Catch a Gideon

8 Amazingly Easy Ways to Save Money on Gas

March 29th, 2007 by digerati

Here are some easy ways to save on gas:

1. Change your oil. A well maintained car runs more efficiently and will also last longer. A well cared for engine will easily exceed 200,000 miles. The easiest is oil. Change your oil regularly, following manufacturer specs. There is no need to change it more frequently. Currently BMW says oil needs changing only every 10-12,000 miles. Thats when to do it. BMW has strong warranties on their engines, and they don’t want to buy back engines because they didn’t tell you to change your oil enough. Kudos if you change your own oil.
2. Carpool. Many benefits including using less gas and more social interaction. The best way to save gas is to not drive your car. You get an infinite increase in miles per gallon! If you’re young you can also try to bum rides off people as much as possible.
3. Check your tires. Inflate them properly. Underinflated tires will not only be dangerous, but will also give you less gas mileage (since you decrease the circumference of the tire, it goes less far on each rotation. Also, you increase the friction with the road since you have a larger foot print). I like to keep my tires at the upper end of the recommended values. Often the range will be 26-30 psi. I’d keep them at 30. This reduces friction with the road, though your tires will wear out somewhat faster.
4. Clean out your car. Extra weight means less gas mileage. Each dead body in your trunk can reduce gas mileage as much as 3 mpg. This is one reason sandbags can be a bad idea in winter (though they have their place).
5. Don’t accelerate so fast. Old ladies get good gas mileage. Gradual acceleration is always better on fuel costs. Similarly, gradual deceleration is better on your brakes.
6. Use cruise control. Consistent speed produces better gas mileage. The computer in your car can almost certainly produce a more consistent speed than your foot. The downside is when going downhill the car may brake itself rather than use gravity to increase your gas mileage. Also consider using the right lane in slow traffic. Research (any have a link?) shows this lane to have the most consistent speed.
7. Don’t idle. Don’t heat up the car by running it on a cold morning. Don’t over rev your engine when stopped to heat it up. If you’re stopped for more than a minute, turn off the car. Idling means 0 miles per gallon, so less idling means better mileage.
8. Drive a manual car. I currently have a stick shift car (in DC). I find I can get upwards of 25 mpg in stop and go traffic and even in the city because I am so frequently in neutral when automatics are still in gear. In neutral the car is idling at about 600 rpm. If in gear I’d average say 2400 rpm (for easy calculation). That means I’m using a fourth of the gas I would be otherwise.

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