Drive Sensibly

Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas. It can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town. Sensible driving is also safer for you and others, so you may save more than gas money.

	Fuel Economy Benefit:	5-33%
	Equivalent Gasoline Savings:	$0.19-$1.23/gallon

 

Observe the Speed Limit

While each vehicle reaches its optimal fuel economy at a different speed (or range of speeds), gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. As a rule of thumb, you can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.20 per gallon for gas.

Observing the speed limit is also safer.

	Fuel Economy Benefit:	7-23%
	Equivalent Gasoline Savings:	$0.26-$0.86/gallon

Remove Excess Weight

Avoid keeping unnecessary items in your vehicle, especially heavy ones. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your MPG by up to 2%. The reduction is based on the percentage of extra weight relative to the vehicle’s weight and affects smaller vehicles more than larger ones.

	Fuel Economy Benefit:	1-2%/100 lbs
	Equivalent Gasoline Savings:	$0.04-$0.07/gallon

 

OK, do the math, taking the average savings of these recommended tips above and adding them to my 30% savings using my technique you are now looking at a fuel savings of over 50%.

Alrighty then, say you pay $50.00 to fillup your tank, by doing these things above you get to drive $25 worth longer on the road than you otherwise would.

What’s not to love?

Darrell Barker
www.kickgasatthepump.com

 

DATA SOURCE: Estimates for fuel savings from sensible driving are based on studies and literature reviews performed by Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc., Washington, DC.

Estimates for the effect of speed on MPG are based on a study by West, B.H., R.N. McGill, J.W. Hodgson, S.S. Sluder, and D.E. Smith, Development and Verification of Light-Duty Modal Emissions and Fuel Consumption Values for Traffic Models, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, March 1999.