Gas price is now averaging $4/gallon in United States, and may hit $7/gal by 2010. It’s important that everyone knows how to maximize their fuel consumption by driving intelligently. I found these driving efficiency tips from Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert site (thanks to David Bradley for the link lead):
- Keep your tires correctly inflated. Efficiency Improvement: Up to 3%
- Declutter your car. Efficiency Improvement: Up to 2%
- Take your roof rack off. Efficiency Improvement: Up to 2%
- Turn off the air con. Efficiency Improvement: Up to 8%
- Don’t fill it up. Efficiency Improvement: Up to 1%
- Accelerate gradually without over-revving.
- Drive in the correct gear.
- Slow naturally.
- Think about road position.
I’ve already exercised some of these tips and techniques in the past 6 years driving my Honda Civic Hybrid, and I can confirm they work.
Martin has additional money saving tips at the gas station in his site, such as using finding the cheapest gas in town and using credit card rewards.
Do your part, and conserve!
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Gas may be averaging $4 per gallon in the US, but in the UK we’re paying the equivalent of about $10 per gallon! A large proportion of that is tax.
db
David Bradley’s last blog post..Water, Water, Everywhere
Isn’t that mind boggling? Places like Singapore or Hong Kong, gas is just as expensive. On the other extreme, in Indonesia gas price is still $0.80/Liter. Yet people are still protesting the increase in gas prices.
Another tip for increased fuel efficiency is to not drive fast. U.S. highways tend to have minimum speed limits of 55 to 70 miles per hour, yet many people (myself included) tend to press on the pedal to go faster to get to the destination quicker.
By keeping to the minimum limit, or at least going 5 mph over it, and not 15 mph over, you will use less gas and only lose a few minutes.
American gas prices are finally stabilizing in accordance with the rest of the world.
In the original article I highlighted, the author does discuss the soft-pedal, as opposed to the pedal to the metal approach to improving fuel efficiency. The driving instructor with whom I passed my driving test always said, we’re all trying to get from A to B, why not take it easy and enjoy the ride? Quite a philosophical sentiment and an allegory for life…
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The speed limit in California on the major highways is 65 MPH. People tend to drive 80-90 MPH, even with their SUVs and trucks. Me? I drove from San Diego to /from irvine, which is 75 miles one way, at 60 MPH to save gas. Took 1.5 hours per direction. But I achieved 50+ Miles Per Gallon with my Civic Hybrid.
So yes, drive 60 MPH or less is the “sweet spot” gas saving speed.
I’m pretty sure the acceleration-coasting-deceleration approach was in New Scientist several years ago, but I cannot find the citation, unfortunately. Meanwhile, I’m going to do a Brit save petrol item for Sciencebase, which I’d originally planned having read the Martin Lewis post which you saw in my Geeky Bits column…so do check out Sciencebase later today for that.
David Bradley’s last blog post..Water, Water, Everywhere
In South Africa we are paying pretty close to 10 bucks a gallon as well.
Another tip from my youth is when travelling long distances pick a pantech, drive up close to it till you feel the drag, the release your accellerator. Just a tip, do not do this with an air cooled vehicle, the results are disastrous, trust me on this one.
Another thing is stay alert, very alert, because if said pantech brakes suddenly, you are going to be very close very quickly.
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Regarding turning the air conditionning off. Then you have to open the window…which increaes drag and slows you down.
They actually tested this on Mythbusters. They carefully measured the gas mileage on a track, under controlled conditions. Both with the air-con on..and with the windows down.
Both decreased the gas mileage by about the same ammount.
The best gas mileage was to drive with the windows up and not use air-con…(though not an easy feat in the summer).
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@David:
Looking forward to your new post!
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@Guy:
I had to look up the word “pantech”. 🙂 I did that before, driving behind a truck, hoping I could “slip stream”. Like you said, it’s dangerous driving so close and not being able to tell what the traffic looks like in front you. All for gas saving? Not worth the risk.
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@Friar:
Driving with windows rolled down is awful for gas saving, only when you drive fast (50 or more MPH) and there’s a lot of cross wind. I roll my windows down in regular road or if there’s a traffic jam. I like it when I drive near the beach or nice open areas. The fresh air helps.
Air conditioning is the #1 MPG killer. But I heard the Prius and new Civic Hybrids use the electric motor to run the AC, so that may no longer affect MPG as much as it used to.
yes, unfortunately we just need to quit while were ahead and find another source of energy !
[…] pool lane where people typically drive at least 80 MPH on that single lane.  Other examples, as a couple of readers commented earlier, include driving behind a truck for slipstream effect, and turning off air conditioning. […]
Driving slower really does make a big impact. I did some research and put together a calculator at http://www.mpgforspeed.com/
Shane,
That’s a useful site. It’s always nice to see comparisons summarized in one place like that.
Although I agree with the concept, I do have two problems with what you’ve written:
* Driving faster doesn’t necessarily put out more green house gases. The only way to reduce it is to stop producing it. That means, as a previous commenter said, look for an alternative energy source.
* Your comparison with $ dollar savings per year VS minutes saved is skewed. You should be comparing it side by side like this:
Commute per day saved: 5 minutes
Fuel consumption saved per day: 67 cents
or
Fuel consumption saved per year: $244.55
Commute per year saved: 1825 minutes (or 30 hours)
Kinda puts things in perspective, no?
[…] fluctuate during this hard economic period, who has extra money to waste on gas? Nobody. That why we found several great sources on how to drive smarter to stretch your fuel dollar. Here’s just a few […]
I think the whole world is struggling from the prices of gas
we should make use of renewable energy
Now that gas prices are rising again this is a great article. I have had to curve a lot of what i do to try and save what i can on gas. Great tips didn’t know about not filling up I thought it was better to fill up that you get better mileage. Thanks again