[Crow]

This is the story of how I extracted an insane fuel efficiency of 23.6km/l over a distance of 830km on my 2015 Maruti Swift ZXI (petrol). It also includes some fun things I did in Vadodara, so if you came here for fuel efficiency tips, you should definitely stay for the "things to do" section.

Stopped the car just to take a picture of the MID.



Quick index:

• How I achieved 23+kmpl
• A tryst with Modernist Coffee
• Meeting D-BHPian @vishy76
• Good eateries and trusted places on Mumbai-Vadodara-Mumbai route of NH-48

The pandemic has made me realize that it's better to hit my bucket list items sooner rather than later, and a solo long drive has always been something I intended to do. There were many ideas such as driving to Gir Forest, South India, MP, etc, but I had a commitment to honor. One of my closest friends lives in Vadodara and we'd been planning to go check out multiple cafes in Surat for a while. Apparently the coffee culture in Surat is really picking up, and he wanted to show me around.

I'm not really a coffee person myself, but I figured why not try this new thing out? So it was decided that I'd be heading towards Vadodara for sure and maybe a stop for the cafes at Surat on the way back. Sadly I saw a thick blanket of smog around Surat bypass while going to Vadodara and we both decided to cancel that leg of the trip immediately. Maybe it'll happen in the summer!

The problem with starting very early is that popular hangouts, like McDonald's Surat and Hotel Ahura in Talasari, aren't open!


That's when I got the next brainwave and asked my friend if he'll come to Delhi with me to check out some things I've been missing a lot from the national capital. My friend, being the sport that he is, agreed immediately. My next question: "Why don't we drive to Delhi?" was met with a long silence and eventual denial. He wasn't up for that long a drive, so we finalized the plan—I drive solo from Mumbai to Vadodara, park the car at his house, and we drive to Delhi.

The Delhi trip was amazing in its own way, but details of that are for another thread. In this thread, I'm going to focus on my drive to Vadodara and back, and the fun things I did there. I visited the best cafe I've ever visited in my life. I met an amazing D-BHPian. And I drove an absolute beast of a car there (more on this in a different thread).

I had full faith in my ability to reach Vadodara without issues in my Maruti Swift ZXI (2015). The car has done almost 31,000km in six years, and 16,000 of those have been done in the last two years (including six months of running zero km due to the lockdown). I've driven almost exclusively on the highways in this time. However, I've never driven solo for that long, so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stay awake for eight hours during this drive. That's when I got an idea—why not try a hypermiling run to Vadodara?

I've been massively inspired by D-BHPian @PrasannaDhana's threads and I sent him a PM asking how he got 26kmpl from a Kwid. He pointed me to one of his posts, which had some useful tips. I've quoted it below for quick reference.

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

These are the simple measures I implement while driving the Storme:

1. Gradual acceleration and deceleration. Very very rarely does the rev needle go up fast (I used to floor my ciaz all the time and still get 18 kmpl )

2. Being in highest gear possible without lugging the engine. Luckily Storme Varicor 400 has great drivability. You can stay at 1000 rpm and still see good progress with a dab on the accelerator

3. Anticipating braking. When there is a slow moving traffic or an obstacle, say 200 meters away, I take my foot off the gas pedal, and coast it till that spot.

4. Coasting when possible. Specially on downward slopes. The 2+ tonne kerb weight of the storme aids in maintaining the momentum downhill. You will be surprised to know that I have done over 1.5 km without any accelerator input coming from a large over bridge.

5. Maintaining optimal highway speeds. Specifically 80-100 kmph, mostly 90 kmph

6. Proper tyre pressure. 32 psi recommended for low load driving. I maintain 33 psi

7. AC set to eco mode. Storme has an extremely powerful ac(like all Tatas). I use the ac in eco mode which itself is sufficient. If I have rear passengers, I use the rear ac or else its just the front AC in eco mode at blower level 1.

