mmarshall

I don't have to tell most of you that American gas prices are now at virtually an all-time high, exceeded perhaps for only a very short period, right after Katrina, in 2005. In my neighborhood, good name brand 87 octane is from $3.00 to $3.10 or so; premium 93 octane around $3.40. You guys in California, with its traditionally higher prices, may be paying more than that. Ditto for a few other high gas-price areas like Chicago and New York.

This, of course, is due primarily to the start of the summer driving season, a lack of refinery capacity, and high......and increasing....demand, both here and abroad, especially in China and India. We can't change the world, but we can all do our part to conserve use of gas....and help curb demand. the more that people conserve and the more demand drops, the more likely prices are to drop.

In the meantime, all of us can take these steps to lessen our own use of fuel and cut gas costs:


Clean all of the junk out of your trunks and interiors that you don't actually NEED while you are driving, especially the heavy stuff. More weight means lower mileage.

Keep tire pressures up....but don't overinflate them. Soft tires mean more rolling resistance and more power needed from the engine. In most cases, the recommended PSI is best. Overinflated tires mean an overly stiff ride, a smaller contact patch, and poorer handling. Tire pressure is best checked when the tires are cold, out of the sun, or having been driven less than a mile.

If your spark plugs are old or worn, replace them. Plugs last anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 miles on paper, but, in real life, that may not be the case. And, of course, on some sideways-mounted V6's, it can be VERY difficult to replace the rear bank of 3 plugs.....that is best left to a professional service shop.

Some of you, on the radar detector threads, have criticized my advice to keep your speed down, but it works, especially on the Interstate at high speeds. Gas mileage, in high gear, on most vehicles, drops off rapidly after 60-65 MPH or so....and even more rapidly above 75 MPH, as air resistance builds.

If you have more than one vehicle, don't take the Suburban or Expedition out if the Prius or Chevy Aveo will do the job just as well. This, of course, is just common sense...but if you DO have a gas hog that sits at home, make sure you DO run it enough to keep the battery charged, oil, coolant, and transmission fluids circulating and the A/C system up to snuff and prevent the seals from deteriorating.

Try to combine trips and run as many errands together as possible.

Avoid jackrabbit starts and rapid acceleration. The harder you press the gas pedal, the more gas your engine uses.

If you tow a trailer or motor home, take as much weight of of THAT as possible, too. The less weight you tow, the less gas you use.


Try to stay on level roads as much as possible. Steep hills, of course, allow you to coast down at low engine speeds, but they also use a LOT of gas going uphill.

Avoid the morning and evening rush hours as much as possible. Stop-and go driving in traffic uses more gas than if you can keep moving. Same goes for roads with a lot of stop signs, traffic lights, speed bumps, etc, though more and more of this crap is being installed all the time...it is getting more and more difficult to avoid it.


And, last, even at $3-4 a gallon, thank all your a**es you don't live in Europe where you pay REAL money for gas.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Thanks for the advice.

MY ADVICE TO EVERYONE: get a motorcycle...

mmarshall

Unless you get down to the very-low-cc motor scooter, mini-bike, and moped class, many of today's compact cars, especially the hybrids and diesels, get mileage as good as a lot of motorcycles.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

True.

My first bike was actually a 250cc scooter (Honda Reflex). Great commuter: 65-70 mpg and it can go up to 80 mph. Most 250 cc scooters/motorcycles can do this. I would actually get a Vespa before ever getting a Harley. Sometimes, these are more practical for city/urban travel (read "from point A to point B") than any compact car.

But for anyone looking for 30-40 mpg cars, there are definately a good selection out there. We just don't discuss them too much, considering that a lot of people on the boards are performance enthusiasts...

LexFather

Its hitting people. I'm on multiple forums and outside of the Ferrari forum, people are like "wtf". Chi-town hit $4 a gallon this weekend. I am reading multiple threads on multiple forums on how the high gas prices are keeping people from driving and taking some of the enthusiasm out of driving.

In Atlanta, I've noticed people don't "cruise" like the used to and people make more rational decisions when it comes to driving to car shows and events "I can hold off".

Around $5 a gallon, there will be a shift to smaller and more fuel efficient cars as the average person's incomes are not rising like gas prices.


MMarshall, thanks for the great tips.

ff_

Of all the tips you mentioned, probably the biggest impact on saving fuel is to avoid rush hours. Or better yet, make use of public transit, if possible. When you consider the cost difference between taking the bus and driving your car to work, especially if you work "downtown", there simply is no comparison. For a buck or two each way, you avoid the costs associated with gas, parking, mileage, wear and tear. You probably get to/from work quicker as well (I used to). It's a no-brainer.

