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How to Save Gas without Gas Savings

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We all cringe when we pull up to the gas pumps these days. Unfortunately, our griping won’t lower the prices at the pump. Here are some tips sent in by a reader to help you conserve gasoline, and hopefully save you some money.

  • Drive at the speed limit. Not only are speed limits designed to save lives and keep people from driving recklessly, but are factored into saving gas mileage. Driving at 55mph instead of 70mph on the freeway can save a lot of gas. The faster you go, the higher your engine’s RPM’s will raise, causing the engine to work harder. The harder the engine has to work, the less gas mileage you will see.
  • Remove any and all unnecessary items from the trunk or interior of your car. That golf bag in the trunk – while it may be convenient to just leave it there, is adding extra weight to your car. The heavier your car is, the more the engine must work to drive it, resulting in less gas mileage. Also, make sure nothing is changing the car’s aerodynamic design such as empty crate boxes strapped to the roof.
  • Roll your windows up on the highway. Sure you may think that turning on your A/C while driving down the highway will lower your fuel economy, but the drop in aerodynamics due to your windows being rolled down is far greater. When your windows are down, air passing over the sides of the car flows into the passenger compartment and produces drag – thus lowering your gas mileage.
  • Leave unneeded people at home. It may be nice to have a companion riding along with you, but this person is nothing more then a 160lb object added to your car’s weight. The more people you travel with in your car, the heavier it becomes, once again lowering your fuel mileage.
  • Last but not least, do not stop and go quickly at stop lights. A smooth acceleration is key to maintaining your gas mileage. Do not jerk between lanes to pass people. Passing causes your car to down shift into overdrive, effectively dumping a large amount of fuel into the motor for an instant boost in power. Doing this often can produce dramatic loss in fuel economy in a short amount of time. Having a vehicle that gets 6MPG, I have learned to ease on the accelerator when leaving stop signs or lights. When done right, you can see a fluctuation of at least 1-2MPG.
  • Bonus Tip!! Having your car serviced on a regular basis, changing your oil when the manufacturer recommends and having your fuel injectors cleaned at a tuneup can add to your gas mileage in the long run. Clogged or damaged fuel injectors on a fuel injected car can lower your horsepower as well as your fuel economy! I always feel that my truck runs better after a fresh oil change – and noticed a significant increase in gas mileage after my last tuneup.

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37 Comments

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6mpg is not believable on a stock f150/lightning with a tow package. I have a 75 marquis w/ a 460 big block. I get 8-16mpg. What was this math genius getting prior to this 6mpg w/o accelerating smoothly from stoplights?

Best tip not in the top five would be to coast to stops, most people keep their foot on the gas until they reach their cars comfortable stopping distance(depending on speed). If you’re used to the route you can usually time the lights and never come to a complete stop.

uh yeah, you’re not a nerd.

or you could get rid of it and get something with a 4 cyl and accelerate as much as you want and still get 30mpg or better. :)

fuel cells are batteries that use hydrogen instead of battery acid and when mixed with air turn to water. I know thats not what your talking about but thats the way the world will be going is hydrogen, not hybrids really.

I commute about 80 miles a day all highway. I get worse gas milage when I drive slow… I believe that this is because my car is running for an extra 5-10 minutes. I say as long as you can hold your RPM’s at a steady rate, drive as fast as you can but try not to accelerate once you get to a desired speed/RPM and you will save money by cutting time off of your commute. This is only logical for long distances that don’t involve a lot of slowing or stopping, oh and watch for state troopers!

I had this thought that it might be a good idea to for a car to have a “city” mode, where the car prevents the driver from quickly taking off from a dead stop. Better yet, to have the car be aware of its location, and the timing of lights at intersections, so the car won’t let you speed up to a red light.

The Gas prices here in California is about $3.25. It has been going down the last few months. Soon it will be back to normal. Until then thanks for the tips.

I gotta say, 4cyl N/A engines are the most fuel efficient.

American V8’s are NOT good, and it’s just stupid to put a V8 in a normal towncar. They deliver the same BHP and the torque is higher but it’s unnecessary.

Also, don’t use the ACC.

These suggestions are so ridiculous.

Hey guys you know those mirrors where the airbag warning is? Those weight a whooping five pounds, this increases the weight of your car, also they hang from the top of the car, which over time will actually drag the roof of the car down which ruins the aerodynamics. Better remove those.

Oh and also remove all the seats of your car. This guy who suggested the list probably owns the car from “Death Proof” in Grindhouse.

