Comments on: Fuel efficient driving tips from the Taylors

By: FIT SANDY

FIT SANDY — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:18:19 +0000

You bet you can get better mileage from an existing vehicle if you allow it to inhale and exhale with ease. Due to design constraints most of the vehicles have compromised bare minimum sized air filters, intakes and exhausts. If you can just once invest in a larger filter box with larger area air filter with bigger dia tubes and a snokel to suck ambient air from outside engine compartment and on exhaust side if you could possibly use a bigger dia exhaust pipe with minimum restrictions to it you will get better torque resulting in driving in higher gears even at low vehicle speeds without hesitation thus getting desired permanent increase in fuel economy. I have tried this in mine without using any after marker parts and got good results.

By: Andrew M

Andrew M — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:51:20 +0000

Glen,
yep i assumed there would be some sort of transition period between where windows down out weighed A/C on.

of course if you are plodding at 10KMH (hypothetically) A/C would be a bigger strain on economy.

but in saying that i suppose windows down has little or no effect in cooling the occupants either at those speeds.
windows down in low speeds or stop start traffic isnt beneficial to to cooling the occupants and nor would it strain the economy figures

By: Tachyon

Tachyon — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:00:09 +0000

Why is it that Toyota manage to lie consistantly about their fuel consumption figures? I recently tested an Aurion AT-X, and a Commodore Omega. I drove both so to get maximum fuel economy, over the same stretch of 50km, with no trafic, and the VE returned 0.6 l/100km better than the Aurion. The toyota may have more power, but this is unnoticable in the performance of the vehicle compared to the VE, especially when driving the high output V6 model commodore’s. Good to see that with the introduction of the Commodore Sportwagon, the VE range is recieving some much needed safety and styling upgrades (Alloy wheels standard, Body coloured mirrors/door handels) as well as Air-con Standard on Omega as well.

By: Glen

Glen — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:03:07 +0000

In regards to aircon, its more fuel efficient to have to windows down & aircon off below 80kays but more efficient to have aircon on and windows up over 80kmh. But if the car has been sitting in the midday sun in summer im still gonna use the aircon.

By: No Name

No Name — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:44:45 +0000

Hoooowwwllll..yap yap yap.

By: Carl

Carl — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:27:13 +0000

What a bunch of envious diesel haters!!!!! Lets try and stay positive why so much negativity is it a full moon or something????

By: No Name

No Name — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:25:03 +0000

Hey Bavarian – We have a real problem with binge drinking in the UK. Not me though I drink all day everyday…Tee hee

Come TP answer my question you lilly livered wimp

By: Andrew M

Andrew M — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:07:19 +0000

Captain Mainwaring,
mate i dont even think they would have had it cruising at that high in the rev range.

i could safely bet they didnt do laps around london where the lovely photo was taken either.

they say they crossed 6 countries so i doubt they were on a route that had roundabouts or town centres. also rule out traffic jams as it is one of their tips to avoid peak hour. they wouldnt be silly enough to map a route that posed a risk of problems. they were just driving for the sake of it so i doubt they had an itinery to go places where people normally would.

my guess is 60kmh cruising speed in 5th gear

By: Bavarian Missile

Bavarian Missile — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:01:24 +0000

I was going to suggest a large glass of red to relax you No Name ..but its a bit early over there for that I guess?

By: Bavarian Missile

Bavarian Missile — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:59:18 +0000

Anyone got the name of a good therapist for Toyotaritis..

By: No Name

No Name — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:51:28 +0000

Oh for f*ck sake TP. What will the Aurion do. Urban/COuntry/Combined…please answer a reasonble question if you are capable.

By: TP

TP — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:06:36 +0000

Want to get fuel efficiency? Buy an Aurion

By: Eyma Teapot

Eyma Teapot — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:02:29 +0000

Another way to save fuel is drive down hill, he didnt metion that one. What about tail gating to take advantage of the slip stream?

By: Captain Mainwaring

Captain Mainwaring — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:15:08 +0000

Thank you Andrew. This means that factoring in towns, traffic jams and roundabouts they would have been cruising at 70 or just under. In other words about 1700rpm, just shaving the point at which the diesel engine falls completely off the torque curve.
A totally meaningless exercise then, as nobody in the real world drives like that.

By: Andrew M

Andrew M — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:39:07 +0000

Captain Mainwaring,
mate they averaged 53.5kmh.

obviously chosen as it was fast enough to warrent 4th or even 5th gear
im not sure of the gearing on these things but it is possible in some vehicles to drive in 5th when cruising aroung those speeds.

needless to say though when you are doing the 100kmh limit they absolutely chew the juice as they are geared bottom end

By: Andrew M

Andrew M — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:34:30 +0000

ECTO,
you beat me to it,
as far as i know having the aircon on is just as efficient as having the windows down due to the extra drag created on the vehicle.

By: Doh

Doh — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:15:11 +0000

Tip 17.
take 2 vehicles the shape of bricks and drive in the draft of the lead vehicle. alternate leaders for best averaged outcome.

By: ECTO

ECTO — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:47:04 +0000

Also, to a certain degree, winding down the windows can also create drag, thus using more fuel too – especially in the high way. So using air-con and having the windows down is sort of a double edged sword IMHO.

By: Captain Mainwaring

Captain Mainwaring — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:40:32 +0000

I’ll ask it again, I’ll ask it again, and I’ll damn well ask it again. HOW BLOODY SLOW WAS THEIR CRUISING SPEED?
I’ve done lots of economy driving (at normal traffic speeds) and it is a physical impossibility that these square-arsed Jeep clunkers could do that sort of economy unless they were faffing along at 65-70km/h.

By: Oz.

Oz. — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:32:03 +0000

Typo in my last post, I meant “this is nothing I didn’t know” not “This is nothing that I already know.”