8. No idling unnecessarily. No short trips (<5km) unnecessarily.

With this knowledge at hand, I knew that it was possible to extract more mileage from my Swift. I've never really bothered with tankful measurements—the MID's accuracy is good enough for me. The maximum fuel efficiency I've ever got on my petrol Swift is 19.8km/l, on the way back from Rajasthan to Mumbai in 2019. On all recent drives, the best I've managed is 18.8km/l on the way back from Goa.

So off I went into this trip trying to see what I could do in terms of fuel efficiency. I started the journey at 0420 hours (really!) on November 23, 2021 and navigated past the usual road closures and other detours on the Western Express Highway in Mumbai.

In no time I was already past the dreaded Vasai Creek bridge near Hotel Fountain and that's when my Swift's mediocre headlights made it hard to go faster than 60-70km/h. There are no lane markings in this part of the road, for a few kms, so I was going really slowly. By the time I reached the stretch with lane markings, my MID was already at almost 19km/l!

I assumed it was the lower temperatures coupled with lower weight in the car that got it up so fast and thought it really can't get better than this. So, I used the following methods to see if my car can get better fuel efficiency:

1. Completely let go of my ego. Never react to any drivers with poor road manners and move aside for anyone who wants to overtake, even if that person is in a vastly inferior vehicle.
2. Befriend anticipatory braking, absolutely no sudden brakes as much as possible.
3. Maintain steady speeds between 75 and 90km/h.
4. Try to follow sedately driven cars at a safe distance to reduce wind resistance.
5. Accelerate and decelerate gradually, always!
6. Use the recommended tyre pressure for your vehicle and tyre size. It's 29psi on my Swift ZXI, but I filled it to 30psi for the trip.

Other conditions were in my favor too:

1. An early start combined with winter meant lower temperatures throughout the drive, which is better for fuel efficiency.
2. Driving on excellent tar roads on the NH48 ensures better grip, less road noise, and makes it easier to control the car for me.
3. With just one person in the car, the weight was as low as it could be. Even my luggage was under 15kg total.

All these things combined to make the average fuel efficiency number on the MID rise gradually. Over a distance of 410km from my home to my friend's home, the number rose to a staggering 23.6km/l!!! I never thought that it was possible to extract almost 24km/l from a petrol car on a long highway run, but that's what happened. I reached Vadodara with less than half a tank of fuel consumed, which is frankly quite insane!



The 2015 Swift ZXI has a 42 liter fuel tank if I remember correctly, so by my calculations, I used around 34 liters to reach Vadodara and get back home. A total trip distance of around 830km was done with some fuel to spare! (Of course I refilled the car before leaving Vadodara, I do not like taking chances with things like that.) If I'd had a longer trip planned, I could have driven another 180-odd km with some petrol still left in the tank. The total range of one fuel tank rises to over 1,000km with this kind of sedate driving. I've never heard of petrol car drivers reporting these numbers in my limited experience. The stories I've heard are all from diesel car owners who report crazy numbers north of 22km/l fairly regularly.

Here are some useful stats for the trip.

Mumbai to Vadodara:

• Distance: 430km
• Average fuel efficiency (at the end of the trip): 23.3km/l
• Top speed: Roughly 95km/h
• Start time: 0420 hours
• Arrival time: 1120 hours
• Total time (including breaks): 7 hours
• Average speed: 61.7km/h

The MID before leaving Mumbai.


The MID at the end of the first leg of the trip.


Vadodara to Mumbai:

• Distance: 430km
• Average fuel efficiency (at the end of the trip): 23.2km/l
• Top speed: Roughly 100km/h
• Start time: 0440 hours
• Arrival time: 1205 hours
• Total time (including breaks): 7.5 hours
• Average speed: 57.3km/h

The MID before leaving Vadodara.


The MID after reaching Mumbai.


Mumbai traffic and some difficult driving conditions didn't allow me to be as disciplined as I was on the return leg. It was pouring for about 60% of the journey and spray from other vehicles, combined with poor road manners from heavy vehicles made it hard to avoid braking. Yet I managed a maximum of 23.4km/l on this leg.

I am very, very proud of this achievement. I never really thought of myself as a great driver with amazing skills. I always feel that Team-BHP has people who are so, so much more knowledgeable and experienced that I am. Just to be able to do something noteworthy gives me an immense sense of satisfaction. If I can do this, pretty much anyone can. Now just give me a light diesel car and watch as I hit 30km/l on it for sure!

[Crow]

Alright, enough about the fuel efficiency, now let's get to the other interesting things I did in Vadodara. I was already super tired on the day we reached Vadodara, so I didn't have the energy to do anything other than go out to eat. My friend took me to this amazing coffee shop called Modernist Coffee on Gotri Road in Vadodara (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mo...8!4d73.1227084).

Over there I tried this drink called Kombucha, which is some kind of a tea apparently. I still don't know much about this drink but I can tell you that the guys at Modernist make an absolutely sensational Kombucha. The flavors keep changing every week, but you guys must go there and try the drink if you can. I had the mango, ginger, and orange flavors, and loved them all.

Mango Kombucha at Modernist.


Ginger Kombucha at Modernist.


The philosophy of Modernist Coffee is to make things in small batches, and handcraft each dish. The co-founders—Dhaval and Nishar—are known for giving each dish and cup their personal touch, so the taste is a notch above what you get in places that manufacture or cook stuff in large portions. In my time in Vadodara, I tasted their lovely Shakshuka, Milk Bun with Miso Butter and Kimchi, a divine Sponge Cake, some really nice cups of coffee, and an absolutely fantastic Affogato (with coconut sorbet).

Shakshuka at Modernist.


Sponge Cake at Modernist.


Milk bun with kimchi and miso butter at Modernist.



All of these dishes were really, really good.
This isn't the kind of place you'd want to go to with a pre-decided menu in mind. You're better of going there and asking for the special dish or dessert of the day and allowing the chefs to work their magic. I'll revisit Vadodara just for Modernist Coffee, if I could.

Affogato at Modernist.


Other than this, I visited The Brewery (a non-alcoholic microbrewery with a good ambience and okay drinks) and Cafe Fitoor (try their Kerala Parotta with the gravies they suggest), but none of these places had the same impact on me as Modernist. I do feel that I made a mistake by going to Modernist first, because it made it hard to enjoy the food at other places. You can say that I've become a huge fan.



PS: I am not affiliated with any of these places in any way. I'm just a normal person who happened to chance upon a great cafe and made some friends along the way.

At Modernist, I met some interesting people, including Kavya Kumar Bhatt (http://instagram.com/kavyakumarbhatt), who's a great artist. He makes some interesting tees and I bought a few of these from him. His studio, KKB Design Studio, is responsible for a lot of the art you see at Modernist Coffee too, so you should definitely meet him once if you go to the place. My family really likes the T-shirts I got from KKB, with the only wish being that they enter the premium tee space to make it extremely comfortable for humid weather that we get in Mumbai. Most of the affordable tees I've bought don't give a good comfortable feel in the hot summer months. I bought three tees from KKB, and the white one doesn't seem very comfortable for humid weather but I have no complaints about the other colors: black and pink. I always like supporting small businesses in India.

One of the T-shirts I picked up from KKB Design Studio. Image credit is with them.


Kavya also became a good friend and showed me a lovely little comic he's made called Kōan. You should check it out if you do meet him.

Kōan, which uses a really interesting art style.

[Crow]

Before I reached Vadodara, I had pinged D-BHPian @vigsom and asked if he could meet me. Unfortunately fate had other plans as we missed each other by around 12 hours, so we could not meet this time. However I was able to meet another D-BHPian from Vadodara—@vishy76. I sent him a DM and we set up a meet one evening.

