First hypermiler effort--41.06mpg--Wow!

[Graeme]

I ran across this site a few days ago. Thought I'd see what my 07 xB would do. Pumped the front tires to 40 and rears to 38. Drove back and forth to a conference this week. Several twenty mile freeway trips, plus some local. Drove just at/below sixty. 40.06mpg. Now I'm hooked!

[SVOboy]

:thumbup:

What were you getting before?

[Graeme]

Usually 31-33 in town and a little higher on freeway. This week I really tried to stretch the gallons with smooth driving and slightly lower speed.

[SVOboy]

Well then! Good job. That's quite an improvement!

[davidjh72]

Good job Graeme! :) You sure put the EPA rating to shame! :thumbup:

[Graeme]

I was matching the old "inflated" EPA rating. The new "realistic" EPA rating is really too low.

[davidjh72]

I ran across this site a few days ago. Thought I'd see what my 07 xB would do. Pumped the front tires to 40 and rears to 38. Drove back and forth to a conference this week. Several twenty mile freeway trips, plus some local. Drove just at/below sixty. 40.06mpg. Now I'm hooked!

You've got "2006" in your garage entry as the year of your xB. So the EPA stats you put in are the inflated ratings?

I've got the new EPA ratings in my garage entry. It's a mixed bag here... some have stuck to the old rating, some the new.

[MnFocus]

Gratz Graeme !! That right there is an excellent first effort . You'll prolly wax that pre-08 EPA real regularly . I myself am using the old #'s until I hit my 20% ,after that,then I'll switch to the new #'s. For my personal satisfaction only .

[Graeme]

I guess I just wish I had a 2007. It's actually a 2006 as in my garage. The EPA used in the calculations is, I believe, the new version. When I bought the car it was 32/34. If I recall, just a few days ago, the EPA figures were calculated when I entered the make, model and date in the garage table. In the meantime, I'll check a Scion site.

[Graeme]

Just checked the EPA mileage site. The 2006, when converted to the new, method results in 26 city, 30 highway and 28 average. That was what was used by the garage calculation.

[atomicradish]

How do those stupid boxes get good FE?

I mean, could you possibly have a higher coefficient of drag?

[Graeme]

Two things. First, I got the EPA rating from the link when you register with the garage. I'm just going with that.

Second, the xB is great around town and at lower speed on highway. In my experience FE drops way off at 70 or above. It's also easy to overwork the engine. I've been driving with a ScanGaugeII ever since I bought the car. I've had fun watching my FE, just not quite so enthusiastic.

The xB is a big change from my last vehicle--a F250SD Diesel that I drove daily and drag raced in a Diesel series in Washington and British Columbia. I had burned biodiesel in it for several years but, even when biodiesel was cheaper than petrodiesel, it was taking me to the poor house.

Now I'm thinking grille opening covers and Gurney flaps. Got to keep busy at 65. Of course, aero tricks on an xB are like painting lipstick on a pig. It tooks better, but it's still a pig.

[Snax]

The xB driven smartly just proves how much fuel most other drivers are really wasting. It's a brick with wheels and it can still get better fuel economy on the highway than most. With a drag coefficient of just 0.35, it still beats the average pickup by a long shot however and isn't that far off the typical passenger car.

[Rick Rae]

The xB... a drag coefficient of just 0.35...

Wow... how the heck do they manage 0.35 on what is basically a box on wheels? (And the more rounded current model comes in at 0.32!)

I would ask why my VW Cabrio has such a lousy number by comparison at 0.37, but as that's about the same as a Ferrari F50 I guess I'm not gonna complain. ;)

Rick

P.S. Of course CdA might tell the rest of the story...

[landspeed]

My car has a Cd of 0.37 (although the CdA is more important in reality). So, it shows how an older 1987 design is less aerodynamic than a modern SUV (I think it is an SUV?).

Congratulations on the economy - very impressive :)

[tulsa_97sr5]

Nice numbers on your xB - wish I could get the wife to hypermile hers. Even driving it like it's a nascar race around town she still pulls 30-31 every tank. Driving it back from Dallas a few feeks ago on secondary highways I managed 37 for a tank.

They are more rounded than they look, esp. if you look from above down on them. I can really feel how much less drag and rolling resistance the xB has compared to my 4runner, it coats so much better.