Hypermiling a goat is perfectly alright if you're reeeeeeally low on gas and have to limp it to a gas pump...

Now, that other thing you said... Just... f**k... ew...

Hypermiling the goat is like picking up a hot chick at the bar and taking her to the museum. It's not what you're expected to do with her but everyone will enjoy it and she'll be happy to get some variety.

Actually, it's kinda like the movie Pretty Woman, but I hate that stupid movie.

I kinda had a thing for julia roberts when I was younger

Fixed.

Ok, so results of hypermiling the big V8:

Monday Evening: Total, absolute fail.
Reset avg. fuel before departing work. 10 min commute. 3 min in I realized it was 65F outside, the road was clear and I said something along the lines of "F@#$ This". Wanton acceleration ensued. Many dinosaurs became hot gases. My carbon footprint resembled bigfoot. Al Gore ate a whole cake. Baby seals got clubbed. Toddlers wept.
Maximum Speed: ~68 mph briefly.
Result: 13.3 mpg

Tuesday Morning: Successful
Reset avg. fuel meter again. Drove in to work doing as conservative of accelerations as possible. Shifted through every gear. Never exceeded 2K rpm. Wanted to kill someone. Realized a part of me was dying. Parked the car. Took picture to document my "sucess", walked away.
Maximum Speed: 46 mph
Result: 24.8 mpg

Tuesday Evening: Normal Driving
Reset at work. Drove normally. Shifted between 2K-3K rpm; skipped 5th gear. Cruised in 6th at 1.1K rpm, 52 mph
Result: 19.2 mph

Yeah, I've been on it a bit with my car. Sitting at 13.something mpg right now.

My dash reads avg 38.9mpg, and I'm on the bottom half of the gas gauge ... it'll be interesting to see how the numbers come out when I finally stop at the pump, though. I've been experimenting with engine-off coasting on a part of my route home from work, and while my odometer does seem to count the miles while the engine is off (remember to key back to "on"! Lots of reasons for that, including avoiding possible steering wheel locks!), the instantaneous fuel economy reads 0 so I'm guessing that time is not counted into the average mpg either.

Why the engine off? You could just take advantage of DFCO, unless you're trying to coast a long way and want to avoid the engine braking, in which case you could probably save more gas by doing engine off coasting instead of neutral coasting.

Coasting with engine off is not safe. You lose brake boost assist after a few applications. Not Safe enough and not in full contol.

You drive a pickup or SUV (maybe an Xterra) with the engine on, I'll drive my VW with the engine off. We'll see who can brake and steer better.

If you're EOCing and have used the brakes heavily a couple times, you should restart. In an emergency you could shove it into a gear and dump the clutch and not worry about if the engine is running or not, as long as it's turning it'll provide vacuum to the brake booster; however, it's a terrible idea to depend on it. You should only do it if you plan on not braking, and if the shit hits the fan you should plant your brake pedal to the floor and keep it there until you're stopped.

A place like this is appropriate:


A place like this is a terrible place to do it:

I wonder if there are any deers...

I'd say the only appropriate place would be somewhere where you can't get surprises from the bushes. Perhaps open fields on both sides of the road? Desert?

While turning off the engine can save gas, I'd say it's once again "saving in the wrong place". It's comparable to disabling some sort of safeguards such as thermal monitors in a computer to get a little more power or resources out of the system. I'd rather spend some fuel to maintain brake pressure etc.

Deer are a concern but they require a single brake application and some steering. My car has enough spare brake boost for 2 panic braking applications, 3 heavy usages, 5 moderate usages, or 10 light usages.

It's a personal choice and most people would/should not choose to do it. It is the wrong choice for most people in most situations with most cars. It is not as dangerous as half the stuff that people do everyday that most find acceptable, though.

I forgot to add my usual disclaimers, that many states in the US have laws against coasting downhill.

While I do see your point, Mr Grassmunch, regarding the two places where where it's acceptable or not acceptable to do so, I still don't feel comfortable doing so as I know that I am hindering my car's performance.

The trouble is that if the need arises to brake while the engine is off, you may be too absorbed with the circumstance to consciously think about how many times you've pressed and released the brake. It just takes a few times and then your pedal is rock solid. Not everyone's big enough and strong enough to provide sufficient braking if this happens and then it's too late. I've had a case when my motor cut out and I had to brake all of the sudden and with conditions being the way they were, I had to apply the brake twice and was loosing assist rapidly.

I mean, you could do this safely for years, however the gain is not worth it. A single accident, be it even small will negate all of your savings you may have accumulated by hypermiling is such a way by having your insurance rates increase.

Too many variables, too much potential (and key word uncalculated--to a point-- risk) for me to justify it.

...except if there are more than one of them, as is often the case here. You'll see one a bit further down the road and apply some brake. However, it runs past so you think it's okay to go. Then there's another one and you'll slow down some more. When the third one hits your face you've used up all the pressure that was left in your brake system...

I wonder how much you'll save by doing this in the long run for example if you do it once or twice on your way to work every day. Is the combined savings of everything more than, say, leaving the car to home once or twice when going somewhere nearby?

As I said, it's not right for everyone.
You make it sound like you're committed to leaving the engine off for the rest of your ride. If you brake once for a deer then you should restart immediately and not EOC at all until you're out of deer territory.

Where that picture was taken, I drive through there every day. In 3 years I haven't seen a single deer. I've seen turkeys twice.

There is nowhere nearby.