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Tips to ensure you are optimizing gas and mileage
With the price of gasoline in the U.S. reaching an average of $4.02 in the month of June and expected to get as high as $5.00 by the end of summer, I know we are all feeling the squeeze. There used to be a time when we went car shopping and looked at the estimated MPG for highway and city - glanced at it - and looked further at the sticker for the price. We really did not care just exactly how many miles we were getting to the gallon - afterall, gas was fairly cheap a couple years ago. Now - here we are - 3 to 4 years after we purchased our latest new car. We are either still "upside-down" on our car - meaning the amount we still owe to the bank is higher than the current value - or we are just at a break-even point where the current trade-in value meets the amount we owe. So - we still are not quite able to afford to trade that car in for one of the new hybrids out there. So - what can we do to get the most mileage out of our cars? How do we know exactly how many miles we are getting to a gallon of gas? How do we know we are actually getting the right amount of gas for the price advertised? Well - that is what this is about. I've been working on this for the past two months. While it isn't much, I have been able to increase my MPG by 2. That's 26 extra miles on my 13 gallon tank which means I save one gallon of gas! Here's how I did it: 1. How do I know I'm getting a full tank of gas for the money I'm paying as advertised? I'm sure many of us have heard that there are gas stations out there "short-changing" their customers. In other words, customers are paying more and getting less. The first way to ensure that you are getting the price advertised is to do the 10 gallon check. Rather than watch the $ amount, watch the fill amount. When you're filling up your tank, stop at exactly 10 gallons. If the advertised price for 1 gallon of gas is $4.029, when you hit 10 gallons exactly, the $ amount should show $40.29. If it shows an amount higher than that, the pump is not calibrated correctly. The options here are either a.) inform the gas station owner and hope the owner fixes the problem, b.) call the 800 number posted on all pumps to the state department associated with regulating gas stations, or c.) find a new gas station for future fill ups and do this test again. Another tip to ensure you are getting the most for your money is to either fill up early in the morning or late in the evening when the weather is cooler. Gasoline is more dense when it is cold, meaning, you will get a full tank of quality gasoline. Gasoline expands and becomes vaporous when it is heated. If you fill up in the middle of the day when it is the hottest, you will get less gasoline in your tank and will still be paying the full price. 2. How do I know exactly how many miles I'm getting per gallon? This took me three weeks to accomplish in order to get an average that I would consider consistent. I have a 64 mile round-trip commute to work every day. So, I burn through a tank of gas in a week. So, to begin the calculation, on the day I filled up the tank, I wrote down the mileage from my odometer and the date. The next time I filled up the tank, I wrote down how many gallons it took to fill up the tank, the mileage on my odometer, and the date. I calculated the total miles driven and divided that by the number of gallons it took to fill up the tank and I calculated the number of days between fill ups. I did this for three weeks. After three weeks I was averaging 26.67 miles per gallon and filling up every 6 days. 3. How do I get more mileage out of my car? This takes some discipline (well, at least for us jack-rabbits with lead feet). Once I figured out how my MPG based on my driving habits, I had to learn to change those habits. One advantage that I do have over many car owners is that I have a manual transmission. In other words, I have a stick-shift - not an automatic. When I come to a stop light, I always put my car in neutral so it idles near 0 using less gas. You people with an automatic transmission don't have this luxury - however, you can still benefit from these tips. a.) Slow down! Drive the speed limit. Driving at a slower rate of speed taxes the engine less and does not inject as much fuel as when you are driving at a higher rate of speed.
b.) When accelerating from a stop position, ease in to it. Do not gun it! Jack rabbit starts push a lot of fuel into the engine at a higher rate than is necessary.
c.) If you have a manual transmission - put your car in neutral when you are at a complete stop - the engine will idle at a lower RPM.
d.) If the weather is nice - turn off the air conditioner and just use the fan. DON'T roll down the windows! If you feel it necessary, just crack them a little and open them on both sides to allow it to create an out-current. Opening the windows fully actually creates drag on your car - even if you have both sides open. When you put drag on the car - it works harder and uses more gas. So - if it's not too hot out, just use the fan at maximum. Or if you need to use the AC, try to keep it down at it's lowest setting. Over the next three weeks as I was changing my habits, I was also keeping track of my fill-ups and mileage as indicated in #2. By the end of those 3 weeks, I was averaging 28.53 MPG. I gained almost 2 MPG or 26 miles per fill up. I also extended my between fill ups to 7 days as a result. When you think about it, I'm saving $4 a week, or $208/yr by changing my driving habits because that is one less gallon of gas I have to purchase and I get a full week out of a tank now. |
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This intel was contributed by thebobo
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May, 2012
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