What's the Difference in Gas Milage btween Auto and Manual?

[PermacultureGreg]

OK so I am curious about what the difference really is between the manual and automatic version of the Insight?

I am currently driving an automatic and (running the air) getting 45 mpg. I have had several occations where I have done late night and early morning trips without the AC on and can get between 55 and 65 mpg.

What say ye that are driving manuals.

Thanks for the insights. Teehee

Greg

[HB]

Permaculture: In what type of driving (local roads vs. freeways) are you getting the mileage you quote??

I don't routinely use A/C in San Diego, but just got back from a 200mile excursion with a buddy who couldn't do without it. So we ran the A/C in econ mode and averaged 68MPG (it was mostly highway) in my silver MT.

[PermacultureGreg]

Henry, Thanks for the speedy reply. I'm exclusively driving the streets of Phoenix. Have not had an opportunity to do a road trip yet. Hope to go to Tucson (200 miles round trip) soon.

[Insightful Trekker]

Hi Greg,

There have been several recent threads in the MPG section on this very topic, and as this is an MPG "topic" I'm moving it to the MPG forum as a housekeeping task.

Please spend some time in selecting the best forum for your posts.

Sincerely,

[Dougie]

It seems to me that if you want to make a fair comparison, you have to choose the operating conditions very carefully. For example, I drove about 150 miles today (Colorado Springs to Denver and back) on the highway at 65 MPH and got about 78 MPG average with my manual transmission car. But the results depend strongly on the ambient temperature, the wind speed, altitude, amount of city driving at each end, traffic patterns, hills, etc.

While the absolute numbers may be debated, I would say that the EPA figures are a pretty good basis for comparison, because they are collected in a carefully standardized way.

[Lee]

I tend to agree with Dougie, the EPA numbers are a good comparison for the average American driver. Also I would also recommend looking at web sites that collect mileage data from real people, but avoid sites that cater to hyper-milers as they tend to skew the results (unless you intend to hyper-mile yourself).

[trunkout]

on the highway i get around 60 mpg....with no AC.....
when i put the AC on I leave it in fourth....and get aroung 58 mpg
staying at 65 mph...

just a recent observation....btw....

fourth gear isn't useless after all!

[Billy]

The difference is about 22-24 mpg in my driving style. The advantage of lean-burn is huge.