[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by mazeroni

Heated garage? An engine block heater? Except both require energy to run plus the initial investment. Downside being a heated garage is wasted once you open the door. An engine block heater has to be plugged in somewhere.

Do you have solar panels? That is you only real option if you want no downsides, except the cost, but many people would consider that not to be a downside given it is the green option. Assuming the panels are made locally and are also made using green energy.

There are way too many variables in regular day-to-day driving that can contribute or detract to overall fuel economy. Any method we come up with would be negated the second you pull out into traffic, accelerate, then hit a right light the second you reach speed. The effort for such minute improvements is simply not worth the time or cost, sadly. At least not until the world goes full Mad Max.

I think you are better of just trying to focus on coasting to stops and modulating your acceleration and shifts, plus use cruise control everywhere! That is the best most of us can do given our present circumstances.

The dude is in Australia so I don't think his warm up time is all that substantial anyway. My driving pattern is 98% highway at steady speed with cruise on and my average mileage does not waiver even a decimal point through most of the year. When it is really cold (like minus 10 cold) my average may drop from 32 mpg to 30 mpg for a week or so. I attribute most of that to letting the car idle long enough so I can scrape the windows easier not to low oil temperatures. When I don't have to let it idle to melt ice it goes right back to my normal 32 no matter what the temp is outside.