Another option often overlooked is to see if your company will allow you to work from home 1 or 2 days/week (or more). See if they will support a program that lets workers in your office do so on a rotating schedule.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Actually, adjusted for inflation, we're now at the same price as 1981 during the Iran/Iraq war, according to this article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...ype=RSS&rpc=22

> Clean all of the junk out of your trunks and interiors...
> Keep tire pressures up....but don't overinflate them. ...
> If your spark plugs are old or worn, replace them. ...
> ...

Excellent advice.

> If you have more than one vehicle, don't take the Suburban or Expedition out if the Prius or Chevy Aveo will do the job just as well.

Another excellent point. and guess what, I've found I can easily fit 8 bags of groceries in my MX-5 which gets 30mpg, vs. my Explorer which gets 17! And guess which vehicle is more fun.

As an aside, had visitors this weekend and we drove 550miles in the Explorer which is about $100 worth of gas. Fortunately the Explorer runs great on 87.

> Try to stay on level roads as much as possible.

Not much of a problem in Florida. Although I do live in a 'hilly' part.

> Avoid the morning and evening rush hours as much as possible.

Most have no choice on this unfortunately.

Yes - check http://petrolprices.com Translate 'p' (pennies) price x2 for cents and x3.8 from liters to U.S. gallons, or just do one multiplication of 0.076.

Nextourer

nice writeup mmarshall. May I add a few things?


Please rinse the underside of your car. I was washing my friend's 4Runner and I swear I lightened his SUV by 1 or 2kg lol. There was soooo much sand, mud, leaves and who knows what other crud in the crevices and such underneath the vehicle. Get your hose/nozzle in there and clean it out!


Also with the tyres, I think if they've been sitting in the shade for > 3 hours, they should be cool enough to get a good cold pressure reading, no?

If you can't avoid hills, take the route with rolling hills to take advantage of coasting down the hill and up the other.

mmarshall

Generally, yes. And it is especially important with AWD to keep all 4 tires where they are supposed to be, to avoid differences in rotational speeds which, if constant and continuous, can strain the center differential. Same applies with tire condition on an AWD vehicle.....you don't want worn tires mixed with good ones because worn tires, even of the exact brand, size, and PSI, will rotate faster than new ones due to a slightly smaller outside diameter from the worn-off tread.

What does this have to do with gas mileage?
Well, people often screw around with the recommended tire pressures determined by the engineers who designed the car, in an effort to improve mileage or handling. While that is not recommended in any vehicle (with rare exceptions, like the Ford Explorers whose factory PSI recommendations on the Firestone Wilderness tires were inadequate, leading to tire failure), it is especially detrimental to AWD systems and can cause serious problems.

AzNMpower

I just look at the (unfortunately, digital) instant fuel consumption readout on my BMW X3. Yes its very distracting, but its kinda cool and I end up obsessed with keeping the consumption numbers as low as possible.

mmarshall

Well, since BMW didn't put the I-Drive into the X3......they had to put in SOMETHING that was distracting.

reamemiya

iTrader: (1)

Good advice. Just read this over at my.is yesterday.

mdw131

Nice find Bit...

As Ive stated MANY times...Adjusted for long periods of time, ALL natural resources decline in price over time relative to the price of labor and real(adjusted for inflation) prices. Its just that we've all experienced such a trough when it was a dollar, 1.50, 2 that now at 3 it feels like it hurts because we were spoiled.

Famous bet between an economist and biologist
http://www.overpopulation.com/faq/Pe...ian_simon.html

Study on natural resources
http://www.econlib.org/library/ENC/N...Resources.html

mavericck

My advice to everyone is that we should start putting pressure on the Energy companies to expand their existing oil refineries and on politicians to start putting into legislation new laws which will make it easier to drill for new oil deposits and also force the oil companies to expand their refining capacities which is the main culprit in rising oil prices. Right now they have a severe defficiancy in the amount of oil they can refine but the oil companies don't want to expand their refineries or add new ones because they benefit from the higher oil prices.

Start putting pressure on these two entities to expand our refining capacity and we will start to see gas prices fall.

ff_

Yup, because we need to stop the current trend towards more fuel efficient cars. Long live the Hummer!

Finally, I've met another person that didn't fall for the media hype surrounding Firestone, and realized that the problem was with Ford and the Explorer, not with the tires.