- My tachometer, my friend. Not all vehicles have one of these but it is a helpful monitor of gas consumption. The relationship between gas consumed and revolutions (cycles) per minute isn't exactly linear but in general, the higher the engine's RPM, the more gas is consumed. The tachometer gives me a visual cue as to when my transmission shifts into a higher gear (the RPM drops).
- Buckle up, then start the ignition. This doesn't save a huge amount of gas, but every little bit helps, right?
- Shutting off the ignition if I just miss the green light and if I can see the cross light. I only try this if I know that I'll be waiting at least one minute for my green, and if I can start the engine up and get it into gear before my light turns green. This means that I have to be able to know the cycle of the lights and pay attention to when the cross light turns yellow from green. That gives me about 7-8 seconds to turn the ignition on and get it back into gear.
- A good gas credit card. Like my standby the Chase PerfectCardâ„¢ Mastercard®, or the Discover® OpenRoad(SM) Card.
- Driving with no air conditioning. I have a pretty high tolerance to heat for short distances so I make do without running the A/C. I'll roll down the window, but that's usually it.
- Gentle accelerations and coasting. Hard accelerations increase RPMs so those use more gas. Hard braking means that you had your foot on the gas longer, so you used more gas. I try not to be too much of a jerk but if someone's really riding my back bumper I'll take my time. 😉
- Cleaning out the junk. More weight, lower gas mileage. It's that simple.
- Throw it into neutral? I'm not brave enough to do this one. It would be too easy for me to throw it into reverse at 55 MPH. That's definitely not good. In fact, one might say it's really bad.
Seven of my favorite ways to save money on driving expenses — and one I don’t use
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Impossible to throw it into reverse when you're above like 5mph. I believe a manual transmission is the same, while I've never tried it myself. Obviously, the car will warn you with significant clicking noises, but it will lock you out of reverse gear.
Regarding the AC, if you are traveling over 40 mph, I've heard you're kind of in a wash, so rolling up and using the AC is not costing more gas than having the windows down and fighting the drag. For my part, when it's nice I bring the top of the Jeep down. I know, a Jeep isn't exactly economic, but considering I'm getting 21.5 mpg average out of a vehicle rated for 18 highway and 16 city, I'm doing something right.
As for the last one, throwing it into Neutral, I (and a lot of other people far more knowledgeable) will advise strongly *against* this practice.
Reason 1 is safety. You actually have less control when your car is in neutral, and that's assuming you don't "throw it into reverse".
Reason 2 is that cars are designed to reduce their gas consumption when slowing down.
Case in point for #2: A friend once bought himself a new El Dorado as a retirement gift, and it had all the bells and whistles you could imagine. Among these was a display that told him his current mileage – not for this tank, but this moment, what is the vehicle burning. He found that coming down a long slow decline, even his El Dorado would get near 100 mpg. Naturally, being a Cadillac, it would drop below 16 as soon as he started back on the accelerator.
The point is that most cars – even guzzlers – will drastically reduce their consumption at these times, usually far below the minimum idle consumption – which is what you get in Neutral.
Cheers!
What kind of car do you drive that throwing it into neutral would also risk throwing it into reverse? Sounds like an automatic.
I drive a stick shift. It's technically illegal and a poor practice to drive with a open clutch, i.e. neutral. But I do it all the time. I'm not sitting at a red light with the clutch depressed for the entire light cycle. It makes your calf muscle bulge out. (I used to do this when I was younger and still athletic. Not anymore. The size difference would be obvious now.)
Judicious use of open clutch will save gas because it by default lowers your RPM's, but it's not advised to do it everywhere, all the time. And I'd never do it in an automatic.
I'm not sure why Lou thinks it's vastly unsafer where you'd have less control of your car though. The reason people with stick shifts are told to keep it in gear at red lights is so that then they are rear-ended and they lessen pressure on the clutch, the engine stalls and they don't travel quite as far thus preventing what could be an even worse accident, or hitting the person in front of them.
Regarding turning off a lights, if you know your light cycles and have an audio player that ticks off seconds, you can pretty much shut off if you are going to wait for 30 seconds. That way you don't actually have to see the crosswalk light counting down seconds. Just a thought. Plus I can learning the timing cycle with a long audio track.
yeah, that last one is def. a bad one for sure…i shiver just THINKING about it! haha…
Mapgirl,
I wouldn't say it's "vastly unsafer", especially with a standard (which is what I drive). And I believe it's nearly impossible to throw any car into reverse above 5mph. Search the mythbusters site for this, they tested the crazy idea that throwing your car into reverse would help you stop quicker.
But for an automatic, you're adding one more thing to deal with – gotta throw back into drive at the right moment, which does add to the distraction issue. However small that distraction is.
Also, even with an automatic, simply taking your foot off the gas is control. Anything you do with the accelerator when your car is running and in gear affects your speed. Throwing into neutral eliminates that control.
My biggest point though, is the efficiency factor. I don't have links, but try searching the cars.com site. The "brothers" have mentioned this exact issue on their NPR radio show in the past.
Cheers!
Lou
Don't forget about properly inflating your tires! Barack Obama's imploring that it saves gas notwithstanding (oh, I'm sure it saves a little bit to a lot, but who knows?), tires last longer when inflated the proper amount. That means you don't have to shell out hundreds of dollars a year or two too soon.
Buy a used hybrid. Group your errands into as few trips as possible. Drive on the freeway rather than in the city.
Or just buy a bike and spend all you saved in gas on food 🙂
This is too about the AC…if your car is relatively new (5-7 years), it is a wash between AC on and windows down at higher speeds because of the drag created by opening the windows. Now if you don't mind sweating in a mini-greenhouse, you could shut the windows and turn the AC off.
Joel: It probably is but I don't want to even test it. 😉
Mapgirl: I drive a 2004 Corolla with automatic transmission. If I overshoot N from D, I would hit R.
Also, I do "sweat it out" and drive with the windows up and the AC off for as much as I can stand.
I try not to use the air conditioning, because in Seattle it's only occasionally really *necessary* to cool down that way. Usually windows down will easily do the trick. And it just burns SO much more gas.
For a great gas card, try the Citibank Driver's Ege Options Card. You get 3% on gas, groceries, and drug stores, plus you can increase it by sending them your mileage for a 1 cent per mile driven reward match. National City also offers a card which offers enhanced rebates on a number of categories including gas. The Everyday Rewards Visa offers 4% cash back on up to $250 per month in gas purchases.
As far as the neutral shifting idea, GM is already building a feature into some of their cars that automatically shifts the transmission into neutral at stop lights to save gas.
I should have mentioned that, for those who charge a ton, the AMEX Blue Cash card is great. Once you reach $6,500 a year in purchases, you get 5% back on gas, groceries, and drug store purchases and 1.5% back on everything else. The rebates are cash taken right off your bill once a year, and there is no rewards cap. Last year, we got back over $800.
I say the best is to drive a standard, which sort of goes with your last point. Putting the clutch down is similar, but not quite to being in neutral. It takes the car out of gear. Put the clutch down on hills and when coasting and you will save gas.
You can just use the car fan while going 40+ windows rolled up/No AC. I'm willing to sweat it out to save some $.
Re: shutting engine off and buckling up first.
Keep in mind that the hardest time on your engine is when you start it. Shut it off and the oil pump stops which means your engine doesn't have oil pumping as you start it.
Shutting off you engine for 60 seconds every stop light, to me, is a surefire way to prematurely age your engine by causing excess wear and grossly offset the costs of the minute gas spent idling.
(I'm not sure what hybrids do but I would be surprised if the oil pump isn't started before the gas engine is started for just this reason.)
Shutting the engine off sounds good up front but you may be shooting yourself in the foot and I really wish people wouldn't blindly suggest turning your engine off assuming it's built the same as a hybrid. (Hint: it's not!)
TINSTAAFL.