How to save gas

It is expensive and it is getting more expensive but we still buy it because we need to. But we can do some things to atleast lessen our burden:

Here are some tips that I found on how to save Gas: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/save-gas-47031702#slide-1

Any additonal ideas are gladly welcome!

 

A good way is to put the car in neutral and coast when going down hills.

 

I have to disagree with Chrisuren about saving gas by coasting. I used to be a firm believer in this up until i watched top gear and they proved this theory to be false. The only way to save in this way is to actually keep your car in gear but not put your foot on the accelerator. This gives you the control on the gas. When it is in neutral, your car sends a steady feed of gas to the engine to keep it running.

 

The biggest change that I made to save on gas is not for everyone, I'm afraid. I got a job working from home, and stopped having a daily commute. I suddenly went down to putting something like 5,000 miles on my car in a year, and end up having gas be such a minor expense that I don't even have to consider it any more, instead of being something that I really have to budget for.

Unfortunately, the change to all of my drives being short ones has had a pretty negative effect on my overall gas mileage, since it's almost all city driving and less than 5 miles per trip. It's also been horrible on batteries...

 

Hahahaha! it was just a great achieve...am also working as a house mom and am finding this work n my side. I don't commute to far distances since the supermarket and church are only few meters from my house. So This way things are not very hard to handle just luck!!!

 

I remember a commonly spread advice to save gas money; cross the border and bring it from Mexico, but today gas in Mexico is more expensive that it is in the USA, so probably the advice on how to save gas would be, avoid using the gas that you have to cross the border for cheap gas that you won't find, LOL

 

From my personal experience I can say that if you want to be efficient, you shouldn't accelerate too fast. Seriously, you're not racing anyone, there's not need to try to reach 60 in 2 seconds, take your time accelerating (but don't be too slow, because that will be annoying to the drivers behind you). Once you're at a constant speed, you don't use as much gas as accelerating.

 

Those are some great tips in the linked article. All too many times people I know have poorly maintained cars that guzzle gas. And low tire pressure is always a prevalent amongst my friends. Driving smoothly and not idling are also two big sources of waste. So to go on top of that, plan your drives accordingly. Don't make trips that have you zig zagging all over town. Try to map out your drive as efficiently as possible by going as straight as possible. Also, making left hand turns (in the United States) is wasteful because your engine is idling. FedEx/UPS strategically plan out their deliveries every day to minimize the amount of left turns.

One thing I didn't see in the linked article is the windows. Believe it or not, if you have the windows or sunroof open while driving, it is decreases your fuel economy. Cars are designed to be as aerodynamic as possible, and opening a window disrupts this. It increases the coefficient of drag and brings down your MPG. It's as if you were carrying more weight and slowing down your car.

 

My car gives instant mileage readings and it shows that you can leave the car in gear and once it gets enough inertia you will see the mileage per gallon go up. Yes your foot is off the gas pedal so the RPMs are lower and the car is not burning as much fuel. It is sort of an art and if you can gauge the hills, the stop lights and keep the forward momentum you can see a huge difference in miles per gallon. By the way, I do look where I am going and only glance at the gauge.

 

That recommend has been around for a while, but it actually burns gas. Popular Mechanic has a great article about this here.

 

I don't know of any good method for saving gas but I've been saving a lot since I started carpooling. I hitch a ride with my friends and family whenever I can, taking short walks after they drop me nearby and stuff. I always keep a lookout on the fuel gauge to see how long before each refill to see if I've been using more. I'll cut back on driving when the gauge drops faster than usual.

 

I'm not so sure about that.. at least in my car. On bigger hills if I hold the clutch for neutral it actually accelerates down the hill faster(no engine breaking as opposed to when you leave it in gear) and not only does it gain speed but the tach goes down to idle(700ish) for me and that uses less gas than leaving it in gear where it'll be around 1500. (this is my view!)

I'll have to try some of those other methods.

 

Thanks much for the link. I have been practicing a lot of these because in such trying economic times we really have to figure out some strategies to keep our heads above water. There are a few though that I did not know of so it will be of great help.

 

Absolutely. I used to accelerate as quickly as possible when I had first started driving. I burned through so much gas so quickly, but I didn't care because I wasn't paying for my gas. Now that I pay for my gas, I realize how much I save when I don't step on it at every green light.