yantastic

What's the best highway cruising speed that you guys have found maximizes your MPG? I usually set my cruise control @ 65 on highways in the NYC area and I get around 23-24 MPG. In NJ, I usually set it to 75 and get similar results, 23-24 MPG.
CAR: 09 TL AWD

Hogan9166

iTrader: (1)

There are a LOT of factors involved in MPG, including wind, road conditions, etc. That being said, I get anywhere between 23-26 cruising at 74mph.

I have an '09 SH-AWD as well.

slick316

Looks like the FWD does way better on gas mileage than I thought.

I drove to Dallas from Oklahoma City this weekend. On my way back I had to fill up right outside Dallas. The entire time back I was doing 75-80mph, the trip back was 180 miles. My car averaged 30.7mpg during that stretch.

I did a short 30 mile commute not to long ago. All highway, no traffic. Kept it at 60mph the whole time and averaged 34.5mpg.

I like to stick to 60-70mph on most of my highway commutes and seem to fair well in gas mileage.

RPhilMan1

I believe in most cars 50-55mph is the fastest speed you can obtain maximum MPG. After that, it drops off, naturally.

Obviously, 55mph can be slow on most highways/interstates.

Something like this:

JM2010 SH-AWD

I think trying to keep the RPM at or near 2K gets you the best mileage, that and the usual other things, such as correct tire pressure, steady acceleration, coasting when possible instead of braking, etc.

I normally drive 60-65 in metro area freeway traffic. With the AWD 6MT, I can easily attain 26-28 mpg (depending mostly on weather and traffic volume) in steady state freeway cruising. It may drop about 1 mpg in winter.

Mr Marco

Who cares about .6 better mpg/

My personal favorite is 7 miles over the speed limit. ie: 65 + 7 = 72.

Not enough to get a ticket, but just fast enough to shave 10 minutes off of 100 mile trip.

yantastic

i've seen that graph before as well from fueleconomy.gov, but i'm not sure if that's applicable to all cars. factors such as better co-efficient drag may allow a certain car to obtain maximum MPG at higher than 55MPH. the problem with that chart is that we cannot see what car(s) were used to come up with that random magic number

@slick316 35 MPG on FWD @ 65MPH is pretty amazing considering the gov rated it at 29 MPG highway

@Mr Marco i usually do 10 miles over the speed limit. haven't ever been pulled over for doing those speeds. i save 12 minutes on a 100 mile trip

Loli

My TL SH AWD mimics the graph pretty close. I have gotten as high as 28.5 MPG driving a steady 55 MPH. And get about 25 MPG at 70. But I am like Mr. Marco, I usually go 7 mph over the limit and get about 23.5 MPG on the hyway. I get about 18 in town if I don't gun it a lot. But have been getting about 17.3 lately. (I like to take off quick once and a while.)

stars_fan

I will update with my mileage in a coue weeks. I pickup my new black beauty in the morning.

billyt1963

I have had my SH-AWD since Dec, so far 10,058 miles. The lowest MPG I have gotten so far is 20.4 (twice) and the highest has been 29.2 (over 291 miles). I tend to drive "close" to the speed limit, normally about +5 or so. The highest mileage was a trip to Nashville, TN from Chattanooga. I filled up as I left town and then filled up again when I got home, so it was mostly highway, with very little in town. I would guess I averaged between 70 and 75.

ChknWingKing

I have been trying to find out the best myself, I got around 32mpg in my 2012 staying between 65-70 on a 120 mile trip. My engine only has 1400 miles on it, I hope it gets better when it is broken in. Still respectable for a car this size!

EazyRider562

Not to be a braggart but when I've gone to Vegas I usually drive around 90+ and get the best mileage that way. Usually around 27 MPG, sometimes I even go 100+. I do admit, I drive fast but if its getting me better mileage, why not?

Booya4139

In perfect conditions my FWD gets 32mph crusing on the highway at just under 70mph... In non perfect conditions its in up 27ish range.

