How to Spend Less on Gas

Do you see money flying out the window every time you go to the gas station? Here is how to save money on gas and reduce your trips to the gas station.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Low Costs: Look around town for the lowest cost gas. Check which brands tend to have the lowest cost so you can target these stations. Additionally you can go online to websites such as http://www.gasbuddy.com/ to find where to buy gas for the lowest price.

2. Speed: Try to stay at 60 mph or less. Every 5 mph that you drive over 60 mph will typically use up 10% more gas than driving at 60 mph. As an added benefit driving at 60 mph or slower will increase your response time and thus decrease your risk of being in a car accident.

3. Weight: Try to avoid keeping any items in your car that you do not need, especially heavy one. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle can reduce your mpg by 2% or more.

4. Iding: If you are going to be stopped for over 1 minute turn your engine off instead of idling. In most cases the fuel cost to restart your car will be more than the cost to idle it. This also applies when you are getting coffee or fast food and debating whether to go in the store or to go through the drive-through. If the drive-through line is long it will probably save you gas to park and go into the store.

5. Overdrive: Set your gear to overdrive as much as possible. This reduces your engine speed and saves you both gas and engine wear and tear.

6. Coast: When you are coming up to a stop sign, stop light, or traffic slowing try to start coasting a few meters before. This will reduce the amount of braking and thus your fuel costs and wear and tear on your brakes.

[sneedc]

on 12/22/2008 Good ways to save our precious resource and keep fill ups farther apart!