What is Digg?113 Comments
- diemunkiesdie, on 08/28/2008, -0/+30If they start offering this training for free to whoever buys their cars they could come away with a lot of happy customers and they might just increase their customer base!
- MetroMPG, on 08/28/2008, -6/+28Kudos to Ford. Seriously. But I'd be slightly more impressed if they wouldn't use the program to passively promote a fuel sucking aerodynamic-as-a-brick "crossover" vehicle.
- ninjadave, on 08/28/2008, -1/+17This is great. Behavior changes in driving is something that can be change *now* which leaves no excuse for waiting for technology advances.
All day at my apartment I hear people gun it at the stop sign at the intersection nearby. Motorcycles, crappy pickups, riced out VWs. I live in a blue collar neighborhood and know that these people shouldn't be blowing their paycheck on setting off car alarms along the side of the road. - kalvinb, on 08/28/2008, -1/+15They've found that at highway speeds the shape of the car doesn't affect much. The xB for example gets around 30mpg and is about as brick like as cars come.
The biggest issues are weight and engine performance. - solo152, on 08/28/2008, -1/+15Tups?
- mjwhip, on 08/28/2008, -0/+11The way you drive is the most important factor in mileage. You can take a very fuel efficient car, drive it like an ***** and get some pretty piss poor mileage. Whereas you can take a sporty car (or any car for that matter, say, one you already own), change your driving habits, and at least improve your mileage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8XDscWleKw
I know it's Top Gear and they have a tendency to take things to the extreme, but their point is valid. - pintomp3, on 08/28/2008, -1/+12why not both?
- inactive, on 08/28/2008, -0/+10@mike
that works out to $520 a year simply by doing something differently, and the money saved can be better used somewhere else, so take your head out of your ass, please - Kamacurus, on 08/28/2008, -3/+10It all comes down to this (1974 coupe=15mpg / 2008 coupe=21mpg) wheres the innovation?
- JasonCox, on 08/28/2008, -1/+9If I don't accelerate like a jackass and I actually obey the speed limit I save myself about 10 bucks a week on a 30 mile per day commute. It's common sense. The harder you hit the gas and the faster you go the more fuel is consumed.
- emceepecks, on 08/28/2008, -0/+8I tend to get about 5-6 MPG higher when I drive at 60 MPH vs 70 MPH. It might piss people off but when payday is next week and you're on a third of a tank, you gotta do what you can
- bubbadigg, on 08/28/2008, -5/+12I hope all of these eco-drivers stay in the right lane... or at least get out of the way.
- Sonan, on 08/28/2008, -2/+9I really didn't see anything in the 10 tips that wasn't obvious. People already know about these things and choose not to do them (myself included for the most part). In fact, where I live, these same tips are drilled into us on a daily basis through air quality commercials on the radio. People don't like to be told they're doing it wrong, and FSM help anyone who tries to make these kinds of driving techniques the law.
- inactive, on 08/28/2008, -0/+6What sucks for anyone who has a little bit of common sense is that they see these articles, it gives them a glimmer of hope that they can relieve a little financial pressue, they read the article, realize they are already doing the things the article describes and have been for years, and then they get depressed as hope has been dashed....
- vawksel, on 08/28/2008, -1/+7What are "ecodriving tups" ?
- anyone4apint, on 08/28/2008, -0/+6I drive an RX-8 which is far from the most economical car on the market and as petrol prices are going through the roof I have attempted to drive it in a more economical way. Over the past month I have seen a significant improvment. Before I would get around 230 miles out of each tank of petrol, however over the past month I have kept my tyers at the right pressure and have driven with a little more common sence, keeping it between 2,500 - 3,500rpm and that kind of thing. I am now getting around 280 miles out of a tank of petrol. I could get to about 300 miles out of a tank if I drive nicely everywhere but I bought a sports car to have some enjoyment every now and then so I am not a saint all the time ;)
Considering that a tank costs about £65 (~$130) and I am getting about 50 miles more from each tank, I am now running far more efficiently without really doing or changing anything and I can still have my boy racer fun fix when I want it. To anyone out there feeling the pinch of rising fuel prices I highly recomend taking some real basic steps including:
1) Keep your typre pressures at the right level
2) Drive reilitivly easily (ie, dont give it the beans at every green light and take every roundabout sideways)
3) Take all of the junk out of your boot (its amazing how much weight all of the random stuff adds)
4) Do not buy petrol from motorway filling stations as they cost a lot more.