@vishy76 arrived at Modernist and we both set off in his cute little Chevrolet Spark to take a drive around some empty roads in Vadodara.

He's still very young and I was very impressed with his knowledge about cars and attention to detail. Most importantly though, for someone this young, @vishy76 was incredibly humble and courteous. I should confess that I was a bit stressed that day and I used some colorful language when describing some things to him, but he was always polite and very effective in his communication.

@vishy76 with his Spark.


We spoke to each other for well over an hour and I was glad to have made a friend who's as into cars as I am. He dropped me to my friend's place and checked out my car, which is always fun. Then @vishy76 set off for home… with my bag in his car. I totally forgot to pick it up and as fate would have it, the next encounter was the best of the trip.

My host in Vadodara returned home half an hour later, and we set off in his 2011 diesel Volkswagen Vento (150k on the odometer) towards @vishy76's house. We met him near his place and vishy76 handed over my bag to me. He then saw my friend's Vento and immediately guessed which year it's from, remarked on a few niggles that my friend was experiencing, and took a look at the beauty of a vehicle from all angles. After a momentary silence, @vishy76 said: "Can you please start the car?"

That's when I knew that he was smitten by the car. My friend was driving, @vishy76 was in the passenger seat, and I was buckled up in the back seat. We drove around for about 15 minutes and that was enough to leave me with an adrenalin rush. Any petrol car owner who drives or sits in a VW diesel from a bygone era would feel the same way. However, details of that will be in another thread because that's an adventure in itself.

My friend's 2011 VW Vento TDI.


Soon, we said our goodbyes to each other and headed our separate ways. I learned more about cars from @vishy76 in an hour than I do after a few hours on the internet. He's got a bright future ahead of him for sure!

So that ends the adventures of my Vadodara trip. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this. It took me a long time to convince myself to write something on this forum. I'd joined here with the promise of many travelogues and it only took me eight years to write my first one. But this time for real, more coming soon!

[Crow]

Before I go, I thought I'd leave you guys with some useful information that I had some trouble finding. There are lots of good eateries on the way to Vadodara from Mumbai and back, but here's a quick list of trusted places with good washrooms. You may use this to plan your trip.

Mumbai to Vadodara:

1. Hotel Ahura near Talasari (close to MH-GJ border): Opens around 7-7.30am. Good for breakfast, but it's not open 24 hours as Google Maps suggests. I reached around 6.30am and it was deserted, but I could use the washroom anyway and it was clean enough.
2. Sugar n' Spice, Valsad: Decent branded place, recommended by many BHPians. This can be accessed from both sides of the highway if I'm not mistaken.
3. Honest Restaurant, between Bharuch and Vadodara: Another branded place recommended by BHPians.
4. Shell Petrol Pump, post Surat bypass: I haven't stopped here, but it's likely to have clean loos.
5. Shell Petrol Pump, Ankleshwar: I didn't stop here, but there's a good chance of finding a clean washroom here along with snacks and fuel.

Vadodara to Mumbai:

1. Shell Petrol Pump, just after Vadodara: Same story as other Shell bunks.
2. Sugar n' Spice, Valsad: Decent branded place, recommended by many BHPians. This can be accessed from both sides of the highway if I'm not mistaken.
3. Parsi Dairy Farm, Talasari, just after crossing into Maharashtra: Pure veg restaurant with good thalis and lassi. The meal tends to be heavy, so keep in mind before ordering.
4. Food Hub, Haloli (near Palghar): Has a McDonald's, a Cafe Coffee Day, and other branded restaurants. Decent washrooms too.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[paragsachania]

Wonderful narration there Crow and why am I not surprised with the FE figures .

