"Hypermilers" claim to double gas mileage by driving smart

[Roon]

ARAPAHOE COUNTY – There's a movement out there to get people to relearn how to drive. It's called "hypermiling" and some swear it doubles the performance of their cars.

"You can always affect your gas mileage by the way you drive," said Kevin Roybal, director of coaching at the MasterDrive School. Roybal says it might work, but it might not be safe.

"Hypermiling" was created by Wayne Gerdes. Gerdes is a nuclear plant operator in Illinois who says he studied the physics of driving. Gerdes says if drivers follow certain techniques, they can keep their cars from burning unnecessary gas.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=93129&catid=188

[NJmaverick]

1. I have a MPG computer in my Marano. I will admit I tended to drive pretty inefficiently

Using every mileage boosting trick, out there, I was able to improve it 25%. So I think the 100% improvement is not realistic, at least based on my experience.

[LeftyMom]

2. Driving like a granny adds maybe 3 mpg with my car. Definitely not 30.

Some of the recommendations are just silly- like finding a slower speed that will get you through a traffic jam without having to brake. I suppose that might be feasible for very short slowdowns, like when people are rubbernecking, but the jam I usually get stuck in is at least five miles long. Many of the others are obvious (coasting to a light, using cruise control,) require features many cars don't have (there's no button to increase my speed gradually on my cruise control- if I want to speed up I have a little thing called a gas pedal) or dubiously effective (various fuel additives.)

[PVnRT]

3. Over-inflate your tires? That's fucking stupid.

Good way to have a blowout and crash.