Efficiency Experiment

I recently tried a little experiment with Trogdor, the Mighty Corolla. Theoretically, Trogdor is supposed to get 42 highway miles to the gallon, which I have not seen since, well, ever. I usually run in the 30-35 mpg range, depending on how much city driving I do.

So I ran a little test. I had a couple of 4-in-a-row shifts at work last month, which means that I made the 60-ish mile, practically-all-highway commute 8 times in a couple of weeks, without any other driving in between. Before this started, I changed the oil, verified tire pressures, and basically made my car as clean as I could.*

The first set of 4 shifts I drove at about 75 mpg (which is about what the traffic will bear) and sailed on in. I passed when necessary, and basically drove at a comfortable (for me) speed. I took about 50 minutes to make a one-way trip and made 380 miles on 11 gallons of gas. That works out to about 35 mpg.

The second set of shifts I set the cruise control at 60, sat back, let people pass me, and got to the office when I got there, which took right about an hour. I made 460 miles on 11 gallons. That works out to about 42 miles per gallon.

I drew a couple of interesting conclusions from all this:

1--'06 corollas get pretty decent gas mileage, even if you drive like an idiot. Also, they hold up pretty well with minimal maintenance.
2--Dropping 15 miles an hour does really cool things for your gas mileage. I picked up 7 miles per gallon, which amounts to about an extra 80 miles per gallon on a tank of gas.
3--Even at today's prices, that's about $10.
4--The cost, in TIME, of driving more slowly amounted to 70 minutes, even factoring in the time it took to refuel the tank.

So I can save almost $10 for over an hour of my time. Yes, there are additional advantages for the environment that I cannot calculate, but I estimate them to be pretty minimal. What do three gallons of gas really mean in the big picture? It's a negligible amount. I can do a lot more (for the environment, even) by taking those 20 minutes a day and using them for something more productive than keeping my car between the lines.

Plus, you know, at this stage in my life I'm not willing to trade my time for $10 an hour.




*well, the working bits anyway. I wasn't going to wash it or anything.