... Have you turned off your AC? Removed the drive belt for the AC? What about removing the rear seats? Passenger seat if nobody will be with you? Do you require the spare tire at all times? ... The Element was never ever touted as a fuel miser of a vehicle. It gets anywhere from 16-20 in the city and 17-25 on the highway.
The price sheet on my auto stated 20-22-24 (city-combo-hwy). Nowhere did it say that I would have to remove parts of the vehicle or live in a temperate zone to get this mileage.
Naturally, someone like me who is a conservative driver is going to be disappointed when they average BELOW 20/mpg. Mileage-wise, I miss my old Dodge Caravan. It had a V-6 engine and when it was new got a reliable 18-19/mpg in the city and 23-24/mpg on the highway, very close to the E's estimates AND it was a bigger more powerful car. Sadly, at 16-years of service, it had to be retired. Don't get me wrong, I love my E, but something is sadly amiss when so many people are having trouble getting the advertised mileage. Never, with my Caravan, was it necessary to think about my driving behavior, as so many E owners are doing, in order to get the advertised mileage.
are you seriously that concerned with saving a few pennies?
This "hyper miling" bs is just going too far ...
Now you want to shut off the engine during a drive-thru purchase? Why not park and walk into the place? It will save you even more!
As for my questions about turning off the engine, they were asked out of curiosity. After spending some time reading the many postings about gas mileage, some of the strategies seemed pretty far out to me but not turning off your engine in some instances. The purpose of my questions was to get some REASONABLE guideline as to when it would be beneficial to turn one's auto off.
Your response was less than helpful. It was hurtful and I resent your tone and assumptions. You did not answer my questions ... but merely ranted at me.
Who said anything about "hypermilling?"
How do you know that I don't usually walk into McDonald's? The McDonald's reference was used because on one of the FEW occasions that I drove through the drive-thru line I ended up trapped between cars waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting ... all because orders ahead of me were screwed up. I finally decided to turn off my engine, but as I crept forward, I had to turn it off and on several more times. I was curious whether I should have just idled for the 15-20 minutes it took to escape primarily because I had to turn the engine on and off several times. Naturally, if I had only had to turn the engine off once until everything got straighten out, it would have been a no-brainer decision. I've gotten trapped in other situations like this ... through no fault of my own ... and I was just wondering about idling vs. parking.
As a SITE ADMIN I would have thought you would have better manners.