing makers.

Some guys replace their heavy battery with a light lithium battery that only weighs about 12 pounds.

If you don't live in a place with lots of snow and roads that are salted in the winter, you might consider removing all of the undercoating with a paint remover like "Aircraft Remover" which you can find in any car store. Porsche guys often remove it so their cars can go faster as it weighs a bit. If you remove all the paint and undercoating gunk beneath the car, I'd suggest however that you spray the bare metal with a rust converter and then at least a thin coating of black paint.

If it has a metal gas tank, you could take it out and put in a plastic one. Some of the new Nissans come with very lightweight gas tanks made of light plastic.

You could take out the back seat. Some small cars like the Honda CRX have racing seats made for it that are very light and can save a few pounds of weight. I don't know if you could find light racing seats that could be adapted for your car but you probably can, maybe requiring the drilling of a few new holes in the floor.

You might remove the metal hood and replace it with one made out of thin foam coated with a carbon resin on all sides. You could buy the materials fairly cheaply on the Internet and make it in your garage. You could probably use the original hood to guide you in molding the shape of the new ultra-light one. I know that sounds radical and I don't know how hardcore you are in getting the best mileage possible.

You could replace the wheels with ones made of aluminium alloy and might save a little weight. That's probably expensive, though.

I don't know if there's anything you could do to improve the aerodynamics on this car, such as putting a lower bumber skirt in front and on the sides of the rear wheels that don't turn (to keep the air from eddying into the wheel wells) but wind resistance is a big factor in cars. Covering up the rear wheel wells and wheels might look weird, but the Honda Insight does it on the rear wheels for aerodynamic purposes. Also, drive with your windows up if you want the best mileage.

One thing about the changes in taking weight off the car. They might make your car unsellable in the future, if gas-powered automobiles even have a future in this country. I've thought of buying an old Honda CRX in bad cosmetic shape just to experiment a bit with getting better milage, realizing I will probably own it the rest of my life.

Not sure if it qualifies as a "sipper" or not --- I get 30 - 32 mpg. Missouri has mandatory 10% ethanol in the fuel since the first of the year, but I'd been using it for a couple of years already. I think I get better mpg with the ethanol, although there are folks who say they don't.

I have not upped my tire pressure to the max psi yet --- but on hypermiling sites they swear this helps increase the mpg. And I need to clean out my trunk. Also need a tune-up. But basically 30 - 32 mpg which I consider to be okay.

I wish I could afford to get a new (hybrid?) car, but these days I'm just as glad not to have a car payment.

But it is not available in the u.s. only Canada.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/06/07/71mpg-smart-fortwo-cdi-is-the-most-efficient-car-on-the-road-tod/

Yet, people can buy huge diesel guzzling Ford Ram Powerjoke pick'em up trucks.

The stupidity of it all makes me cry.

After looking around and checking out info on the device called the tornado, I can safely say

DO NOT BUY ONE.


All the people whos reviews I have read say it does nothing, and one even had it come apart sending metal into a combustion chamber and blow his engine.

In another thread I posted:

"I've increased my mileage 4MPG with no additives at all. By changing my driving style.
I accelerate more gently from stops. I coast in neutral down long grades. I keep my speed below 70 on the freeways. Result: 4 extra MPG on my commutes and six on long cruises. From 28 to 32 in my Ford Focus across almost 10 tankfuls.

Cost to me? Not a damn thing."

A reply claims that it in fact cost me "time". I replied:

"Bullshit. Time. My ass. It does not cost me time. I no longer zoom by people who are accelerating slower than I am just to come upon the ass end of a truck or be blocked by other traffic (requireing braking and thus the wasting of gas). I no longer have to brake and fight my way to the right when exiting the freeway because I don't speed just to pass people in the left lane. Street lights work the same way but I no longer race to the red. I arrive at work more relaxed.

I spend no more time on my commute than I did previously. I just save enough gas by changing my driving habits on my 40 mile round trip commute to end the week almost a gallon ahead. It's almost like getting one day's commute a week for free for me. And it costs me nothing.


On Edit: Sorry for yelling. I'm hip about drafting. Unsafe at any speed. Try some changes in your driving habits. Sure, my route might be more advantageous for my gains, but I'll bet you will see some additional gains."

Indeed arriving more relaxed is a good trade off for the minutes "lost" driving more conservatively.

I do not have a long commute, and am lucky enough to drive back country roads to work. But my few visits to areas with commuter headache producing highways are enough for me to understand that arriving at work more relaxed is a good thing.

I've been practicing a more conservative driving style for a few months now, and even turn off the motor when I need to idle (bank drive up for example). Today I figured I managed 34.6 mpg during the last week, up from the 32 mpg in the previous week. (91 Toyota Camry)

It does work.

Again, good post!

I have a couple of highways near but separate from the freeway that allow be to drive steady instead of doing the stop & go, so that certainly helps. I have found a route that avoids the freeways entirely for when I start driving my '69 MG Midget (it does not have overdrive and it is not geared for freeways). Congrats on the improved MPG! :thumbsup:

I gently ease my car up to speed from a red light or stop sign. I'm constantly amazed at how many cars don't do this. I'm always getting some giant SUV or Pick-up two inches from my rear end that shoots around me flooring the engine, apparently in frustration at having to wait the extra 5 or 6 seconds to get up to speed, anxious to get on a packed California freeway where they'll be going 10mph all the way to work.

For my 2001 Honda Civic EX! ;)

I do not have a long commute (5 miles) and I like to go camping.

The S10 got 15mpg on a good day. The Patriot gets 20mpg for me now. I lost no functionality that the S10 had (4x4, room for camping gear and such).

The Jeep combines a 4 cylinder with a CVT trans and gets one of the highest MPG ratings for any non-hybrid SUV. It got 24.7 MPG on a long camping trip last summer.

Sportster :evilgrin:

seriously great mileage, always better than 50mpg highway,sometimes better than 55, and between 45-48mpg city. :woohoo:


edit typo

Altima. He fills up twice a month. Kudos to him for getting rid of his '04 Tahoe! :applause: