• Sunday, 24 May 2009 22:38
• Written by Desmond Wira

The cost of commuting, traveling, or vacationing by car has risen sharply with higher gasoline prices, but you can significantly lower your driving costs with these gas-saving tips:

DRIVE LESS

1. Walk, bike, or ride the public transport.
2. Find job, restaurant to dine, school for your kids, groceries store to shop, or any place you need to go frequently closer to home. This will save time as well as money.
3. Combine trips. Plan to do several short trips in one longer trip, you will save fuel and time. Make lists to avoid having to go back.
4. Don't be lazy to walk. Some of your destination in town may be near each other, park between and walk. If you find parking spot, just park in the first spot you find. Wandering around all over the parking lot looking for that really close parking space, you'll use more gas. You can also join a carpool. Don't be afraid to walk a ways – it's a healthy habit.
5. Call first, make an appointment, find information before you decide to go. Sometimes you don't need to go if you call first.
6. One car for one family. You may even be able to save even more money, and get fun family experience.
7. Plan your trips in advance. Believe it or not, but opening your windows will increase the turbulences and eventually cost you fuel. If you can, use only the ventilation system of your car. I cannot really gauge this against using the air conditioner. I believe that opening your windows at low speeds and using the air conditioner at high speeds gives you better fuel economy.This can prevent wasting fuel and wasting time. Plan to use alternative routes. Try to schedule your trips and errands when traffic is lighter.

REDUCE THE USE OF THE AIR CONDITION

1. AC can use almost 20% of your gas. So, reduce the use of AC is good for fuel economy. Simply turn off the air condition when you don't need to . This tip might be somewhat impractical in some areas. At least you can reduce the temperature.
2. Park your car in the shade if you can, so you won't have to keep the AC working as hard when you go somewhere.
3. Roll down the windows just a tiny bit, while you are parked so the air can circulate ((might not be a good idea in areas with a high theft rate).
4. Turn off the AC 5 minutes before you reach your destination and don't keep it working until the last second.
5. Opening your windows while drivig will increase the turbulences and eventually cost you fuel. If you can, use only the ventilation system of your car. Opening your windows at low speeds and using the air conditioner at high speeds gives you better fuel economy.

FIND GOOD GAS PRICE

1. Gas is a commodity, there isn't any significant difference between brands. Don't be brand conscious when buying gas. Buy where you can get the best deal.
2. Use a fuel with the lowest required octane. Don't use high octane gas unless your car is pinging and knocking or you have a high-performance engine and the manufacturer recommends premium gas. Low octane gas is less expensive and a better value if that's all your engine requires.
3. Apply for a credit card which offers gas savings when you use the card for purchases. This works well because you purchase in regular basis. And don't forget or late to pay the credit card bill. If not, your saving is missing because of high interest rate.
4. Join a loyalty club. Some gas stations, department stores and grocery stores offer lower prices when you present their membership card.
5. Check the web for deals. With the ever increasing gas prices, use the Internet to find the cheapest gas near you.
6. Mix octanes. In some areas, the lower octane may be too low for your car and the mid-grade or higher octane may be more than what you need. To avoid overpaying and still get the correct octane for your car you can mix the gas.
7. Fill the tank full. If you need to fill up, fill up all the way. The more money you try to save by adding $10 today and then $20 tomorrow will be wasted since each time you will have to travel to the station and wait for a pump. Instead, do it all at once to save time and money.
8. Don't top off the tank. It is wasted money and bad for the environment. On a warm day, gasoline expands and can overflow.
9. Buy gas several days before a holiday. Gas prices almost always go up for holidays.

TUNE UP YOUR CAR

1. Give your car a tune up. Properly maintaining your car will keep your car running as efficiently as possible. Keep your car properly maintained and tuned. A poorly tuned car can use up to 25% more gas. Change the oil regularly, upgrade your air filter, use a fuel injector cleaner.
2. Check the air pressure in the tires every week. Keep all tires inflated to the pressure as recommended for your car. This will reduce the contact area of your tire to the road and therefore reduce the friction. It will help you to get a slightly improved gas mileage.
3. Clean out any unnecessary items in your car. If you have heavy objects in your car that you don't need, remove them. If your car is lighter, it will use less fuel to get where you're going.
4. Remove unneeded racks. If you have a bicycle or ski rack, remove it when you're not using it. It causes drag and lowers mileage.

BUY ANOTHER CAR

1. Buy a smaller car. Generally speaking, smaller cars are lighter and get better mileage. Well, a small car always has a better fuel economy due to its smaller mass. Diesel car or or hybrid car is also often get better mileage usual car
2. Buy a motorcycle or scooter instead of a car. They are cheaper and can significantly cut your gas spending.

 

CHANGE YOUR DRIVING HABIT

1. Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas. It can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town. Sensible driving is also safer for you and others, so you may save more than gas money.
2. Always accelerate gently. A car consumes most gas as it accelerates. Take off slowly from a full stop
3. Avoid idling. Any time you can foresee that you will not be moving for more then 30s or 1minute you should turn off the engine to help your budget. Don't warm your car up by letting it idle. The engine warms up faster when driving than it does when idling, and idling wastes about a quart of gas every 15 minutes.
4. Avoid heavy traffic and lots of traffic lights. The shortest route is not always the most fuel efficient if you have to stop a lot. Try not to travel in rush hour. Or you can use GPS to find the best possible route. Avoiding hills and stops will increase your gas mileage.
5. Drive at a consistent speed. Avoid quick acceleration and hard braking. Gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph.
6. Anticipate the stop signs and lights. Watch traffic ahead of you so you can anticipate slow-downs and avoid stops. Speeding up from 5 or 10 miles per hour will be easier on the gas than starting from full stop.
7. Maintain a safe following distance. Don't stick to the bumper of the car directly in front of you. You will brake more and accelerate more to keep that unnecessary and dangerous narrow gap. This also gives you a lot more room to play with when you are timing traffic signals.