[ErikBEggs]

Can you sig yours when you get a chance? You my friend will provide enormous amount of data! Happy travels!

 

[ErikBEggs]

What I dont do is drive 62mph on an open stretch of freeway all by myself because people having to pass me at 75 mph creates a dangerous situation.

You can get away with 65 mph in the 75 mph zone. Just stay right and they will go around you. No danger for you at all, trust me. Dangerous would be doing that speed in the left lane

 

[ErikBEggs]

On a two lane interstate like 95 through South Carolina, under the 70 mph speed limit makes you a hazard.

I find that extremely hard to believe. You don't HAVE to drive the speed limit. And Its not even illegal in most states until you are 10+ mph under the limit. Just because everyone else drives like an idiot doesnt mean you have to. They've done traffic studies on this, which is why Texas' 85 mph speed limit hike faced opposition. 90% of motorists refuse to drive faster than 80 mph on the highway, regardless of the speed limit. People just arent comfortable doing that. So if your going 65 mph and most people are doing 10 more than that you are hardly a hazard. They just go around you.

And yeah, I live on the east coast and put up with the bullshit of the NJ Turnpike, where people race Audis because cops don't pull anyone over under 80. Speed limits really don't matter that much anywhere. People drive how they want.

 

[ErikBEggs]

Women use air conditoners I roll the **** window down ill sweat before i have to put an extra unncessary work load on my engine and so will my g/f. I actually was testing out the air resistance yesterday and if you put your hand and arm out the window at 60mph on a 85 degree day and a 30 degree day you can feel the difference and im not talking about the temperature.

NO!!! Do not do this!!!!!! It has been proven in mythbusters and countless articles. If you are over 50 mph, rolling down a window in favor of air conditioning is WORSE on your fuel economy, let alone uncomfortable. You are also severely overestimating the impact of A/C on your engine. It is a minor unnoticeable load in everyday driving. The effect of A/C on the engine also depends on the car as well. The 2000 Natural Gas Honda Civic I used at work was sluggish and the air conditioner made climbing hills impossible. However, the Cruze has plenty of torque, and on the highway you are constantly in the peak torque range, even though you only need a small fraction of it to maintain speed.

Last time I was at the drag strip, I actually did a run accidently with the air conditioning running. I did another run with it turned off and guess what... No change - both 15.8 @ 87 mph. If the load it puts on your engine was significant, it would noticeably affect horsepower. The effect would be much more pronounced on the track where any little thing will affect your time.

91 will probably make a bigger difference as the weather gets much hotter.

It won't be noticeable until you approach 100 degrees. At least, I never noticed it in last summers 90 degree heat. The hot weather MPG comparisons were in 100+ degree heat out west. 91 Octane at that point helps, but there are more important things going on at that point like heat soak causing the ECU to cut horsepower.

 

[ErikBEggs]

The reason why your times were identical with air condition on and off is because the PCM disengages the AC Compressor clutch when you hit a higher throttle position and/or RPM level, not because there's no load on the engine. This function has been around since the early 90s if not even earlier.

Interesting did not know this. So to play devils advocate.. why do people bitch about lack of power with the A/C on? I mean I understand the Eco MT and Auto Transmission models have a lot of different engine features we just don't know all of them LOL.

But yeah, it's not worth sweating for no A/C. Unless your crawling in the city, the effect of windows on the aerodynamics hurts mileage more than the A/C it has been proven and documented. The Eco relies even more on aerodynamics than other models