Shell is the good stuff. There is one station in Ann Arbor, but none (or at least I haven't seen one) in Lansing. I usually run BP 93 octane with invigorate.

 

I think many of the Shell stations in Lansing closed a few years ago. According to www.shell.com , there is a station on Grand River just east of Hagadorn. There is also a full service Shell station, with cute female attendants (they don't care if you pump your own), and a carwash (boo, hiss - a touchless carwash is just down the street closer to the freeway) at I-96, exit 137 (D-19), just north of the freeway. If you stop there on the way to Lansing, it is easier off-on because you only have to make one left turn out of the gas station.

 

Thanks for the info! I will need to check that out. I would like my car to be exclusively a top-tier gas car (yes I am pretty picky). Cute female attendants are definitely a plus! I only been to a gas station with attendants once in my life...and they certainly weren't attractive women lol. Don't worry, I only use touchless washes. Actually I prefer the self wash (the place I go to also has a garage next to it. I think we are talking about the same place since this is close to 96 as well).

 

I once did a mileage check as I drove to my Lexus dealer. It was summer time. I reset the computer while I was at highway speed and carefully managed the gas pedal to generally shed some speed on inclines and gain some speed on the downhill all the while watching the instantaneous mpg readout. I eeked out 30.9 mpg for the 20 miles stretch at around 65 mph. On the return trip I put it on cruise control and let her go. I averaged somewhere around 25-26 as I recall. In any case, smooth driving, summer gas, and not letting the cruise control insist on a steady-state speed seems to be the best for me.

If my family had been in the car they'd have hit me over the head for driving like that though!

 

Cruise control does decrease mpgs since (like you said) it insists on keeping the same speed at all costs. I find the driving position so comfortable that my foot never gets tired. I do find it tempting to just drop back and give it a nice boot when traffic clears...that really kills mpgs lol.

 

I'm afraid I'm a bit of a stastical nut. I keep a log book in the car and enter miles and gallons at each fill up. I also compute tank mpg. You need 20 consecutive data points to construct a control chart. I don't construct such a chart, just use some of the principles in utilizing the data. You'll be able to imagine a chart just looking at the data for each tank. You'll see a variation and be able to sense the approximate average and the plus and minus variations. If you sense a steady increase or decrease in 6 data points then something has changed and you can start looking for it. If you suddenly see one data point that is way out of the normal variation it is a "special cause" and if you look for that right away you will probably find it, i.e. you just went on a trip and got an unusual increase in mileage.

I know this probably all sounds a bit out of the ordinary, but I use it as taking data on a patient for health reasons.

Now don't go all crazy and tell me to stop, see a shrink, etc. Okay?

 

jayclapp - you are crazy and need to seek help immediately....lol jk
What you do is a good way to keep track of everything. That way if anything usual happens (like getting your car valet parked or going to dealer) you can pull out your data and argue with the owner. Numbers are automatically cold hard facts.

 

Well, except figures lie and liars figure.

I keep mental track of trends like average MPG, oil consumption, weekly mileage, etc. in order to detect when something is amiss.

 

Not gonna argue with that. I should rephrase in saying that numbers are concrete only when the data has been meticulously gathered. Since we are all pretty in-tune with our cars it is usually pretty easy to spot something out of the ordinary. Keeping a log is always a good backup measure though.

 

Ok I just drove from STL to Wichita and after resetting the average consumption just before getting on the road my results were MARKEDLY improved. I averaged almost exactly 26mpg on that trip, and that's at an average of 77-79mph and with plenty of hills in Missouri. I filled up ONCE in Saint Louis and when I got to Wichita my fuel level was still just above the 2nd to last "tickmark" on the gauge!

I'm not actually sure if it was the new front wheel bearings or just the fact that I reset the gauge before leaving that was the cause for the improvement, but I'm almost certain I reset it somewhere along the way when I came from Wichita to Saint Louis the first time with the bad bearings and only eeked out 22.3.

Absolutely freakin' amazing.

 

Driving from San Antonio to Austin last week I was averaging 29.2 cruising around 70. (heavily patrolled area) Around town it drops like a prom dress. Dips to about 15.9 but I live off a freeway that is in its infancy so it is terrible stop and go and sit sit sit. Should improve soon as they are making it a super street.

 

almost 30 mpg????
too bad the local dropped 50%...

 

yep.. but again I had to keep her at bay since there are tons of cruisers between here and Austin. I suspect once the super street is done then my city mileage will get into the 17-18 range.

 

here is a pic I took of it. This was after about 30 minutes of driving... pardon the dust on my gauges....

 

2002 UL

15-16 back and forth city driving. On highway trips I get 27-28.