When it comes to Thane Ahmedabad section, I have always advocated that the most ideal speed to maintain on this road irrespective of any car is strictly between 90-100 kmph. Anything slower means you won't be able to overtake trucks and anything faster will make you slow down ahead when all the lanes get busy and you need to wait for the gap to overtake. The only section where you actually get to drive little faster is between Charoti and Vasai Creek and on the NE1 between Vadodara and Ahmedabad. And quite consistent as it may sound but so far, all my Thane to Ahmedabad runs have been around 6.5 to 7.5 hours tops.

A steady 90-100 means you continue to glide, have enough time to assess and make the right judgements and based on this keep switching between all the 3 lanes - Well, it may sound unruly but this is exactly how one drives on this 400 km stretch switching between lane 1, 2 and 3.

This graph is from 2016 when I drove Rajkot to Thane and you can notice how I took little over 9.5 hours for 720 km with few breaks. In this, Ahmedabad Thane alone will be 6.5 hours with speeds mostly concentrated between 90-110 on speedo (and hence little lesser on GPS).



I never have a target when it comes to achieving the FE. I always prefer that it happens by Virtue - Merit of roads. But the last drive spanning ~4000 km where the first 1100 Km for the onward and 250 Km for return was fully loaded with baggage and passengers, I could easily manage this figure from the entire 4000 km trip that included driving around the cities of Aurangabad, Vadodara, Ahmedabad-Gandinagar & Rajkot. Not to forget ~350km single carriageway between Aurangabad and Chikhli (Surat) via Nashik- Saputara.



If had to reset the average FE for small legs, I am sure those figures would be higher and around 21-22 kmpl easily.

Again, coincidentally, my last drive too had something in common with yours where I met Vishy along with Vigsom and aaggoswami!



Regarding the food stops, this entire 400 km stretch is what I call a "Food Corridor" as there are so many of them that missing one and releasing foot from the accelerator pedal will take you to the next good one.

Sugar and Spice have now got quite a few branches but the most famous one is the one you mention which sits right on the wide median - The choices in this one are a lot more than the other Sugar and Spice. This also has been my fuel stop during most of the drives. However, the last one in November this year, I had stopped at one more Sugar and Spice before Surat bypass and refueled here too.



Don't mind intruding into your thread but since this is also about solo driving, I have on earlier occasions referred to a lot of such tips and best practices that I have followed and managed solo for 1800 km at a stretch too.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Few thumb rules for such drives that I always follow:

