Sunday, January 11, 2009

 

Top Fuel Efficient Speed

Why is there no readily available list of cars' average optimal fuel efficient speed by make, model, and year? Shouldn't that be known for every car.

Back in 1998, the average was 55mph for the most fuel efficient speed. But modern cars have improved a lot. The average has likely increased for passenger vehicles and truck, and the range for all vehicles has certainly increased. I've read claims that some cars get their best fuel economy in the 75 to 80mph range.

Comments:
Hi. I teach people how to drive for a living. I teach them in a 2007 Ford fiesta 1.6 diesel which has a built in electronic average fuel guage. I found the most efficient speed was between 30 and 35 miles per hour, with the engine running at around 1200 rpm in top (5th) gear. At that kind of speed, the car was returning an average of 99.9 miles per gallon. Presumably it was actually higher than that, but that's as high as the display would go. A steady 50 miles per hour gave me an mpg of around 60. Once I got up to a steady 70-80, I found I was getting around 35 miles to the gallon. I know of no research that states that the optimum speed for fuel economy is between 70 and 80 miles per hour.
 
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