Week three produced 31.16 mpg despite a few unplanned trips. Not too shabby. I think that's about the upper limit of what I can expect for combined city/highway driving in a V6 equipped 3500+ car. I'm rather pleased that such little effort provided such great results and actually made my daily commute much more relaxing as well. I'm sure that over inflating the tires and coasting in neutral in a few select locations each day produced results but I believe that just slowing down provided the best bang for the buck!Nixon brought the federal highway speed limit down to 55 mph in response to the first oil crisis where it remained until 1987. I have no doubt that slower speeds would also have the added benefit of saving lives. Other websites claiming that the NHTSA's traffic fatality charts prove that slower speed limits make no difference are very misleading. It's hard to compare that data when seat belt usage increased dramatically over the last few decades and airbags became standard equipment on most vehicles. Seat belts were even optional until the late 60's.
I know from my own experience that slowing down can produce serious savings. Do I want to drive 55 mph on the interstate? Not really but I also don't want to pay $7 for a gallon of gasoline either. Pick your poison.
