RAY: Well, I'll tell you one thing you're doing: By lifting off the gas on a hill, Paul, you're giving other drivers even more reasons to hate being stuck behind Priuses.
People complain that Prius drivers are so obsessed with their gas mileage – to the exclusion of everything else – that they pull away from stoplights at an elderly snail’s pace, feathering the gas pedal, to get from 59.9 mpg to 60.0 mpg – and attain bragging rights at the sensible-shoe store.
This behavior tends to annoy the drivers stuck behind Priuses. Especially the guys in Porsches, who just spent 80 grand so they could speed from stoplight to stoplight.
I’m actually OK with you ticking off those guys.
The problem is that you’re not doing yourself or your car any good by lifting off the gas pedal on a hill. You’re giving up whatever momentum you had, and since it takes more energy to get a car up to speed than it does to keep a car at speed, you’re wasting gasoline by slowing down and then speeding up.
While lifting off the gas pedal on a flat surface may kick the Prius into electric mode, that won’t happen when you’re going up a hill.
You have a continually variable transmission (CVT) in the Prius. The way a CVT works is that it uses belts that travel up and down a set of cones to create an infinite number of gear ratios. Traditional automatics, like the ones on the cars you used to drive, have a fixed number of set gear ratios. So theoretically, with a traditional automatic, the ideal ratio for your car at a certain moment could be in between two of the fixed ratios.
And in that case, by lifting off the gas pedal, you might be able to force it to upshift – at least temporarily. This was a trick used by cheapskates the world over, including my late brother. And in all his years of driving, it might have saved him a 50th of a mile per gallon.
A CVT, on the other hand, will instantly, and constantly, find the ideal ratio for whatever your car needs at any moment. So there’s no need for – and no benefit to – trying to manipulate it while it’s operating with gasoline.
So drive gently, and try not to cause any more road rage than necessary, Paul.
Just because you can do something, that doesn’t mean you should
Dear Car Talk:
I have a 1999 S-10 Chevy Blazer with four-wheel drive. I wish I had found one without the 4WD. I never use the 4WD, and it simply uses up gasoline due to the added weight and the added friction. How difficult and expensive would it be to remove all of that weight-and-resistance-generating stuff from a Blazer, and turn it into a rear-wheel-drive-only Blazer? (I know you're gonna tell me to go buy a new front-wheel-drive something instead … please don't!) Thanks. – Bob
RAY: Don't worry, Bob. You can relax. I'm not going to tell you to go out and buy something more fuel-efficient, reliable and better-handling. But I am going to suggest that you forget this hare-brained idea.
Is it doable? Theoretically, yes. You could remove the transfer case, the front differential, the axles, the driveshaft and all the other associated pieces, and put the thing back together. And, if you’re lucky, you might get an extra mile or two per gallon.
But all that work is going to cost you at least a thousand bucks. Probably more. And based on what you’d save on fuel, it’ll take you about 105 years to earn that money back.
There may be other complications, too. The front springs almost certainly are different, due to the extra weight of all that equipment. So when that stuff is removed, the handling may be unsafe. Or, at the very least, you’ll be staring up at the sky from the driver’s seat.
It’s kind of like a face transplant, Bob. Even when you’ve got a face as bad as mine, it’s doing the job. And you might be better off just living with it.
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