John Howard Oxley

January 10th, 2008
at 6:56am

While the other tips are unexceptionable, this has obviously been written by someone who is not into sports driving — if you have a stick shift, *you* have control over the gearing, not your car.

Which is why the “Drive 55 and save gas” is a bit misleading — at top gear, which is usually overdrive on a stick, you actually will use *less* gas going at a speed faster that 55 mph.

Incidentally, I live in the Atlanta area, and the idea of anyone doing 55 on the I-285 ring road any time except at rush hour fills me with hilarity — you are very likely to be run over by the mass of traffic going 80 mph or more. And I haven’t seen a slowdown even with >$3/gallon gas.

If your really keen on saving gas then get a car with a manual transmission. It’ll allow you to stay in the optimal gear for the speed your doing, nice ;)

Chris, you forgot the number gas saving thing to do, CHECK YOUR TIRE PRESURE!

I recently heard about MPG caps — little pills put in your gas tank to increase fuel economy. The catch is, they’re from a multi-level marketing scheme. They claim you can increase your economy by 10-14%. Plus, as an added benefit, the pill helps clean out your engine and reduce emissions. (Or so they claim). I haven’t tried one, but have seen a few “investigative” reports on various local TV stations stating they actually work.

Thoughts??

You forgot one of the most important gas mileage tip, and that’s tire pressure. You can lose massive mpg from underinflated tires. Somewhere on the net I read the formula (for every 1 psi below the recommended pressure you lose X amount of mileage), and it was a lot of lost mileage.
My Blazer’s mileage dropped off dramatically from 22 mpg to 15 mpg. I started checking the air filters and such and discovered one of my tires was 10 psi low. After filling it, I got my mileage back.
As John Oxley stated, the speed limit is misleading. My Silverado Z71 4X4 with the 327 & 6 speed Allison transmission gets 22 mpg @ 80 mph, 19 @ 75, and 17 @ 60.
Another factor, for the people living up North is the octane. 86 octane is going to get worse mpg than 87. However, I’ve noticed that running 89 octane in my truck don’t make a difference from the 87 octane…..
And of course gasoline with 10% alcohol is going to get worse mpg than pure gasoline, and most gas stations use the 10% mixture. Shamrock, at one time never used an alcohol mix, but I don’t know if that’s still true since I don’t have one of those close by anymore…..

The tips are just shit, almost none of them are true.

XD LOL! You got that right! I drive a friggin’ Ford F-250 with a 6.8 liter V10! And every time I step on the gas pedal just a smidgen, that’s about 1/4 of a gallon of gas gone from the pit of my wallet!

Oh wait… Damn. I gotta go to the BP station now. It’s on E again. Well, there goes another $95.00 down the exhuast pipe. }:[

ducalux you obviously know nothing about vehicles… idiot

i can remember when gas was 0.80c per ltr! that was 10 years ago! (in New Zealand.well i am from New Zealand!)

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Ride a motorcycle !!! 60 MPG gotta love it :P

6.3 usd in Hungary a gallon…(january, 2008)

It now costs $10 to go 100 miles in my fuel-sipping Geo Metro, so now I’m upgrading to a bicycle. No insurance and no gas required :)

dude…you should like install a massive air intake system on the front of the engine. there would be a greater amount of air in the fuel/air ratio, make the engine burn less fuel and improves performance. i used to drive 30 to 40 miles in a day and i used to fill up every week or every other week. the less restriction there is on the engines intake, the better the gass milage will be, and the faster the car will run

i drive a Tl-s and dam , 19 mpeg , omg i need gas money lol z, right now in Houston tx its 3.30 per gallon. I got amps, Kicker sub wofer, intake, chip, header, open header…

i live in houston but gas is not 3.30 anymore i think its like what 3.19? now lol

lol my car with all the mods is now the mpeg down to 14 or 15 mpeg lolx , so sad huh

yeah that suckz i get about 20 to 25 in the city and 35 on the free way and i drive a ford ranger 5 speed i bet thats why my MPG is so good lol

It has been tested and busted, windows down vs. air conditioning on–there is no difference at all on fuel consumption.

How is a car that runs on water, recycleable? We only have so much water and it is getting worse every day. Granted the rain water would become cleaner if we were burning water in our cars. Every liquid product has its limitations as far as quantity goes.

LOL: ‘Stop eating those potatoes chips Fatty’ !!

How to save fuel? Drive Less Car!! Visit my channel. Have a Smart Day.

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