Gasoline Saving Tips - 3 simple ideas

Here are gasoline saving tips and related hints to help reduce the cost of transportation.

Saving gas means using less of it, using it more wisely, or finding a cheaper alternative.

The relative difficulty or cost of each tip below is rated 1 to 10. A rating of 10 suggests that the tip is the most difficult or most costly. Expected savings are also rated 1 to 10. A rating of 10 suggests that the tip will provide substantial savings in fuel, money or both.



Lose the weight. Extra weight in the car costs you in fuel. If you carry a heavy load when you don’t need to, you are paying extra money to haul the weight around. That won’t lead to better gas mileage.

Ever notice that large cars and trucks get crummy mpg and small cars get the best mpg? Yep, it has something to do with weight (as well as sail). Regardless of speed, weight has an influence.

Losing excess weight in your vehicle is one of the simple gasoline saving tips that works all the time, regardless of how you drive.

Cost or difficulty: 1
Savings: 1

Travel when it's warmer outside. This might appear to be one of the odd gasoline saving tips, but it really has a significant effect on your fuel economy. Cold air affects the quality of combustion inside your engine and this inhibits better gas mileage.

Cross country travel in warm weather means 38 to 41 mpg for me. Cross country travel in the winter means 33 to 35 mpg. This is why car manufacturers have tried to use heated air from around exhaust manifolds for the intake when ambient air temperatures are low.

Air temperature isn’t always a factor that you have control over, but at least you know now why your attempts at better gas mileage don’t work very well in the winter months.

Cost or difficulty: 5
Savings: 5

Accelerate gradually. Starting off nice and easy will help give you better gas mileage. You don’t want to crawl away from a stop light, but acceleration that would make your tires lose traction on gravel is not considered gradual acceleration.

Someone suggested once that you pretend an egg is between your foot and the accelerator pedal, and you don’t want to smash the egg, so step lightly. This is probably good advice.

Be a good egg and accelerate gently.You'll get better gas mileage.

Cost or difficulty: 1
Savings: 2

Practice these gasoline saving tips, and you'll likely see an improvement in your fuel economy. The more skilled you get, the more you'll save.

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