If you have been watching the news lately, you know gas prices are about to skyrocket. When gas prices go up, people start looking for a way to become more efficient with their fuel. The more miles you can get out of your gas tank, the less money you are going to spend each month. Some people suggest buying a hybrid vehicle, but that may bring two problems: first, a hybrid vehicle is really expensive; and second, there’s no need to buy a new car when yours works fine. Instead of buying a new expensive car, take a good look at these five tips to increase fuel efficiency.
1. Drive Smarter.
Different car brands and models have different optimal fuel speeds, but most of them become less efficient if you go below 50 mph. And, in contrast, if you decide to quickly step on the gas, you are also wasting fuel: rapid accelerating is fuel inefficient as well. If you are quickly hitting the brakes, speeding unnecessarily or rapidly accelerating you are wasting up to 30% worth of fuel efficiency. Drive below the speed limit and slowly work your way up to it, that way you’ll save fuel and avoid car accidents.
2. Clean your car.
Most people don’t care about their car hygiene. Hell, sometimes you step into a car and it seems like you stepped into someone’s dirty house: bottles, plastic bags, even food laying around! If you are loading things in your car, you are adding excess weight to it. If your car is carrying too much weight, it’s going to need more gas to move around. Excess weight can make your fuel efficiency drop by at least 5%
3. Maintain your car.
If you drive a poorly maintained car, you might be suffering from fuel efficiency losses from 5% up to an astonishing 40%. Make sure you take regular care of your car. That way, you’ll avoid wasting money on gas. You should also check your tires: if you keep them inflated you can save up to 3% in fuel costs.
4. Shake things up and switch your routes.
You are probably commuting to work at the same time everyone else does. This will lead to being stuck in traffic, wasting gas every time you accelerate to drive for half a second and then quickly hit the brakes. Try to take a less popular route, or change your commuting schedule to avoid traffic.
5. Take long trips and avoid short ones.
Short trips are a sure way to waste gas. Instead of going on multiple short trips throughout the week, try to run all your errands on the same day, that way you’ll save more gas. You are also going to save a lot of time, which you cannot buy back.
There you have it, five ways to increase your fuel’s efficiency. You don’t even have to use all five, if you adjust your car behavior a little bit you’ll be saving tons of money with no effort. Keep in mind the most important thing is to keep your car maintenance up to date, or you can lose almost half of your fuel’s efficiency. Stop by Leahy’s Auto to get your vehicle in check. Make sure your car is doing the best it can, give us a call to schedule a free fuel efficiency checkup!
