Boost Gas Mileage - Tips and Tricks

	Boosting Gas Mileage

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Jay Leno once joked on the Tonight Show: "The price of gas in California is going crazy. In fact, today I did something smart. I bought a gallon as an investment." Times have not changed, and it will no longer be a laughing matter when gas becomes worth its weight in gold. People nowadays do whatever they can to cope with the pinch – try different ways to improve fuel economy, avoid unnecessary trips, or swap their vehicles for more fuel-efficient models. But because getting around in a vehicle has been our way of life for years, topping our list of to-do things is finding out the most practical system of improving a car's fuel efficiency.

There isn't a single method to substantially boost gas mileage – it is a combination of various driving and maintenance practices that anyone can religiously adhere to. If done on a regular basis, one can easily perceive a marked increase in fuel savings after a few days.

To be able to track your car's performance, you should first learn how to perform the calculations. This can be done in six easy steps:

To calculate mileage in miles per gallon (MPG), fill up your gas tank all the way.

Reset your trip odometer to zero, or if your car doesn't have one, record the mileage on the master odometer.

Drive your car as you normally would, until the gas tank reads half-empty.

On your next trip to the gas station, make sure that you fill up the tank once more.

Record the amount of gas required to fill the tank.

Record the new odometer mileage.

Write down the miles traveled via the trip odometer reading, or subtract the original reading from the new one. Divide this figure by the number of gallons it took to refill the tank. The answer, in MPG, is your car's average mileage for that period.

309 miles / 15 gallons = 20.6 MPG

Keep in mind that the higher the MPG, the more efficient your car is. Simply repeat this procedure on every trip to the gas station to be able to monitor any improvement. You can use this method to experiment with different ways to improve fuel economy. Let's say you normally drive at an average of 75 mph. After determining your MPG, try driving at 55 mph and measure your MPG once more - you'll most likely see an increase.

The following tips, grouped into categories, have been proven to dramatically increase savings on gas costs:

Tips on Car Maintenance

· Maintain a proper engine tune-up according to your owner’s manual. Doing so can significantly increase gas mileage by an average of four percent, as it burns less fuel.

·        Keep your tires properly inflated to their recommended pressure. Under-inflated tires create higher rolling resistance. Keep the wheels aligned, too – wheels that constantly oppose each other waste a lot of fuel.

Replace clogged filters to boost gas mileage up to ten percent.

Regularly change your oil using good quality, energy-conserving (EC) oils.

Tips on Proper Driving Style

·        Do not give in to aggressive driving and frequently weaving in and out of traffic.

·        Avoid jackrabbit starts. Start the car and slowly drive away. Today's cars with new engines need not be warmed up.

·        Since prolonged idling eats up fuel and creates additional emissions, turn the engine off when idling for more than 30 seconds. However, doing so may disable car safety features such as airbags, so make sure that this is only done when there is no danger of collision.  (continued)

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Increase Fuel Economy!

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