and the more you drive the more gas you will eat up.. LOL

If you can stand having all the windows up and driving in the summer heat than you might save some gas. If you need to do that, you were probably better off driving a toyota corolla and saving 15,000 or so of the purchase price for gas..

 

I am pretty sure it is just on and off.

What I meant in the previous posts with not have to run "as-much" is that the compressor would stay off for larger periods and hence save gas...

 

I'd be willing to bet that it's variable. In my 96 2.5TL, when I leave it on FULL AUTO and let the A/C run, if it's a cool day, I don't experience much of a change in gas mileage or acceleration. On the other hand, if it's really hot outside, and the A/C is on recirc and blasting my face at max fan speed (which it does initally to cool down the cabin), then my acceleration SUCKS, and it eats more gas.

The amount of fuel the A/C will use starts off initally high, but if you leave it on, once the cabin reaches the right temperature, you will actually gain fuel economy as opposed to opening the windows. I've tried to experimentally verify this, but conditions are too diverse to get the same runs over and over again.