RPhilMan1

I don't believe you.

parasitius

Maybe he is FWD_?

On a 3rd gen I've gotten 29 doing minimum 80 and 90~100 as much as possible for 5 hours. Meanwhile... last weekend the same style driving yielded 25. No idea why. I guess air conditioning? Cause it was cold out when I was getting 29.

CerberusKy

iTrader: (1)

A lot of MPG depends on the wind speed and direction. if you are driving into a 10 mph headwind, you mpg will be reduced, and if it is at your back it will be increased. I was driving in my truck through the mid-west into a 40+ mph headwind and was getting about 12 mpg. On the way back I was getting 19 mpg with about a 20 mph tail wind. Travel speed was 70 mph both directions.

JM2010 SH-AWD

This can be true only if you have the power to defy the laws of physics as well as the laws of Nevada and California.

EazyRider562

yeah sure bro, cool story.. carry on!

potmilkz

yea especially when going for socal to vegas is 50% up hill

MoAbbas

I personally dont go by the speed of the car, i just try to keep the RPMs around 2000 to 2500 if im trying to conserve gas. ive noticed a huge difference in my gas consumption that way. when i first got the car, i was gunning it everywhere, and it was eating my gas.
i drive fairly fast on the highways (85mph) but it takes some time to get up there.

g37guy01

It's a matter of time until you get nailed by the state police.

MoAbbas

Thanks for jinxing it.........

i know the roads where i speed, i read traffic flows, not a road douche to other drivers, look out for unmarked cops coming in and off of ramps, keep my focus and have a radar..... yeah that still doesnt guaranty me not getting pulled over, but it does increase the odds in my favor, and im willing to play that game. a lapse in judgement or over confidence/cockiness/arrogance and im screwed.

DreDuo

I have a 2011 and on the highway I averaged 28.6 when I drove it home (250 miles). Over all life of the car i am averaging about 22.5 mixed driving. And it is a FWD

dwest1023

My 09 tech gets about 28MPG going from DC to Ohio. I run about 70 with an occasional 90-100. Just put on a set of Continental DWS, so hopefully I can squeeze a few drop more of fuel. Leaving for Ohio this weekend, so I will report back if I can find this thread again.

stars_fan

According to tirerack the DWS tires weigh 3lbs per tire. IMO you should see an increase in MPG due to less weight.

stars_fan

Should say 3lbs less per tire.

Wtf no edit button az

g37guy01

I know the roads very well in that area you live in; so I know from whence I speak. Didn't mean to jinx it; on 55+ I do 7 mph over the limit. A few years ago I got nailed by doing 20mph over the speed limit near Peterpank, got lucky....got a warning. Since then; I've learned my lesson.

I do agree with the poster who said he keeps the tach around 2k at highway speeds. That seems to be the sweet spot in most modern sports sedans in this class.

FirstTL12

For you guys going on long road trips with not much traffic, do you engage the cruise control or just keep the mph manually between your target goal in order to get the best mpg?

MoAbbas

Freehold mall to Perrine road is a huuge speed trap. i was talking to more about parkway and turnpike, and even rt 18 from freehold to East Brunswick is pretty safe, you have clear sight lines.

and i was the guy who said to keep it around 2000 to 2500. =)

RIneuron

Most studies indicate better mileage with cruise. I'm sure a highly vigilant, frugal driver could do better, but why not relax a little?

pickler

cruising doesnt generally lead to best mpg, specially on level changes. you have to do pulse and glide if you want the best mpg. i had a rental sh-awd tl last week while my rdx was being serviced and i managed 40mpg doing pulse and glide on a 25mile trip. i think in the J37 the brake specific fuel consumption sweet spot is at 2200rpm at about 80% load. it will not hurt if you climb to 3000rpm at say 10% less load for the pulse. The J37 is actually more efficient than the J35 in the FWD TL and TSX V6 because it has VTEC on both the intake AND the exhaust.

in simple terms; at 60mph accelerate to 75mph in ~4 seconds at rpm and load described above. then release throttle and apply only just enough to bring you back to 60mph in about 10-12 seconds. repeat. that's how i scored 40mpg.

i know pain in the ass but makes those long drives on the straights more interesting, specially for the people behind you xD of course you will need a device like scangauge to monitor load.

sojue

I just start doing this and cars behind me just passing me by. lol

One questions! I don't understand when you say 80% load. what is this mean?