5) Use your gears. If you have a relitivly fast car it is so easy to just rev to the red line and then jump from say 2nd to 5th but dont.
These 5 little things have saved me about £20 (~$40) every week. - Aethirig, on 08/28/2008, -0/+5Drive naked! It's good for America!
- zspeed78, on 08/28/2008, -0/+5The air thing is very true.. Im a car guy, have a compressor, and so forth.. and even I catch my tires under inflated sometimes. I cant imagine mrs soccer mom, without a compressor, checking her pressures too often and then driving to a gas station to put some air in from those POS tire inflation things they have. And riding 5-10 lbs under inflated will make a difference.. maybe 1mpg.. but with millions of people with the problem.. it adds up.
- ninjadave, on 08/28/2008, -2/+7OK, I just don't like motorcycles, you got me.
- wrenchone, on 08/28/2008, -0/+6You can crash the 2008 coupe at 60 mph and not die.
- Marglar, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4I hope you enjoy being reported as much as I enjoyed flying under my desk and hitting the power button at work.. bury that fool and don't click it ;)
- Darmichar, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4They did make the vehicle more fuel efficient, by changing the habits of the driver.
- SOS84, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4I have been doing some of these things for years. A friend of mine who is a car guy always questioned my claims of getting or exceeding the old EPA standards until he went on a trip with me. By practicing responsible driving techniques, I have hit 42 mpg in my wife's 96 Honda Accord and 31 in my 04 Suburu Outback. By using the cruise control and avoiding lane changes and traveling at the right time of day, I have hit 40 mpg on the open highway at 70 mph. It is not that hard.
- SVOboy, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4I realize part of this is ford trying to make up for making cars that can compete in this effiency-minded market, but they're useful skills and obviously making good gains
- dcmjzero, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4You know what else improves gas mileage? Inflating your tires properly.
- Taiyoryu, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4They did... it's the Ford GT
Oh you mean also affordable - whatever01, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4Last year I cracked 40 in my 96 Civic and I routinely get 36 all around (mostly suburban short hops) by relaxing behind the wheel. So, yeah, you can.
- bearcat8543, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3you cant *just* skip gears in manual. you have to be very keen in matching revs to the T. if you dont, say by by to your syncros!
- rkzda, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3It has nothing to do with heads being up the ass. Cars that get great mileage in the UK have -very- small 3 and 4cylinder engines. Most 4cylinders in the states are at least 2.0Liter engines, in the UK most economical cars have 1.5liters or less. Most of us cant deal with less than 120hp, and they deal with 65-90hp. It's about what will sell, we haven't had the need or the market for very small 4cylinder purely economical cars until recently.
- Ilikebikes, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3There was a guy on Colbert a couple weeks ago that said 45mph was the breaking point. So yeah 45-50 is a good rule to follow.
- pintomp3, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3there's still no need to gun it at the stop sign. especially at night.
- potisreallygood, on 08/28/2008, -1/+4Drafting and taking your foot off the gas does wonders. Once you hit about 35 keep your foot off the gas as much as possible and just give it a nudge every now and then to keep speed, brake early and coast to stop lights, giving it time to change so you can just coast on through with minimal acceleration. Turn your car off at stop lights/drive thrus, or down hills if you are really brave, otherwise putting it in neutral drops the rpms fast. Watch the for cars stopping in opposite directions if you can't see the other lights change, so you aren't sitting with your car off when your light turns green. The biggest improvement I have seen in my MPG is when I draft behind a semi going 60-70. It really does work, just got to be alert, your car should be able to stop faster than the semi, but the biggest problem is flinging up chunks of road and rocks. Semi-trucks usually aren't that bad but on dump trucks and buses it is pretty common. Also, if you have an automatic, try to feel the car shift and gas it accordingly, let off for a sec when it is switching gears. If you have a manual, try skipping gears whenever possible. Doing stuff like this I can get 33mpg in a 2002 corvette with mixed driving. Not bad.
- Truth3, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3Here's a scenario. The article says not to turn on the air conditioning with temperatures above 80 degrees. Then in the article it goes on to say that you shouldn't drive with the windows down.
