Driving an Automatic
 

Hey all. Now that I purchased my Rav4, I need some input into driving an automatic more economically. I started shifting it to neutral to glide towards lights, and I don't punch it when the light turns green. Any recommendations?

Using the brakes as little as possible is a great start, so is slowing down a bit.

ER's sister website, EcoModder is much more suited to answer your question. I suggest a visit.

Here is a list of driving techniques you can use:

100+ Hypermiling / ecodriving tips & tactics for better mpg - EcoModder.com

Get a ScanGuage2 and you can see if you are doing the right or wrong thing..

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1.../53mph1673.jpg

My 6-speed AT does pretty good.. (2009 Ford Escape 2.5L)
I just have to keep speed down and it does very well.

On a flat road, it can get about 40 MPG at 40 MPH..
The AFE displayed was the average fuel efficiency for that trip (on US-95).

If I'm going fast, or going down a hill and let my foot off the gas,
the engine will go into fuel-cut-off mode. But staying under the speed limit
does the most for saving fuel.
Second on the list is keeping some good pressure in the tires.
It makes for a bumpy ride sometimes, but a little extra PSI helps
with MPG & handling.

For me, messing around with advanced Hypermiling techniques isn't going to save a lot more fuel..

If what we see on the news is true, we will all be saving more soon.
Because we will be cutting way back on the miles we drive.
My guess is $6 by the end of August. I'll revise that if things change,
and we can jump out of the hand-basket.

:eek: God help us who have to drive a lot! I just put the calculator to my commute and I'm commuting about 360 miles a week plus an extra 20 miles of "discretionary" driving. Fortunately I traded in my small truck for a used Prius, so it is only 9 gallons of gas. Still, at $6/gal it would be $55 per week. Time to start looking for a job closer to home...

If I get some hours in this year, I hope it's during the summer.
Because the Lab is within bike riding distance. (5.2 miles) :)

I had some many nuisance medical problems in 2010, I only logged about 6 hours of work.
Maybe I'll be better this year.. Get some moola to pay for some of the PV stuff I've been buying..

I really like my ScanGauge2, it's helped me understand how my driving habits affect my mpg.

The best way to save gas is to not use the brakes. This means leaving a larger buffer between you and the car in front and taking turns a bit faster. Also try learning when the car shifts into a higher gear. For example my car gets better MPG at 43MPH (~50MPG) compared to 40MPG (~35MPG) because the transmission shifts into a higher gear.

scanguageII works fine on a stick. the car just needs to be new enough. 96 and newer in most cases. my 97 F350 is classified as a heavy duty and didn't need to have the computer system the rest of the 96 on vehicles have.

I like Angmaar's answer. Your driving technique will have a big impact on your fuel economy. Anticipating well in advance when you will need to change speed will allow you to roll through situations where other, less obeservant drivers would come to a stop and then need to accelerate back up to speed.
I'm not sure of the merits of taking it out of gear. Some modern cars will go into a fuel saving mode where they consume very little/no fuel on the over-run so it might not be worth the effort to shift.
Other suggestions would be increase tyre pressure, remove unnecessary weight and remove any external protrusions like roof racks, spot lights or aerials. Ecomodder has vastly more on these topics.

Yeah, when I'm coasting down a hill, already over the speed-limit,
and the SG2 is displaying 120+ MPG, I know that it's so close
to fuel cut-off, why mess around shifting to 'N', when I really
need to give all my attention to driving (and watching for radar traps). ;)

Anyways, my car is still running okay at 5,200 miles. It's two years old this month.
I think I've burned around 200 gallons of fuel so far.