FirstTL12

Too funny Pickler. I do notice that what you describe actually does happen--it's the only way I can get my mpg meter to peg at maximum (over 40mpg) on the freeway. Never thought about employing that as a full time way to save gas. I'll experiment on my upcoming road trip, driving mostly steady one way and engaging cruise control for some length of time, but I won't leave it on all the time because I get bored. And on the way back I'll do some of what you recommend.

pickler

yes not only does this help you in the highway but it can reduce consumption in the city as well. have you noticed than when you release throttle your consumption jumps to 99mpg? that's because of fuel cutoff. this is really good and during this time your engine is basically in sleep and only your wheels are turning the engine. you can exploit this to save gas in the city where drag is less. in the highway its a bit hard to go into fuel cutoff because the car decelerates pretty quickly. Driving without brakes is another technique, you just anticipate stops and lights. remember short brisk (not WOT) acceleration is better than long slow ones.


"Load is the a measurement of how hard an engine is working which is measured in percent". thank god for copy and paste. there are fuel economy aids out there like scangauge which hook up to your OBD2 port and read stuff like MPG, Load, Ignition timing etc. you can use scangauge to monitor load. you want to make sure you have 75-90% engine load while accelerating to be in your power vs consumption sweet spot. of course keep the RPMs below 3500. and as RPM rises need for throttle. load is not a steady throttle input. so reduce throttle a bit as rpm rises. I can't tell you how much throttle is equal to how much load because TL uses drive by wire (electric throttle). yea you have to get a gauge lol.

read this:
http://autospeed.com/cms/title_Brake...1/article.html



to be honest all honda engines love high rpms. so dont be afraid to shift at 3500 rpm considering you are not going WOT.
yea this is getting technical

FirstTL12

Pickler, I hadn't heard of this and assumed the opposite actually. Can you expand a little on this? What's the ideal acceleration pattern? Obviously not flooring it, but you should get to 25mph by, what, 2 seconds?

Also, I'm unfamiliar with the term WOT.

Thanks!

sojue

I kwow it stands for Wide Open Throttle

dwest1023

I use cruise as much as I can. However on todays roads, I am always running up on someone, and I stay away from trucks as much as possible. Therefore I am always on the gas.

pickler

not sure exactly for the acceleration pattern. i would need a tl sh-awd for testing for a couple days. unfortunately i did not hook up my scangauge to that courtesy car. The most accurate way for you to know is to get a OBDII reader and monitor your engine load. then give it enough throttle to take engine load to 70-90% range. This number varries with RPM and throttle so i cannot give you any numbers here. plus i can't find even a sh-awd tl dyno (torque curve) let alone a BSFC map. Also not a lot of people hypermile with TLs or V6 engines so its hard to find out. but here is a map form a typical 1.8L 4-cylindar engine:



this map shows that with that particular engine it gives you the most horsepower per drop of fuel between 1800-3500rpm at 75-90% load. i expect the TL power curve to be happier at the top end, so i would guess the sweet spot on the TL to be at 2000-4000rpm between 70-80% engine load. Of course your car wont venture into 4000rpm range at only 70% load it will likely shift at 3000rpm. My advice: just give it enough gas in D so that the computer shifts at 3000rpm in first gears 1-2, and ~2700rpm at higher gears 3-5. if you wanna pass someone give it enough gas so your rpms do not jump past 3500rpm.

FirstTL12

Thanks pickler! Dang this thing is a science! Time to get my learn on...

pickler

ok no problem. here is a video i made with my RDX which you might find helpful. notice LOD on my scangauge, that's engine load: