Manual Driving Techniques and MPG's
 

What are some common driving techniques or rules of thumb that you live by when trying to maximize mpg's on manuals?

1. Light touch on the accelerator
2. Early gear changes
3. Drive at less than 65 mph on the highway (find the sweet speed by testing different speeds until you find the one that gives the best mileage, mine is at about 61-62 mph)
4. Avoid stop lights or completely stopping when coming up to a stop light. i.e. allow the car to slow early and cost up slowly t the car in front of you so as to hopefully not have to com to a complete stop.

I'm sure there are more i just can't think of them right now.

Also, slightly illegal, but try to make rolling stops at stop signs whenever possible... though it could cost you some money if a cop sees you doing that.

What do folks see as the optimal shifting point if you're trying to maximize mpgs? I tend to shift around 3.5k RPM's, but don't know if I could do better.

Also, does it make sense to speed up / coast...speed up / coast...speed up/coast...if there's no one tailing you?

Oh, and by "coasting," I mean in neutral.

I think that the mini has a complete fuel shutoff while decellerating. Which means leave the clutch out while slowing down and it should use less gas than coasting to a stop in neutral?

i do these all the time..:thumbsup:

I don't have a MINI to verify, but this is true on the car I currently use. That is, if you're approaching a stoplight or such while in gear, you'll use no fuel as the wheels are turning the engine. If you're in neutral, you're using a little fuel to keep the engine from stalling. Likely not a big difference from quick stops, but for things like going down a long hill, this can be pretty helpful.

The clubman fuel doesn't shut off while decellerating, the motor goes to idle when in nuetral. I have coasted long hills (Western Maryland) with no ill affect. I have gained mpg by doing this, and have maintained that gain by driving evenly on the interstate in 6th gear. Even driving without jerkyness and aggressiveness will capture better mpg!

I dont worry about saving a couple drops of gas here and there by driving in neutral when comming to a stop sign. or staying at 61-62 mph.
i drive it in the rpm range it likes 4K-6K. and I bet in the end of a full year of fillups with exact mileage, youll have saved a whopping $50 bucks!
nah! not for me, i bought this little car to enjoy it. if gas is THAT much of an issue why bother driving at all.:confused:

I generally concur. I came from an Infiniti G, which was a great car to drive but generally got 15-16 mpg. Even if I were to go full WOT all day, every day, I'm way ahead! :razz:

But to each his own. Everybody has their own goal for the car.

i had a custom 76 chevy p/up like that. no matter how easy i was driving it, even tried 55! man were people pissed! LOL!
I only got 10mpg!

now I fill up my mini and if I drive hard for most of a tank full verses babying it, Its maybe 1/2 gal difference. If that. so i figure WOT! dosent cost me much more so VROOOOOM I GO!:lol:

Please, Please, drive your Mini like it was meant to be driven. Its a fun car, have fun with it.

I don't mean you don't have to be safe, but have fun with it.
Remember, things like driving in netural, and rolling thru stop signs and red lights collect more attention than save gas.

Happy motoring,
Larry

WOT, is that like buying carbon credits?

Some people get their jollies by driving aggessively, others get their jollies by getting the most miles out of each gallon. I oscillate between the two depending on mood.

So help me understand something. If I'm going down a gradual hill side, don't I save more gas by throwing it in neutral and coasting vs keeping it in gear and coasting? I'm assuming neutral saves more gas because my rpms are close to zero at while in neutral. Would this be accurate?

Sort of, except not at all! WOT= Wide Open Throttle

When i am just doing the normal drive to work thing I am shifting at what the car needs to keep it going. I.E. up a hill trying to gain speed it may be 4K but if it is level road and just keeping it going with a slow increase in speed then I shift around 2K.

I have only had my car 5-6 weeks and i already know that driving the car at what it likes (4K-6K) does provide good gas mileage but i also know that driving it very conservatively i can get 6-8 miles a gallon more. Thus just on one tank of gas i can save about $7.50 per fill up for the same amount of miles. This equates to 7.50 per week for me or about $390.00 or about 10 tanks of gas.

Of course i do not drive conservatively all the time. But my traveling to work is short and if driving conservatively can save me 3-4 tanks of gas a year then why not. Plus driving to work seems like a chore no mater how it is driven. But the week end trips out to have fun are another story

Sorry folks this IS an economy car to me..
 

I bought it BECAUSE of good gas mieage, and I drive it to get good gas mileage.
Yeah, overall it's kinda fun, but sorry it's not really a sports car. It is FWD isn't it? The way it drives, it reminds me more of my CRX or colt, not my Z3 nor my Porsche. True it has the amenities of the Z3 (except the one touch up windows) But a windy road with no one in front ? gimme the Z over the MINI anyday. Need to pass on that road? Gimme the Porsche over most anything, except maybe an Elise.
But I digress...

Economical driving...

you can shift around 2500 RPM, you can run it at around 2K, but no less, bad on clutch and can lug the engine.

Try to do your accelerating down hill.

And yes, freewheeling will give you better gas mileage. As far as I know, higher RPM's ALWAYS means more gas! If the gas turned off the engine would run lean, this ain't know hybrid!

I drive my Clubman for the good mileage, so you can find me driving like a pépère over in the slow lane, shifting around 2000 RPM and being very gentle on the gas pedal. However, I did break a few of my rules and a few speed limits at MOT this weekend. I was trying to keep up with GBMINI, but then I gave up after I realized I was doing 98.

Now when I drive my wifes car, I'm not nearly as conservative. It's an 04 MC, and I tend to drive it more like a go-kart. Plus, she pays for the gas and she's not as obsessed about conserving as I am.

Hey GBMINI is not the only one that is tough to keep up with there were others at MOT2008 on the Kanc drive that were moving right along shall we say. The only loss in gas mileage I saw was the drive UP Mt Washington. I think i ran at about less than 4 mpg for the 8 miles up the road. Oh then there was the trip home on I-93 south which went at about 1 mph for about 40 minutes. For that one i kept shutting the engine off. that saved a great amount of gas. Actually only had to start the car 5-6 times in that 40 minute stretch. Push to start is just so easy.

Yeah, I tend to shut the engine off when I know I'm going to be sitting at a light for a long time, waiting for a train to pass, or stuck in construction traffic. It's a great feature.

you do technically save more gas if you coast in N downhill, but youll need more brake force to stop the vehicle, so you are wearing your break pads and rotors quicker. the gas you save in neutral on a down slope, even if done daily? probably a few ounces.

You will use more gas by putting the car in neutral while coasting than if you leave it in gear and coast. When the car is in gear and you don't have your foot on the gas pedal the momentum of the car is spinning the engine and the computer will stop sending fuel to the injectors. When the car is in neutral fuel is required to keep the engine spinning. So when going downhill or approaching a red light leave it in gear until just before you come to a stop.

Right, this is called an "over-run fuel cutoff" and is why your on board computer will show 99.9 mpg as its not using any fuel to travel and trying to average in Infinity over a few seconds or minutes would be difficult. :)

Okay, so let me get this straight. Even though there is more friction on the engine and I see RPM's around 1-2k when I'm coasting "in gear." I'm actually saving more gas then coasting in neutral where RPM's are zero and there is no friction in the engine because the car needs gas to keep the engine alive?