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Gas mileage and economy are major features that vehicle manufacturers are touting heavily on many of their vehicles. So much so that on many vehicles that have claims of high miles per gallons (or KMs per litres), they’ve installed monitors into the dash that tell the driver how much fuel they are saving and how green they are. These monitors remind people to brake more gently, accelerate smoother, and reward them with a score at the end of their trip so that they can compare it with other members of the family. Usually with a display of how many leaves of eco friendliness you’ve achieved. But what if you have an older vehicle, but still want this feature to help remind you to let up on the gas pedal?

Lemur Monitors, which is based in Canada, has come up with a product that will allow you to get this same green feeling in any vehicle manufactured after 1996 or later. As you’ll see in our video review below, the monitor is easy to install, and setup takes less than five minutes. The key fob communicates wirelessly with the sensor that connects to the diagnostic port in your vehicle, giving you a real time recording of your level of green driving, or if you’re me, lack thereof, using a similar leaf scoring system.

The monitor retails for $79.95 and is one of many monitors that the company makes. They even have ones that tell you when your kids are driving recklessly or speeding, and one that connects to your smartphone, giving you real time data from your engine. But for today, we’ll be covering the EconoDriver in our video review below…

MEGATechie Useful or MEGATechie Useless?

When it comes to being green, I guess anything that gives you a reminder of your progress is useful. Kind of like a reminder to separate your trash and take out your recycling. I know that after a few weeks tooling around with this product, that I am definitely looking at the EconoDriver key fob and noticing just how much gas I’m spending and wasting after every trip. I think it’s actually getting to me because I seem to be fixated on getting as many leaves as possible on the monitor. Maybe that was the plan all along?

At $79.95 though, I’m not sure if I would consciously go out and buy one. I’d have to drive like a granny for a while to get that back in gas savings. Unlike a lot of people, I like to drive and I like to drive it like I stole it. But now that I have one, I think my pummelling of the throttle and the brake has toned down just a bit. Just so I can play the “eco game” and get more leaves. But is it particularly useful? Not really. But will it contribute to you potentially looking at the way you drive and adjusting to be more green? Perhaps. And if you have a “petrol head” in the family, this might be a perfect gift for him or her. It’s not something I’d go out and buy, but if bought for me, I think I’d use it and maybe, just maybe, adjust my driving into a more “eco friendly” mode.

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