50 mpg BP :) + a few little updates

[neanderpaul]

46 mpg BP festiva is totally BEAST!!!!! Most people mod their car, any car, for performance and ALWAYS lose fuel economy. Yours is a beast with greatly enhanced performance that can smoke A LOT of stock AND modified cars and still gets stupid good, enviable by any standard, fuel economy. Festiva FTW again!

[Charlie1717]

Excellent - but you need to do a much longer trip for accuracy. I'm so envious. The best I ever did was 49.8 (never got to 50) but that was driving from Philly to Ithaca, NY and back. most of that driving was on the turnpike and I had to do 70 mph or get run over. I'm sure I could break the elusive 50 mpg mark if I could safely run the speed limit but in the Philly area, you become a real hazard when you aren't traveling with traffic. Traffic in this part of the country likes to move much faster than 55 mph.
Anyhow - great news and update when you gone a bit farther and used more fuel. I also found that it is best to keep a little sheet and write down the mileage and how much fuel you put in everytime you get gas. That way you can get a realistic number for your mileage. My everyday driving around in the Winter is low 40's and in the Summer mid 40's. - Oh I forgot- this is a stock FI, 5 speed Festiva I'm talking about.

Yeah the two trips that were 300 miles I got 45ish mpg which would be more accurate than 100 mile. I plan on trying to go closer to 400 miles before I fill up this time and really see how I do. I'm hoping to keep that 45 mpg mark. I'd be very content at that.

The killer is trying to keep a constant speed. And not letting traffic get you going faster. I had a hard time keeping at 55 or 70 because I'd tend to speed up to 60 or 75. I bet with cruise control you could get amazing mpg! I'm sure you could easily get 50 mpg if traffic permitted it.

Thanks, I almost within strike range of Darlo!

Yeah, the last 15 miles I was white knuckling it, because there are no gas stations in that section of the drive.
I had 23 miles to complete the trip, as I've only ever put 10.3 gallons in a festiva, I calculated after I filled up I would flamed out!

The hard part is to keep a steady 60 mph!

I bet a bump would have caused a sputter you were so low on gas haha. That's the best though running out of gas and still rolling into the gas station. That hasn't happened near as much since I've owned festivas. But in my mountaineer it was every other week ha.

It would be awesome to see the trip roll over to 500 miles though!

46 mpg BP festiva is totally BEAST!!!!! Most people mod their car, any car, for performance and ALWAYS lose fuel economy. Yours is a beast with greatly enhanced performance that can smoke A LOT of stock AND modified cars and still gets stupid good, enviable by any standard, fuel economy. Festiva FTW again!

Thanks Paul!
Yeah it is incredible. Even if I'm off by a little bit or really even if I was off by 10 mpg it's still much better than most of the cars on the road! Plus much more fun to drive!

I have a lot more interstate driving that I'll be doing so I'm hoping to bring my average up since the winter/thermostat issue hindered my mpg. Maybe get a more accurate view of what my average will be. I'm hoping to get mid 40's interstate and upper 30's in town. But my city driving is typically 2 miles with a cold car so I've been getting like 33 mpg if its pure city.

[TominMO]

Two other factors are whether the wind is with you or against you, and drafting behind another vehicle. If you get behind a semi or motor home, you can stay back a ways and still get a lot of benefit. And motor homes tend to go slow, so you won't be annoying anyone since they will have to pass the motor home anyway.

[Charlie1717]

Two other factors are whether the wind is with you or against you, and drafting behind another vehicle. If you get behind a semi or motor home, you can stay back a ways and still get a lot of benefit. And motor homes tend to go slow, so you won't be annoying anyone since they will have to pass the motor home anyway.

Yeah I had pretty pristine conditions for my 300 mile runs I drove at 7Am and 10PM with almost no traffic. I tried drafting for a while but I just can't do it I have no patience even when I'm driving the speed limit haha. On my last run with the 50mpg I had a strong strong tail wind maybe 15 to 20mph tail wind with a little drafting also.