After a 29-mile jaunt from his Phoenix office to his home here, Louis Hudgin proclaimed his gas mileage "pitiful."
He averaged just 88.3 miles per gallon.
Most drivers would take a victory lap if they managed to squeeze that kind of mileage out of increasingly precious gasoline. Even on this, a bad day, Hudgin coaxed 28 mpg more out of his 2000 Honda Insight hybrid than its federal highway mpg rating.
Hudgin's disappointment — he usually averages about 100 mpg this time of year — stems from his pride in being no ordinary driver.
He's a hypermiler, part of a loose-knit legion of commuters who've made racking up seemingly unattainable mpg an art. And a sport.
Hypermilers practice such unorthodox techniques as coasting for blocks with their car's engine turned off, driving far below speed limits on the freeway, pumping up tire pressure far beyond car and tire makers' recommendations and carefully manipulating the gas pedal to avoid fuel-burning excess.
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