• No racing against time – The distance is large so don’t expect same timings as your last drive for there cane be multiple reasons why your progress can get slowed down
• Drive based on merit of roads – There are fast but empty roads and then there are fast but busy roads. Ahmedabad to Mumbai is the latter where no matter how fast you drive, the time taken will be same as that supercar that just overtook you because the traffic pattern here is extremely busy consisting of both private traffic and freight traffic
• Patience is the key – I know I have a long way to go. Impatience should not influence my driving style because there is a lot to cover. I will encounter a lot of irritants but I need to remain patient for I need to reach my destination without any untoward incident
• Respect the long haul truckers and you get paid back – This is the key here, especially Ahmedabad to Mumbai. Though you are driving along an ocean of trucks, you will soon realise that you can make this driving an immensely satisfying affair when you begin to respect those long, loaded trucks. You will be given way sooner, so just ease that pressure on the horn-pad and the accelerator for 2 seconds
• Let the local cars get past you – This is no secret. I would pass a lot of urban clusters like Baroda, Bharuch, Surat and Navasari and I know when local drivers get impatient spotting out of state cars trying to show their might. I simply make way and let them pass without even making any eye contact
• Maintain steady speeds throughout the journey– I get the best of average speeds when I am in the 100-120 kmph band and this has always worked. I slow down to 90-110 on considerable sections of Mumbai – Baroda highway because anything faster means I need to brake ahead when 3 trucks are overtaking each other. Also, it is extremely unlikely that I will start hitting faster figures when I am closer to home or when I get a brilliantly flat and empty road ahead. These are situations that are extremely tempting but I always remain paranoid that something should not go wrong while I momentarily start driving faster. While I do enjoy some speed runs in sections that I am well aware of and the visibility is clean, I get back to my usual cruising speeds soon after
• Energy levels throughout the journey – This I very important in my opinion. I am one of those who will exhibit the same level of enthusiasm and energy consistently throughout the entire span of such long trips and factors such as above always help me maintain that
• Good Music for company – I like to have good music playing the background but the choice of this music is such that the tempo and the tune should not affect my cruising speeds. Hence, whenever I am on such marathon drives, EDM or Heavy Metal music is strict no for me and I prefer Classic Rock from the 80s, Bollywood songs from the 90s and at times Western-Classical instrumental fusion. Such music invariably keep my speeds in check
• Enjoy the engine note – I also very regularly mute the music and simply enjoy the engine and road noise during such drive and again get back to music after taking a short break
• Small little breaks – Sitting in one position for long distance, all alone can be a bad idea. You have reasons to pull over after that toll booth to wash your face, stretch your legs, peel a banana and eat that or for that matter, clean the windscreens and head and tail lamps. Do that, pop a mint or a candy and you are fresh and ready to continue further. I do that on quite a few occasions with no particular pattern on need basis
• Sunglasses to sooth the eyes- They always help, especially when you know you will face direct sunlight after driving all night. So I make it a point to wear them before the sun rays start hitting my cabin. Direct sunlight can be extremely irritating and disturbing to the eyes that have worked all night on such drives
• Regularly keep drinking water – This not only helps you stay hydrated but will also make way for a reason to take a pee break regularly
• Bananas and dry fruits – I always have them in my car during such drives. In fact, when I was driving down, I met a friend on Pune bypass and when he asked me if I need anything, I told him to get me half a dozen bananas to fuel me for the last 800+ km of the journey

Know when you are sleepy – Your reflexes will tell you a lot:

• Taking a longer than usual time to lift your leg off the A pedal to hit the B pedal
• Laziness in flashing your lights when overtaking or hinting at an overtaking attempt at night
• Laziness in downshifting by a gear or two when you slow down to 50 kmph from cruising speeds
• Concentrating on the road ahead without a single shoulder check (neck movement) or IRVM mirror check for a long time
• All of the above are signs that you are really tired, you aren’t concentrating and you need to pull over and take a nap. I have had the experience of tagging along with drivers who show these signs even during the day and I had to switch places.

Thanks again for penning down your experiences Crow. Enjoyed reading it.

[shancz]

Good write up, was fun to read and good info

Also since I barely pay attention to the FE in the MID even if the car has one your thread made me realise that I can have a lot of fun with it
Also a very good tool to learn/better smooth driving skills.

[unoczar]

I'm getting currently 21-22 in city and 24+ in my Swift Dzire ZDI, 2014.

What I feel is that good fuel and mature mind while driving is the key.

Got 24.7 avg on my recent Hyd-Vizag-Hyd trip.

7 years old and thought of selling it comes to my mind. But trust me, it's really hard to let it go.

[Strider24]

Wow! I enjoyed and really relived my experience of hypermiling in my own cars earlier. The best mileage I have extracted from a 1.2l motor of Brio was 22.9 kmpl on a Pune-Aurangabad Run, however what surprised me was my recent Pune-Kolhapur Run where the 1.8l motor of my Corolla ALTIS gave an incredible fuel economy of 18.xx kmpl! (from MID again).

I guess if we follow the cardinal rules ( very well explained by Parag & Crow in above posts) of disciplined driving we can extract the best performance from our cars, at the end of trip we are left with a peaceful happy smile on face. of course the discipline is required for maintenance of our cars too. a poorly maintained car can never achieve this kind of feat.

And thanks for providing the information of good eateries on this route, it is going to be very useful on my next Gujarat trip.

