Installing a ScanGauge is a gas, gas, gas

My ScanGauge arrived today from Gifford Automotive in Ottawa (thanks Tom!) and the set up was really quite easy. If you didn’t read my last post, I’m preparing an article on “hypermiling” for MoneySense magazine.

In a nutshell, hypermiling is about modifying your driving habits to gain real fuel savings. The ScanGauge is a device that plugs into your vehicle’s nerve centre via the OBD2 port found under the dash on the driver’s side of most vehicles. Once hooked up, the gauge can monitor your fuel economy in real time and even calculate how much money your vehicle is burning as you drive.

Hypermilers love this little gadget, which is priced at $170 CDN, because it forces you to watch your money as it burns through the engine. There’s real motivation in seeing your actual fuel economy numbers and not the rosy Transport Canada or EPA numbers.

My plan is to use the ScanGauge to track my fuel economy is my fuel-thirsty Chevy Venture over a couple days of routine driving. After that, it’s off to the garage for an oil change into a synthetic blend, proper inflation of the tires and trying my hand at various hypermiling techniques to max out my fuel savings.

After just one day, I’m averaging about 12.4 litres/100 km, which is just a little heavier than the official fuel rating for my vehicle of 12.0 L/100 km. I’m doing my best to drive as if the ScanGauge isn’t telling how much fuel I’m wasting, but it’s hard not to notice those numbers climbing.

I’ll write more about my experiences and the features of the ScanGauge in my next post. Until then, happy motoring.

Can hypermiling really save on fuel costs?

In a couple days time I will be taking delivery of a Scangauge trip computer from a Canadian reseller of this U.S. device. My goal is to test the practice of hypermiling by tracking real-time fuel consumption in my 2004 Chevy Venture van. The results will be published in MoneySense magazine after a few thorough runs at normal driving and using various hypermiling tactics.

For anyone not familiar with hypermiling, it is a growing movement whereby drivers use a variety of tactics to reduce their fuel consumption. One U.S. resident claims to double his fuel economy by using such simple tricks as coasting, shutting off his engine at red lights and using his brakes as little as possible.

Some hypermiling tactics, however, can be dangerous and my article will also feature words of wisdom from safety experts and mechanics. But my hope is that I can find some middle ground where effective and safe use of hypermiling strategies will allow to boost fuel efficiency enough to blunt the pain at the pumps I’m currently experiencing.

If hypermiling can really deliver the gas savings it promises, then perhaps those of us who can’t spring for a new hybrid can still save money and feel better about our ecological footprint.

I’ll keep this blog updated as my experiment progresses. Stay tuned…

Scangauge

‘08 Ford Escape Hybrid – a real truck with a heart of green?

I recently had the pleasure of driving the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid for a full week and must admit that I like this truck…a lot.

It’s not overly big, but it is large and boxy enough to haul a decent amount of cargo. In fact, its gas guzzling big brother the Ford Explorer is hardly much bigger in the back end. But best of all, for those of us who need extra space and hate the high price of gas, it gets amazing fuel economy.

My tester averaged about 6 litres/100 km in both city and highway driving. I actually saw the fuel economy meter move to 5 L/100 km, but only briefly. My personal daily driver is an extended minivan which has an official city rating of 12L/100 km, but like most vehicles probably gets about 20% less than that in real world use. My previous vehicle was a Pontiac Vibe and that efficient little wagon is rated almost identically to the ‘08 Escape.

Now, much has been said about hybrid vehicles with inflated fuel stats but the front-wheel-drive Escape seems pretty true to its official rating of 6.5L/100 km city and 6.9L/100 km hwy. The AWD model, of course, fares worse at 6.8L/100km city and 7.3L/100 km highway, which is nothing to sneeze at either.

If you want to compare that with the regular FWD, 4-cylinder Escape, it claims at 10.3L/100km city and 7.7L/100 km highway. Not a huge difference on the highway, but if you spend most of your time stuck in traffic then it is a considerable difference. And if fuel prices keep climbing the previously weak economic argument for buying a hybrid begins to make as much sense as the environmental argument.

Speaking of price, the ‘08 FWD Escape Hybrid starts at $31,499, which isn’t far off from a mid-level Honda CRV or Toyota RAV4. Still, it is far above a base FWD 4-cylinder Escape priced at $23,999.

Getting back to the fuel economy for a moment longer, the Escape Hybrid works its magic by using a full hybrid system that not only shuts down the engine at stop lights, but can also power the vehicle on electricity alone at low speeds if you take it easy on the gas pedal. I also found that if you brake when approaching slower traffic the gas engine would shut down and stay off if you tread lightly on the pedal. This saves a tremendous amount of fuel when you’re stuck in stop-and-go traffic.

Having said all that though, there are a couple of things I didn’t like so much about the Escape. For one thing, if you need to fold the rear seats flat to move something larger, the headrests must be removed and there is no logical place to store them. This is true of not just the hybrid, but all Escapes. I also found the vehicle to have huge blind spots that kept me shoulder checking more often than I normally would. The vehicle is also a little sluggish from a dead stop, but if you’re trying to save fuel you should be going easy on the throttle anyway.

Copyright 2008 Carblogger (no unauthorized reproduction allowed)

Ford Flexes, but can it muscle the competition?

This last week I’ve been test driving the all-new 2009 Ford Flex. And so far I must say I am enjoying this car. It has lots of elbow room, plenty of muscle and can carry a fair amount of gear or people. But not all is well in Ford Land and this vehicle, as sharp looking as it may be, epitomizes a big part of the problem

For one thing, the Flex is only available with Ford’s 3.5-litre Duratec V6 engine. In city driving with the all-wheel-drive model, we’re talking a punishing 14 litres of fuel for every 100 km driven. The official rating for city mileage is 13.5 L/100 km on this model, but of course the published fuel economy is always overly optimistic.

With numbers like that, it’s hard to imagine too many people clamouring to own one with the escalating price of gas. For 2010, Ford does plan to introduce a new “Ecoboost” turbocharged 3.5-litre engine which will offer better performance and use less fuel, but I still think there ought to be a 4-cylinder or hybrid version offered for these times. Ford’s Escape Hybrid is an excellent us of gas-electric technology and I can’t understand why the company has been so slow to make greater use of hybrid engines.

The Flex also has another big albatross around it’s neck and that is the price. At $33,354 for the base FWD SEL and up to $40,474 for the Limited AWD version, the Flex is far above competing vehicles like the Dodge Journey, which seats the same number of people, starts around $20,000 and comes with a 4-cylinder engine choice.

The Journey may not be as Funky as the Flex, but as gas prices go higher, fuel economy is quickly becoming the number one concern for new car buyers