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-   -   Does the Real-Time Fuel Economy indicator change your driving style? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/192971-does-real-time-fuel-economy-indicator-change-your-driving-style-2.html)

For me the real time FE and average FE is a motivator to drive well. It is like a moving target for me. I try to improvise and up the number as much as possible. Yes, at times when in a rush / bad mood, I am pushing a bit. That said, I try to make up for such drives by being overly good in driving at other times!

Real time FE / Average FE helps me be more aware of my driving style. I consider it the truest form of feedback. Irrespective of driving conditions. Bad traffic, your target will be higher of the 9-11 KMPL (I drive a MT petrol in Bengaluru traffic); highway, 17-19KMPL. :thumbs up

Considering my GT TSI likes to be driven at around 60-80Kmph, D7, ~1500-1700 rpm, for best FE, which I can't much do in the Chennai peak hour traffic and where I find myself most of the time on weekdays, I can't much care for FE. That is not what I bought it for!

While I do keep a watch on the FE numbers, it hasn't affected my driving. RTFE is anyway not available for display in my vehicle and I just ensure that I get average 15-16 kmpl. If it falls below 13 then its something to worry about :)

I voted for yes. Although it hasn't changed my driving style at all, I have found it to be of immense help. As whenever I get into a new vehicle, the real time fuel efficiency indicator helps me to modulate my throttle inputs and then correlate them with the torque that I require so as not to be driving extremely slowly and/or lugging the engine, giving me a good understanding and relationship with the car's engine, its power/torque delivery, throttle response, and most comfortable rpms, allowing me to extract exactly how much I require out of it. These are aspects that I can work out without the use of a real-time fuel economy indicator; especially in older cars where throttle response is more instant and DBW systems haven't been tuned for maximum efficiency in stock form like they are in most of today's cars, BUT as a student its always nice to be able to save on money while developing your relationship with engines :D Like it or not the planet matters, range matters, time taken to fill up matters, and more than top speeds, average speeds matter. I know exactly how many times in a single journey, I can floor the thing and extract maximum performance out of it without hugely affecting the averages and that makes me that much more carefree as a student. :)

I have changed my driving style with time due to DTFE to some extent.

But with such a car, or some other better cars out there, which are more enjoyable, SHOULD one actually care about DTFE?

Voted for No.

Not because I have an oil well :D, but because I believe, FE shouldn't define how you drive.

The only time I did notice the RTFE was during a highway run. A BHPian had mentioned how the FE drastically varies between a slight difference in rpm on the EcoSport 1.5 petrol AT and I was just curious.

What he found, and I concur is: on highway runs, when you stick to 85-90 km/hr (2.5k rpm), the FE is 17 kmpl+ and the moment you cross over to triple digits, it drops to 15 ish.

I hover below triple digits even on the Expressway so beyond this experiment, I didn't bother checking the indicator.

Our first car I've seen this on is the '10 City and frankly, I found it to serve no purpose (for us).

Voted No. I forgot checking fuel economy figures after driving Safari and Endeavour now. Nothing much to poke for single digit figures. It doesn't let you drive in your own way and one might feel distracted.

Voted Yes. I find myself more often than not switching to a higher gear and accelerating much slower than i would normally watching the RTFE go way down. There's not much I can do to enjoy the car in Bangalore traffic, so might as well gain a few kmpl.

Voted yes. Not necessarily a more sedate driver but keeping more uniform speeds, and getting hints on upshifts and also downshifts (not lugging the engine).
My Lancer didn't have the RTFE, and driving her, I could best get 13.x kmpl even on outstation trips, a few times aside!
In the Superb, I quickly found out the following :
* First gear completely murders FE, so get out of it as soon as I can.
* Second gear is also bad, so upshift to 3rd when RPM is 1.5k to 2k
* Third and fourth gear for most city driving, with its congestion and all
* Fifth and sixth gears are great for efficiency. At 2k rpm in 6th, 1.8TSI MT is at 110kmph or so.
* coasting on down slopes helps the FE, as the MID indicates consumption even goes to 0kmpl - not sure if it really can? I mean engine needs to idle right? Maybe battery etc can be charged by dynamo effect.
* What's the sweet spot in rpm range, and when one should downshift! This is together with gear change indicator.

* Effects of heavy acceleration ;-)

So, in city or at times when cruising, I can be better in sync with my car, while I can floor it when I need and forget all of the above :-D

Maybe after I have driven 5k or.10k km, the meter won't be of much help anymore...

Been there, done that!

While I voted for Can't, since my car does not have RTFE. My friend recently picked up a Tata Tiago petrol recently and since he was a newbie driver I drove the car for the first 700kms.

Right from the delivery till I last parked the car I always had an eye on the instantaneous FE indicator and ensured it stay fully lit i.e. touching the maximum marked 30kmpl 80% of the time. I felt the difference in my driving style trying to make the car more efficient and this resulted in a 14.9kmpl average after the first tankful of fuel, fully driven in the city with 100% AC. This was brilliant for a new car. It took in 27.24liters after driving 406kms.

But I did find myself getting a bit too obsessed with this display and made a game out of it. Found myself doing the exact same thing while driving my uncle's Petrol Amaze. :D

I voted "No" only because it was interesting watching it for a couple of weeks. But, once you get used to it and understand how the engine consumes fuel with different inputs, you get back to driving without looking at it. Also, in traffic and highway when the gaps open up, there isn't much time to think about FE.

The only time this comes back is when I'm really low on fuel and far from a fuel station. That's when the habits made during the RTFE watching phase come back. :)

Voted NO. I really don't bother much about fuel efficiency. I know with my driving style I will get more than better mileage. I just enjoy my drive. The minute you are conscious about the fuel efficiency the whole drive experience is out of the window.

Voted No. It varies on the type of road for me, if it's a straight boring road then I usually maintain a sane constant speed which yields good fuel economy. On twisty roads I push the car hard and fuel efficiency goes out the window.

How is staring at the instrument console any better/worse than having a a cellphone in your face while driving?

Smoother driving (gradual acceleration/braking being most critical) will give much better long-term results (both wear & tear and kmpl-wise) than driving distracted and constantly adjusting to attempt maxing out a feel-good, approximate FE meter.

I think both are quite different. We know what to expect while looking at the console. A quick glance to check rpm or the speed might hardly take a fraction. However a cell phone is a different ball game. The element of surprise in the form of a caller or the sms defiantly takes a lot of time for the brain to process. And, there is always a quintessential urge to respond. I have seen people scream, curse and in one instance the gentleman smashed his dear cell phone outside the car. :Shockked: