If the surge in gas prices has you hyperventilating, well, you're not alone. And the experts are predicting it won't be over for a while, what with the price speculation over the tense situation in Iran and other factors designed to gouge us at the pump.
Here are ways you can save regularly on your gas bill, even if you don't want to buy a new hybrid or electric car.
More ways to save
- • Change the oil regularly to increase engine efficiency
- • Heed warning lights; a bad oxygen sensor can cut efficiency
- • Use cruise control
- • Never accelerate hard from a stop; drive gently off the line
- • Remove roof racks and ornaments
- • Anticipate and coast into stops; allow five car lengths on the freeway to avoid hitting your brakes often
Cut your speed
This is the easiest way to dramatically reduce your gas bills: Stop driving so fast. Driving 55 mph on the freeway instead of 65 is estimated to burn 15 percent less gas. And, no, people don't hate you when you drive slowly on the freeway. They hate you when you drive slowly in the fast lanes. Just stay to the right and remember the parable of the tortoise and the hare.
Pay cash
Many gas stations will give you a discount if you pay cash instead of using credit cards, so carry some cash in your wallet. ARCO stations are generally cheaper as well, and the 45-cent fee to use a debit card has been lifted at local stations.
Join a warehouse club
Sam's Club and Costco routinely have the lowest gas prices in my neighborhood, and you can get money back too, if you belong to the appropriate membership level. Costco accepts American Express, unlike many other gas stations. Sam's Club will let you use a Mastercard, too (but no Visa).
Stop idling
You waste a lot of gas idling, so cut your engine if you'll be stopped for more than a minute. The air we breathe will thank you, too. Idling wastes a quart of gasoline every 15 minutes. You could even walk into a fast-food joint instead of doing the drive-through, in which case you'd burn off 5 of the 2,000 calories you'd consume.
Empty the trunk
I just did this, after I nearly had a conniption fit at the gas pump. The EZ UP I've been carrying around, and all that other junk in the trunk, just went back in the garage where it belongs. There's no reason to haul around extra stuff; it just sucks up your gas mileage.
Make sure your tires are properly inflated
Underinflated tires require more gas for your engine to push them along.
Use the Internet
Resources such as NWautos.com/cheapgas and seattle gasprices.com show gas prices in real time.
Save 10 cents a gallon with rewards points
You can collect points on your Rewards cards at Kroger (which owns QFC and Fred Meyer) and other grocery stores, and then use them to get discounts at participating gas stations.
Plan your trips
Think about what you need to do this week and organize your trips so you'll drive less. Run errands clustered together geographically so that you do everything in the same neighborhood at once.
5 Comments
By Willard West on March 4, 2012 11:23 AM
Turn off, or disable, the A/C compressor, other than periods in which it is needed for actual cooling. For Toyota/Lexus owners there is a factory supplied C-best option that your dealer can set wherein the A/C can be disabled for indefinite periods by simply switching it off once. A different C-best setting can be used to unlink teh A/C from operating automatically in defrost/defog/demist mode.
Other marques may have the same "secret" capability.
Years ago I simply unplugged the A/C compressor clutch circuit connection throughout the cool, cold. season. One of my older cars still has a switch in the glove box so I could easily disable the compressor.
By Vera on March 4, 2012 11:44 AM
Most new cars use the engine coolant (24/7) to moderate the level of cooling you get due to A/C operation. You can improve the efficiency of the A/C cooling function as much as 10-fold by installing a coolant flow shut-off valve in line with the hoses supplying engine coolant to the heater core.
I purchased my valves at Home Depot.
You can "replicate" this effect in the meantime by always using the maximum cooling setpoint during A/C use and then use the blower speed to moderate the cabin cooling level. In this mode the temperature moderating "blend" door/vane will be closed to the reheat airflow path.
This latter method has 2 shortcomings.
1.) the heater core will still be heated to ~200F and will therefore still provide radiant heating within the A/C plenum and the cabin.
2.) On a marginally hot day the cabin may be overly cooled even with the fan/blower speed set at the lowest flow rate. So you may need to cycle the system completely off from time to time.
By Frank Lorenzen on March 6, 2012 6:37 AM
Want to save on gas, buy an all electric car. We have been hearing a lot about the price of gas and it makes me laugh every time I drive by a gas station. I bought an all electric car and have never regretted it. After a year of driving it, I have 4500 miles on it at the equivalent cost of a gallon of gas a month to drive. In the past year it has cost me $4 dollars a month in electricity to operate. I even get free electricity when shopping at stores that provide chargers and those are the ones I patronize. If more people drove them, OPEC would have to give away their oil to sell it and we would be free of them. I know it’s just a start but 10 years from now just thing what we could do. I would like to see more of this in the news to make people aware.
By Willard West on March 6, 2012 9:23 AM
Frank,....
More fossil fuel is burned recharging your electric car battery than would be burned were you driving a hybrid such as the Prius.
By Frank on March 9, 2012 1:56 PM
Willard,
Empirical data please.