So you suck it up and sweat your butt off? Is that the solution? - Smogtdi, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3... or a Volkswagen TDI to 65 mpg
- jbmcb, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3kalvinb - 100% correct. Also, just because something doesn't look like it's aerodynamic doesn't mean that it isn't. The shape of the nose makes more difference than the rest of the vehicle, especially the leading edge of the hood, at least when you aren't going 120MPH.
- gurudrew, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3I like how Ford says to turn off the AC but designs vehicles without an on / off switch for the AC. The AC in my truck is controlled by the temperature. If the outside temp is higher than 50F the AC is on, no choice.
- GeneralFault, on 08/28/2008, -1/+51974 coupe=120hp / 2008 coupe=305hp 1908 coupe = 2hp... real hp.
Now that's innovation. - bearcat8543, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3the tip they mention about idling and turning your car off after 30 sec of idling is way wrong. turning on your car uses far more fuel (as well as wearing down other parts) than having it sit at 1000rpms with no load.
- anyone4apint, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3When I bought it I paid £40 (~$80) for a tank of petrol and about £200 (~$400) a year in road tax.
I now pay £65 (~$130) for a tank of fuel, £455 (~$910) a year in road tax, £8 (~$16) congestion charge every time I drive into London (which is about 10 times a month) and on top of it all my insurance premium has gone up by about 20%. And as an added bonus, its now worth about 20% less than I had planned becasue no one is buying cars like RX-8's, 350z's, Z4's, etc at the moment.
Bottom line, I dont have money anymore lol! - inactive, on 08/28/2008, -1/+4You are one dumb *****.
They need to stop giving people lisences, that's how you go green.
Especially fat people, they should not have the privilege of driving.
It's a machine, not a *****' videogame, your driving style is the major factor in the fuel efficiency of your car. - inactive, on 08/28/2008, -2/+5Holy ***** you're dumb, that's astounding.
- anyone4apint, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2None what-so-ever. I have a 2007 car (PZ version) so all of the early problems were pretty much fixed. The biggest problems that I have read about seem to be related around the alloy wheels rusting and the catalic converter dying early but Mazda cover both of these under warrenty in the UK (I presume in the US too) - its far far far more reliable than my friends Z4 that he bought at the same time I picked up my '8.
I sware by Japanese cars, I had a Civic Type R before with 100k on the clock and it didnt have a single problem, before that was an Integra Type R which again run perfectly and now the Mazda is running great. Ill take Jap reliability over German any day :) - Marglar, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2we have some ***** laws and requirements in place. if we could use the same dirty diesel tech that they are running on, we could get that kind of mileage too.
"clean diesel" engines are coming here soon - so you should see some models with a significant jump in MPG.
also, america's reluctancy to adapt and continual use of a ***** ton of oil at high prices is not helping the case for smaller, fuel efficient vehicles. - GeneralFault, on 08/28/2008, -1/+3And they make 1000+ hp muscle cars now... genius. I've not the time to go look-up the displacement/hp ratios for various modern coups for no good reason. Perhaps you have a point that I am missing (other than to be rude) and you simply fail to make it clearly. So, what's your point?
- 0gre, on 08/28/2008, -1/+3Actually it suggests you use the vent setting which circulates air but doesn't really cool. In general though yes, it says just sweat it out. What it fails to address is the age old question of which is better, windows down or AC. I've heard that over 50 AC is better and under 50 the windows down is better.
- gurudrew, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2US gallon = 3.785411784 litres
UK gallon = 4.54609 litres - jbmcb, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2If you haven't noticed, Ford likes to begin the names of their cars with the letter F. Flex, Five-Hundred, Festiva, F-X pickups, Fairlane, Focus, Fusion, Falcon, Freestar, Freestyle, Fairmont, Fiesta, etc...
- LordStandley, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2The US is so far behind in MPG it's embarrassing. Go look at UK models and compare MPG to that of US cars.
Come on US manufacturers, pull your heads out of your asses. - pault107, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2Troll. Check his comment history:
http://zuubu.pcriot.com/?username=heilhitler&selec ...
This is the same guy that was all over Digg yesterday and got banned. He spreads his vile filth looking for a response. But he's a bit more dangerous than that - DO NOT CLICK ON ANY OF HIS LINKS. Some lead to a virus, some lead to browser hijacks. Just report him and move on. -
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