hi
i recently brought a 1997 lexus Gs300. and the mpg is pretty rubbish. so i had an idea and i thought i would share it with you!
if i were to switch the transmission to snow do you think it will increase the mpg? the reason being that the gearbox will switch gears at lower revs and therefore be more efficient in terms of fuel. what do you think?
the problem is that you have to switch it on every time you use the car so i was wondering if it would damage the car, will it?

 

this has been covered before...try searching

 

Welcome! It will probably help a little and shouldn't hurt the car at all. I'd also do all the maintanance things you can to make sure the car is running at best possible efficiency. Little things like cleaning the throttle body and fuel treatments can make a noticeable difference in your mileage.

 

I think you might actually lose some fuel efficiency by using snow mode. You're driving the engine from a slower speed in higher gear. Lugging the engine puts more stress on it and does not always give you better fuel economy.

 

1. use synthetic oil
2. inflate tires to 34-36 psi
3. don't accelerate hard
4. anticipate red lights so you come to a stop slowly
5. use higher octane gas (ie. 94 octane)

doing all this increased my fuel economy by 30%.

 

Only 2 and maybe 3 are having any real impact on your mileage.
The rest are negligible, might as well include losing weight.

I can vary my gas mileage by a factor of two through behavior alone.

Enjoying myself gets me 12 mpg.
Driving like a granny gets me 25 mpg.

I end up somewhere in the middle most tanks, though Spring and/or music do tend to lower my mileage.

 

Agreed, though not quite as extreme for me. I don't worry about it as much with gas prices back down. I got 17 mpg on my first tank after taking the car out of storage, I'd been getting 22 to 23 last summer when gas was $4 a gallon and I was driving real nice.

 

or just dont drive your car. hahaha

 

talkin bout negligible then he says spring and music hahaha

 

They have direct effects on driving behavior. Duh.

 

thanks for all the suggestions. well im from england. and we do have a premium petrol (gas!) here. id say its about 30 cents a gallon more (using the american gallon 3.785 liters) how much more mpg can i get if i do switch from the regular gas to the high octaine stuff?

 

dejunk your car. use the A/C sparingly. keep windows up to reduce drag. keep tires properly inflated. change oil at proper intervals. coast more, brake less.

the most important factor obviously will by the manner in which you drive. don't jackrabbit from red lights and don't floor it.

 

i hate it when ppl continue to speed up until like 10 meters before they finally realise that the light is red. If you anticapiate the traffic conditons and like ppl said dont gun the green light then you could save a fare bit. I removed my spare tyre and tools which were about 25kgs and i can notice the cars abit lighter.