[vinya_jag]

Thanks for sharing. Absolutely agree with the observations done above. Adding my experiences to the post

Coasting - I noticed this while driving down Tirupati hills, where I was driving a sedate speed, mostly in gear breaking, and when we reached the hotel at the bottom of the hills, I was surprised to see a 32+ Kmpl reading on our Polo TDI

Driving around 80 to 90Kmph - Roads around Bangalore specially Airport road and Old Madras road have speed limits as much as 40 Kms from the City. This is where I first saw a 26+ reading for the first time. I'm sure these numbers might change for a car with 6th gear.

Driving with AC Off, and whidows wound down about an inch - While on our recent trip to Mysore (Hasan road and then a deviation towards Mysore .We avoid Bangalore Mysore road these days), it showed 27 on the way to Mysore on a chilly morning without AC, and then on the way back, with AC, it had reduced to 24. Two reasons I can think of, 1 was AC, the other is that Mysore is at a lower altitude. So, we are gaining altitude on our way back, about 900mts of it.

Avoiding roads that have a lot of humps and towns - Again, Bangalore Mysore road as an example. I never get more than 22 on it, blame it on the umpteen speed breakers and towns that we have to wade through.

[K12B]

I have a Dzire ZXI (Petrol) 2018. I have achieved more than 25kmpl+ in winters multiple times without A/C.

Please have a look at the below images. I had achieved 29.9KMPL during one of my drives on Yamuna Expressway. The speed was maintained between 60-70kmph without A/C. The distance travelled was 76.2kms.

[unoczar]

Originally Posted by K12B

I had achieved 29.9KMPL during one of my drives on Yamuna Expressway. The speed was maintained between 60-70kmph without A/C.

That has to be one of the most boring drives. You don't have cruise control, do you? When I go in that region, I avoid the expressway on purpose. Driving on the old NH is cheaper and more fun.

[vishy76]

Very interesting read man! When you said you were composing a thread on your trip, I didn't know you would do it this soon!

It was an absolute pleasure meeting you and learning that we share a lot in common too As for the "colorful language", I tend to use it even when I am at my best, so I don't think it's an issue when you used it in a stressed state. I enjoyed conversing with you and also meeting your friend. As already stated, I was smitten by his Vento TDI

Thanks a lot once again for this awesome travelogue.

Cheers

[K12B]

Originally Posted by unoczar

That has to be one of the most boring drives. You don't have cruise control, do you? When I go in that region, I avoid the expressway on purpose. Driving on the old NH is cheaper and more fun.

No cruise control in my car which is a BS4 model (though I want that in my car if I can retrofit that).

Well, my native place is close to the first toll, so I frequently drive on the Yamuna expressway. You can say it was a boring drive but sometimes just to test the potential and efficiency of the K12B engine I drive very patiently. I once achieved 36.8KMPL by maintaining 50kmph on the same stretch.



This is my BS4 model Dzire with a recently changed bumper from the BS6 model.

[Maverick Avi]

I was quite happy to go through the post as not many people in this forum might care about fuel efficiency as enthusiasm and fuel efficiency are not the best of friends while driving. But believe me I am not at all surprised as the 1.2 L petrol engine from Maruti is a gem. I had heard a lot about it in this forum but got a chance to drive it when I bought Wagon R 1.2 AMT last year. Its very refined and lively unit which gives insane fuel efficiency if driven sanely.

I have not reset my fuel efficiency meter since I bought my car and till date it has clocked 5600 kms with most of the driving from Delhi to Noida. And you might not believe that I got 24.6kmpl(with A/c on during summers) overall on my meter yesterday. I had calculated using tankful to tankful method a couple of times and consistently got 21-22kmpl.

Some of the points you listed are absolutely true to achive these figures and AMT helped further as it strictly upshifts based on speed. I haven't had a single highway trip with my Wagon R and whenever I do the figures are just going to get "insaner". Hope you keep on improving these numbers as hypermiling can get addictive and for me its for good as it also helps me to keep calm in Delhi traffic and avoid small nicks and dents too!