First of a short series.
Many of us could cut our personal gasoline consumption by 5% — perhaps up to 10% — with the vehicles we have now. It gets better: we don't have to drive less or anything. This is stuff even wingnuts can get behind.
Curious? It's all below the fold.
Back in the early- to mid-70s, radio stations ran a
ton of public service announcements about ways to “save on gas.” Everything I talk about in this entry was covered pretty well in those PSAs... but for whatever reason, they're not running those PSAs nowadays & some of you might not have been around back then.
It boils down to two things:
- take it easy coming off a full stop
- proper maintenance
Taking it Easy
It doesn't cost you a dime, and it can give you 20 (or more) “free” miles on every fill-up. Those 70s PSAs referred to this as “avoid jackrabbit starts and sudden stops.” In my Civic, I see as much as a 3MPG difference (at 40MPG, that's 7.5%) between my driving and Offspring #1's, just because he likes to blast off from stops.
Vehicles with higher-performance engines might do even better, percentage-wise. On my Virago (a cruiser-type motorcycle with a fairly large engine), the mileage difference between blast-off and easy-off is closer to 10%. That makes sense; high-performance engines are designed to deliver lots of horsepower on demand so they suck lots of gas to give it to you.
This kind of thing is easy to do with a manual transmission — shift sooner and you're set. If you drive an automatic, you can often get it to upshift by letting off on the gas for a second then easing back on.
Another clever way to improve gas consumption is to coast into red lights, and continue to creep forward as long as you can (hopefully until the light turns green). Taking off from a dead stop uses significantly more gas even than from a creep.
Proper Maintenance
Do you have your car serviced and tuned regularly? You should. It can improve your gas mileage and certainly reduces pollution. You can address many of the important things yourself if you're inclined.
Check your air filter regularly, and replace it when it gets dirty. During the winter, switch to a lighter grade of oil (see your owner's manual); this reduces internal drag in the engine and can make a significant difference in gas mileage. Make sure you replace your spark plugs at recommended intervals.
All of those things improve the efficiency of your engine — meaning at a minimum, cleaner exhaust, and often can improve mileage.
If I've missed any easy tips, please comment. Next time, I'll discuss changing vehicles. Part 3 will discuss lifestyle changes.