DISQUS

FFB · 1 year ago

Great tips (and thanks for the link). What's interesting is many of these are ego driven. The driver is center of the universe and must get somewhere now.

hank · 1 year ago

Have you ever heard of people stopping their engines while driving at red lights to save gas? How about turning off the engine to drive down mountain passes? Yea, I've heard them both and I don't think either do any good! :0

Ginger · 1 year ago

Love the graphic. We would be the vehicle on the right. Thankfully, that one is parked most of the time. Some additional gas savers we use....
- wash often and wax
- keep tires at proper pressure
- keep your oil changed and your air filter and fuel filters too
- gas up early in the day so you are getting a "real" gallon of fuel and not an expanded one
- drive with the windows up and the A/C on to have less drag
- take all unnecessary stuff out (we removed the extra 2 back seat that are 100 lbs each
- travel when it is the least busy so you don't sit in traffic.
- make a shopping list, make a route and only go out when you MUST
- anticipate, anticipate, anticipate ... if you see a light changing take your foot off the gas...if you caught a green light, maintain your speed and you'll catch mostly green lights. As my dad taught me, drive with the gas pedal and not the brake. It is less costly to resume speed while moving than to do so from a dead stop.

I have never run out of gas because I don't like walking on the side of the road, don't like feeling of being stranded and I sure don't want to walk by the side of the road toting a heavy gas can. It takes a can just to crank mine I swear! A half tank was $50 @ $3.63 a gallon yesterday. That is REALLY scary stuff. It is a hybrid but we can't find E-85 for 100 miles. We have been talking electric around here today. I read an article in Business Week about the Chevy Volt. Not sure I can hold out until 2010 though!!!!!

Josh · 1 year ago

Very good comments... have you seen "Debt-Free Revolution"'s tips? There are quite a few gas saving tips on the internet if you look hard enough (and it's a shame we all are only NOW paying attention) for the record gas is $4.20 here in San Diego. Yuck.

Money Matters · 1 year ago

ouch. $4.20. I guess no matter how bad things are where we are, there is
always somewhere that's worse.

I'll have a look for debt free's tips. I read her blog regularly, but must
have missed that one.

Matt · 1 year ago

Thanks for the tips. The fact that I don't see many drivers doing this says that gas is obviously not too expensive for most people. We broke $4/gal here in Milwaukee this past weekend.

Money Matters · 1 year ago

after writing this post i realized just how much i DO waste gas. Stomping on
the gas when the light turns green, speeding up to a red light, etc. Wow.
Our gas is still in the $3.80 range, but we'll be at $4 soon.

Pinyo · 1 year ago

I thought #4 saves gas...isn't that drafting? :-)

Great post!

Money Matters · 1 year ago

yup, drafting can work to some degree if you do it on the highway, where there isn't a lot of stop and go. In rush hour traffic its bound to be more likely to cause an accident and hurt your mileage. I know - i had an accident earlier this year for that very reason - as well as having bad mileage due to all of these reasons above..