Summary
- Keep your car tuned: correct tire pressure, alignment, and regular maintenance save fuel.
- Don’t be a drag: remove roof/bike racks and clear heavy clutter; extra weight and drag waste gas.
- Be a smooth operator: plan trips, avoid hard accel and rush-hour to cut fuel use.
I hate gas stations, and if you do too, you’re in the right place. I hate the time wasted filling up — but most of all, I hate paying for gas. So I did a bit of research and came up with five easy ways to save gas while driving. These are basic, common-sense ideas, nothing extreme like not using my climate control when it is really hot or cold.
I find that I not only have to fill up less often, but I am saving quite a lot of money as well. Here are my five main tips on how to save gas while driving.
Care for your car
Pay attention to your tires
Make sure your tires are inflated to the correct pressure. An underinflated tire creates more rolling resistance, and that uses more fuel. So it sounds logical that over-inflating your tires will save even more gas. It may, but this will affect the car’s handling, and the tires will wear out quicker, which will cost you money.
Make sure your wheels are properly aligned. If your car pulls to the left or the right while you’re steering straight, or the steering wheel is not centered on a straight road, or the tires start wearing more on one side, your wheels are not properly aligned. Rolling resistance is increased, and this uses more fuel. It will also wear out your tires faster, so more bucks down the drain.
Stick to your car’s maintenance schedule. Dirty air filters, sludgy oil, or bad spark plugs can all reduce engine efficiency, costing you at the pump.
Lighten the load
The clutter in your trunk costs money to haul around
Every extra pound in your car requires a bit of extra energy each time you accelerate or go up a hill, which totally adds up over time and distance. I once found a scuba weight belt under my car seat at the end of winter, which I had been lugging around for over four months. It was time to give it a new home and quit contributing to the gas station visits.
The same goes for keeping your golf clubs in the trunk all the time. If you have kids, there will always be shoes, water bottles, and stuff like that in the back. None of it is very heavy, but it all adds up. So, always take out unnecessary items from your car when you can.
Don’t be a drag
Resistance is futile
Mythbusters once found that using an aircon was more efficient than driving with open windows. This probably applies when you’re going over 30 mph, but that is not the main culprit. If you have to take your bikes with you, the drag will use more fuel, and that’s cool. What is not so clever is leaving the bike racks or roof racks on the car when they are not in use. The wind resistance they cause negates all the careful planning to lower your car’s drag coefficient.
While on the topic of drag, the faster you drive, the greater the air resistance it causes. If you aren’t in a hurry, driving at 50 instead of 55 mph will save gas.
Be a smooth operator
Don’t overdo anything
Hard acceleration and high revs glug down your gas. You don’t need to creep away from the stoplights; just take it easier. You should also get in the habit of looking beyond the car in front of you. By slowing down slightly, you may get to the light when it turns green and not have to stop. Frequent hard braking means you’re doing it wrong.
Accelerate gently before a hill, so your momentum can help take you up it, and coast down the other side.
Plan your driving
Rush hour driving and stop-start traffic are terrible for fuel consumption, but very few of us can totally avoid it. If you can, change your departure time so you can get lighter traffic. A good tool is a traffic app like Waze, which guides you to the best route at that time, as well as alert you about accidents or road closures ahead and suggests better routes.
Plan your trip so you won’t have to do extra driving later. If you know you have to get pet food and something at a hardware store, plan your route so it is a single trip. This will not only save you time, but a lot of gas money as well.
