Miscellaneous

Based on some personal experimentation, I feel confident telling you that you can dramatically increase your gasoline mileage without trading in whatever you?re driving for a hybrid. I drive a small SUV (a Saturn VUE), and lately I?ve been trying some hypermileage techniques to see what would happen. So far, the result has been a dramatic slow-down in the gas gauge?s trip from F to E. Here?s what I?ve been doing:

• At any red-light stop, shift into neutral. (My wife?s new Astra does this automatically. The Saturn salesman told me that this feature reduces fuel consumption at stops. If you don?t happen to drive an Astra, you can do the same thing manually. If you drive a stick-shift, then you?re already doing the equivalent.)
• Coast in neutral. If you see a red light one or two blocks ahead, take your foot off the accelerator, shift into neutral, and coast.
• Try to never come to a complete stop. If you see a red light two blocks ahead, slow down and try to time your arrival with a green light.
• If you park in a parking garage where the exit is all downhill, shift into neutral during your exit and let Isaac Newton draw your car to street level.
• Keep your eye on the tachometer. I try to keep it under 2,000 rpm when cruising and under 2,500 rpm when accelerating from a full stop.

Now there are a few things the hypermileage folks do that no one in their right mind in New Orleans would do during the summer. One is to drive without air-conditioning. Sorry, but here in the subtropics, A/C in the summer is mandatory. The other is to never use the reverse gear; instead push your car out of the driveway. No way in humid hell am I going to try that. But the things I?ve listed above can be done in the relative comfort of an air-conditioned car. And so far, they seem to be causing a long delay in my next stop at the gas station.