reece146

What am I doing different? Substantial VTEC but very little city or stop-n-go driving.

Another example that might drive the point home...

One of my daily driver vehicles is a Jeep Cherokee with the 4.0 and automatic transmission. My commute is about 85% highway, 15% city with not a lot of actual stop and go driving. Total distance is ~140 kms return. With that machine I am AVERAGING 22 mpg (10.7 l/100km). If I had all city driving I'd probably be averaging in the low to mid teens (16-18 l/100km). EPA rates it at 14/19 mpg (16.8 / 12.4 l/100km) but EPA numbers are rarely very hard to beat. EPA says the 2000 S2000 is rated 18/23 mpg ( 13.1 / 10.2 l/100km). That's easy to beat.

In all city driving if you are breaking 400 km / tank running the tank down to no bars I'd say you were doing ok.

As for bothering tracking fuel economy I find it is a good way to see if the car is performing properly or not. If you get a sudden drop in fuel economy there is probably something that needs to be attended to with the car. It's worked for me for the last 25 years anyway.

HTH

purplemonkeydishwasher

^^ whoops! I didn't see that original post you made. That is insanely good fuel economy! Perhaps it really is just all the city driving I do. At any rate, I completely agree. I don't really care about gas mileage however since this is a new car to me, I am checking things over to make sure everything is functioning as it should. The poor economy sent alarms off in my head but I guess it's to be expected after all. Maybe I'll see an improvement with some minor adjustments to my driving style.

FluKy15

I know I got 350 km MAX when I first got my car and I couldn't understand it at all. As I drove and got better at manual, I got better fuel economy. The city driving doesn't help all that much too.

jcharri

Let me offer a suggestion to everyone. The topic to this whole subject is "saving money". If you can't find ways to save enough money from your S2000 related to gas mileage, consider ways to save money elsewhere in your life like avoiding fancy coffee places, eating out as much, ordering soft drinks when you could drink water instead, or cutting back on your utility costs at home. Saving money in these ways can help you avoid the cost associated with owning an S2000.

I do though have one inquiry. I understand that some fancy cars (including hybrids) have a mechanism that turns off your car motor when you come to a complete stop and starts it back again automatically when you press the gas pedal. I wonder if it is possible to install such a mechanism in any car.

For the mechanics out there, how possible is it to have any 6 speed transmission other than another S2000 transmission installed on an S2000? If so, would having one installed with a lower gear ratio be possible that would reduce such high rpms? If so again, how? Please advise.

myflys2k

You could change the rear end gears from the stock 4.10 to 3.9 but I don't think that would help much with fuel economy. When I had 4.77 gears the fuel economy wasn't much different from the stock 4.10 gears even though the engine was reving +800rpm on the highway in 6th gear. Stick to cutting back on the lattes .

jcharri

I plan on calling Honda tomorrow about the engine auto stop feature to see if it would be possible to have such a feature installed on a S2000. If they say yes, then I'll let everyone know. This feature again would only serve useful when in times where you can't gracefully approach an intersection and time it right where you can proceed through it after the light turns green without having to stop. Problem with where I live is that some roads have intersections about every quarter (or less) of a mile where you definitely will have to stop for a period of time.

jcharri

Honda has said that they do not offer the auto engine stop feature on any of their cars other than the hybrid that they sell. So much for wishing.

Crazycanuck

I really don't care about my fuel consumption other than the already mentioned indication of a compromised performance issue indicating potential breakdown. No, I'm not wealthy by any means!
I also own a Nissan Frontier (auto tranny). Now that truck is a gas PIG! Any offers on fuel savings for that truck has me all ears!!
My S uses more gas because of my driving habits, and I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT!
I predominantly use Pioneer gas for my Nissan because of the Bonus bucks. Typically, Pioneer is the cheapest around here AND you get the bonus bucks as well. I currently have about $95. in bonus bucks! I've been using Petro Canada 93 in the S but was not aware of the Shell - sans - ethanol thing. How does the lower octane affect performance? Is my S "happier" on 93 with ethanol vs 91 without ethanol or is it even measurable? What are the long term affects of ethanol induced gas on the engine?

Fuman

It's rather rude to tell a fellow member to go drive a green-car (Prius, as suggested in this thread), just because fellow members want to save money. On a different note, it's great that people have mentioned the risks associated with quick shifting. People can make their own judgement and decide what they want to do.

Back on topic.
I drove a few cars in Europe with the auto-start/stop feature. I found the feature to be annoying, main reason being the car is unresponsive when pressing the pedal. Second, the car shakes when it starts up again. It'd be nice to see what the real-world 'saving numbers' are. Just googled 1 article, "up to 10% in savings"
http://www.caranddriver.com/features...ined-tech-dept

Another good method to save gas:
Engine brake, and engine break early.

zeroptzero

higher rpms use more fuel, keep the rpms down and you will save fuel as long as you don't mind driving that way. Get yourself a scangauge like all the hyper-milers use, you can see how your driving traits affect fuel economy. I bought one to check engine codes and sensor data, but the fuel consumption logging is a cool feature.

The best way to reduce fuel consumption is to avoid Tim Horton's drive-throughs, or any drive-throughs for that matter. You can drive all day long and get your fuel consumption numbers perfect, then one visit to a drive-through and your numbers are shot and everything you've saved all day long is gone.