Tricks of the hypermilersBoost mileage in any car

With gasoline topping $4 a gallon, there's no shortage of advice from the financial experts: Try car-pooling, biking or walking. Or trade your car.

Then I heard about "hypermiling": changing your driving behavior to coax better gas mileage out of your car. Hypermilers do such things as drive slowly, brake as little as possible and limit their use of the air conditioner. Plenty of Web sites offer tips.

I ended up meeting with Kent Johnson, an engineering consultant and a hypermiler since September, who researched my 2001 Volkswagen Beetle at FuelEconomy.gov.

"With an automatic, you should get 29 miles on the highway, 22 in the city and 25 combined," Johnson said. "So on average, you should be around 25 miles per gallon."

"Is that bad?" I asked. I hadn't thought about mileage when I bought my Beetle, only how cute it was.

"I'm betting we can do 10 percent better," Johnson said.

His 2005 Chevy Aveo is EPA-rated at 30 mpg for combined driving. But with tips he has learned on CleanMPG.com, he says he routinely ekes out 10 more miles per gallon.

Johnson knows this because he bought a ScanGauge, an electronic box that plugs into your car's computer and tells you how fast you're going, how many miles per gallon you're getting and much more. Johnson plugged the device into my Beetle as I settled into the driver's seat.

I admit it: I'm not a good driver. Which makes me nervous. I'm too scared to go fast.

And that makes me a good hypermiler. Hypermilers advocate going at or below the speed limit. Johnson and others I talked to also avoid braking heavily and idling excessively. They put on their seat belts and adjust their mirrors before starting the car. If they know they'll be at a red light for long, they turn off their engines. Heading downhill, they put their cars in neutral or glide down.

"Just be the smooth operator"

Critics say some hypermilers go to the extreme: that driving too slowly is dangerous on a freeway and simply rude on a two-lane road. There are other controversial techniques such as drafting (closely following a tractor-trailer) to reduce wind resistance.

"Many of the techniques that the hypermilers use can prove rather effective in cutting gas consumption, but you have to think about not only your safety but the safety of others first," said John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. "Some of the things they do can be rather dangerous."

Asked about such criticisms, Wayne Gerdes, the owner of CleanMPG.com, gets emotional: "I get e-mails, just hate mail, you wouldn't believe it." What's wrong with driving at the speed limit, he asked.

Back in my Bug, I could see why Gerdes gets so worked up. As I drove 40 mph, the speed limit, cars either honked or drove so closely behind me as to try to intimidate me out of the lane.

The car behind me finally drove around me and accelerated but did not make it past the red light. As I pulled up slowly to the light, I noticed he was one car ahead of me.

"Look how much farther ahead of me he is after he chased me down the road," I said.

"That's part of hypermiling: to understand that going slow is better than going fast," Johnson said. "Just be the smooth operator."

Results of the first attempt

I was pretty smooth, Johnson said after the ride. But I kept modulating on the gas pedal, that is, applying pressure, then easing up. I also spent too much time at stop signs and sometimes accelerated to a red light.

The ScanGauge showed I had driven 6.9 miles at a rate that would get me 23.9 miles per gallon. The trip cost me 87 cents.

He looked at my tires. "When was the last time you checked your tire pressure?"

"Um ... well ... hmmm," I responded.

He checked. The back two were underinflated — important, he said, because the higher the pressure, the lower the rolling resistance and the better the fuel economy.

Another try

I drove the route again, this time applying some of his tips. When I got to the first stop sign, I did not linger. When I saw a red light, I took my foot off the gas pedal and let the car coast. Sometimes I didn't even have to stop because the light turned green as I glided to it.

Then a biker appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

"You saw that?" Johnson asked.

"Hardly," I said.

"We don't want to get too much into the mode of driving that we forget we're driving," he said. It was a line that would have made the AAA Mid-Atlantic guy proud.

Then we got to what we knew would be a long stoplight.

"Now turn your engine off," Johnson said.

I turned it off and pulled the key.

"No, keep the key in," he said.

When the light turned green, I wasn't ready: It took me too long to get the key back into the ignition and restart the car. The car behind me honked.

Despite my best efforts, I did a little bit worse the second time. Miles per gallon: 23.6.

Going shoeless

Now it was Johnson's turn. But first, he took off his shoe. I gave him a puzzled look. Driving in a sock allows him to better feel how much pressure he's applying to the accelerator, he explained.

We proceeded as the light turned yellow. "There's probably no way I can slow down long enough or far enough to make it through this light," he said.

We stopped. When the light turned green, he pulled away. Our miles per gallon dropped to 24. Then we went downhill. He released the gas pedal. Our miles per gallon went up to 75.

Next we got to the long light where I had fumbled turning the car off and on. Johnson was eager to show me how it's done. But his cellphone rang. As he talked, the car idled. By the time he was done, the light was about to change. He lost his chance.

"Another reason for not talking on the phone when you're driving," he said. "Yeah, that probably cost me."

It did. We read the ScanGauge. "I did 4, almost 5 percent better," he said. "That's not the best."

Still, he proved that some of his techniques work. Do I plan to use everything he taught me? Probably not. Am I going to stop using my air conditioner when it's hot out? No way.

Townsend of AAA gave good advice on hypermiling: "You need to study it. You need to school yourself. And you need to determine which tools work for you."