I don’t know if this is true or not but I’ve noticed that I’ve picked up a lot of bad driving habits ever since purchasing my new Sonata and I believe it stems from watching my fuel economy. Back when I was driving around in my sports car, red lights meant “alright, let’s race”… Now that I’m driving a grown up car, it seems like red lights cause me to curse because now I have to slow down or even stop.
Why would that upset me in the Sonata and not in the MR2? One word… well, more like an acronym… MPG. Ever since setting my gauge cluster to display my fuel economy, I’ve been obsessed with getting it lower (I think it’s because the Sonata’s fuel economy isn’t as good as I thought it was). I’ve read a few hypermiling forums to see what some of the tips and tricks are to lower your L/100kms (I’m Canadian) and have applied them for a few months. During these few months, I noticed that I’m a lot angrier when I drive. One of the main techniques to increasing your fuel economy is slow acceleration and maintaining your momentum. Where I didn’t used to yell and shake my fist at red lights, pedestrians and slow moving traffic… I do now. All of those things cost you fuel economy, if you have to slow down, you will have to get up to speed again…. at a snails pace because rapid acceleration is bad. I’ve noticed that I’ve been doing stupid things to maintain my momentum like tailgating, running late yellows, not slowing down before a turn, etc… All of which are dangerous and I never did before I gave a crap about fuel economy….
I think I’m going to try this eco driving for another few tanks and go back to driving like I used to. It’s a lot less stressful… I mean is 12L/100km really that bad?
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Obviously an electrically assisted 2.4-liter four-cylinder can’t quite compete with the best luxury German and Japanese powertrains, but for a mass-market mild hybrid, GM’s eAssist consistently impresses me. The integration in our Malibu was actually better than what I experienced in the Buick LaCrosse recently, free from the occasional shudder and strange disengagement clunks. Our Malibu was smooth and torquey, never once feeling underpowered, and it consistently delivered around-town fuel economy in the upper 20s.