Using 'green' foot on gas saves me 0.6 L/100 km

Mark Richardson

WHEELS EDITOR

I got a book in the mail the other day entitled 75 Ways To Save Gas, by Jim Davidson, president of auto consultancy firm CarSmart, and its title is self-explanatory. Since I was driving a new Honda Insight hybrid, I thought I'd try using some of its advice to save some money.

The Insight is a good car for this project because it encourages you to drive in a gas-saving manner. The digital speedometer is bathed in a half-moon of gentle light that changes colour depending on the weight of your foot – good driving (read, miserly driving) is indicated by soft green light, while bad driving is blue light, either light blue or strong dark blue, depending on how evil you are.

As well, there's a gauge on the instrument panel that can be set to tell you your average and current fuel consumption. This isn't an unusual option these days, but this one rewards you with little pictures of leafy plants that accumulate over time. Drive really carefully to use as little gas as possible and you'll end up with five plant icons in a row, with little flowery heads.

But I digress. I'd driven all the way to Ottawa and back on the weekend, highway driving at standard speed, and the gauge indicated my consumption at 5.7 L/100 km (50 m.p.g.). Not bad at all, and enough for five little plants to eventually pop up on the panel.

But surely the Insight could do better.

I browsed the book. Tip No. 1: "Why not walk?" Well, that wasn't going to happen. I had to get to work, 55 km away. Tip No. 7: "Get a scooter." That wasn't going to happen either – I'd just finished the Mad Bastard Scooter Rally. Read Andrew Meeson's account today on page W29 and you'll understand.

Moving right along, Tip No. 19: "Add nitrogen to your tires." This has some value in the very long run, in that nitrogen is less likely to leak and so your tires will remain properly inflated for longer. But the Insight was going back to Honda the next day, so forget it. Tip No. 37: "Avoid air conditioning," to lessen the demand on the engine. This was easy, especially in the comfortable 20-degree warmth.

The tips went on and on: "Don't rev the engine." "Avoid short trips." "Stop speeding." I turned the Insight's key and coasted gently out of the driveway and into the road, watching the warm green glow around the speedometer.

It's very easy to use less gas – just don't press the accelerator more than you have to. Think of it as a tap releasing gasoline to the engine: the more gas to the engine, the faster you go, so the more the tap is turned and the faster your speed, the more gas you use. Simple.

Except that to keep the green glow, you need a very gentle foot, coaxing rather than demanding speed from the vehicle. Zero-to-50 km/h takes 15 seconds in the Insight without seeing any blue light, and 0-to-80 km/h stretches itself out to 40 seconds. An extra effort to 100 km/h takes at least a couple of minutes.

Braking isn't much better. According to Tip No. 63, "Lighten up on the brakes," the revving-up cycle to resume driving after braking is a big waste of fuel. But cars weren't letting me merge onto the 401, which made me brake, and others were jammed up my rear, which made me want to speed up. So driving safely was quite a challenge.

I made it to work, never speeding and hitting only fairly light traffic, and the gauge told me I'd averaged 4.1 L/100 km (69 m.p.g.). I think that's as good as I've ever seen on four wheels. But despite Tip No. 48, "Give yourself time," and Tip No. 73, "Listen to calm music," I didn't feel very relaxed. I'd been driving on egg shells the whole way, blocking traffic for nearly an hour.

For the drive home, I reset the consumption gauge but couldn't be bothered to look at it. Tip No. 55, "Give up your Sunday drive," had annoyed me: It said to "try to use the car as an appliance that you use only when necessary."

I turned on the air-conditioning. I turned off the Econo button. I cranked the tunes and stepped on the gas, keeping the evil blue light burning whenever possible. I got home under similar conditions in 15 minutes less time, losing two little plant icons along the way.

At home, in the driveway, I checked my consumption: 4.7 L/100 km (60 m.p.g.). That's the second most frugal I've ever been on four wheels. Remarkable.

75 Ways To Save Gas by Jim Davidson sells for $6.99.

Mark Richardson is the editor of Wheels. mrichardson@thestar.ca

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