How coasting downhills helps save you gas!!!

They showed some guys on the news a couple of weeks ago who did this. They have a word for them, but I forget what it is. I drive a Toyota 4Runner. I tried some of these concepts and it seemed like my gas mileage went down. Hmmm. I don't disagree with their findings, I just haven't found it true for my SUV.

Happy driving,

Dennis

I experimented as well, hiring 6 young men to push my car around town while I kept it in neutral. It helped a lot, and it was more economical for me to pay per mile transported, divided by 6, than to pay per gallon.

Going downhill won't work in Texas.... Land is just flat.   :)

I don't see the big issue people have with the gas prices.  It's overblown for the actual impact it has.  The average person will spend $500 more per year on gas with our prices.  I say higher gas prices are better for moving ahead in our country.  I say let's get $5/gal quickly so there's more of a focus on public transportation.  Cheaper and better for the environment.

I used to always to do years ago when i drove a stick. I lived in Pittsburgh back then and it is very hilly - It was also useful when coming down a big in the snow.

Hey Jared...you must have a compact car.  Back when gas was $1.00/gal I was spending over $125/month.  Multiply that by 4x the cost, and that is over $500/month, not $500 extra a year.  What math have you been doing?  From $1500 to $6000 a year for gas is a huge increase for any budget.

To the original comment...I saw the same tv show that another poster commented on, and these guys go to extremes.  Sadly, some of those measure don't work with a larger vehicle.  The reason, if  you drive too slow and take off too slow, you stay in low gears for too long for too great a distance, which will definitely make your milage worse.  I can drive in 1st gear at 2000 rpm or in high gear at 2000 rpm, and I will get much better milage in high gear.

One guy on the show got over 150 mpg.  Very few people would be willing to go to the extremes he went through to get that kind of milage.  He timed lights on all of his trips, took off very slow, insisted on never breaking unless absolutely necessary (which is why he times all the red lights), he cut his motor off to drift downhill (you should only do this in a manual shift, as auto transmissions are not intended to drift in neutral).  He held up lots of traffic making many people furious with him.  And that is only some of the stuff they mentioned on the tv show.  In our fast paced fast food society, few people will go that far unless they absolutely have to.  No one has that kind of patience.