2. Gas is costing so much, is there any relief?

Question

Does anybody know of any tips on how I can fine tune my vehicle to get the utmost miles per gallon?

Answer 1

I'm sure you've heard all of it, keep your vehicle really well tuned all the time, keep your tires inflated etc. Anything you can do will be small improvements at best. You can look at your driving habits, sometimes you waste less Gas by going around the block than trying to make a left turn, Some people have started shutting off their engines at traffic lights. You can cut down on the expense by thoroughly PLANNING your trip to get the most done at once so you don't have to make a dozen trips to town when one well thought out trip would have done it. IF it's less than a mile, walk, it'll do you , your car and the planet a lot of good.

Answer 2

The gasoline consumption of your car is pretty much set when you chose the model of your car.  The only way I know how is to make sure you maintain your car to its top condition by routinely making that oil change and tune-up.

People who have to drive to work all feel the pinch!  Many have find ways to cut the high gasoline cost by car pooling, or driving less on weekends.

Answer 3

Not while Bush Jr. is in the White House

Answer 4

There is a few small tips to improve the effiency of your car, but nothing that will dratically change it MPG.

a few tips are to do a tune up if its an older car, this will give sometimes a change of over 20%, as the car is buring all of the fuel it is trying to combust.

Another one is making sure that your tires are properly inflated, this will make the car tires have less resitance to the road, giving an increase of about 5 %.

There are a few others, but the effects are less than 1% and not worth the time..

such as making sure the fuel tank is full to avoid gas being lost to evaporation.

Fueling the car at the lowest flow setting, as the faster you pump, more fuel is lost to evaporation,

Answer 5

Most modern vehicles are already "fine tuned" to run as efficiently as they can.  True, there are mods that may improve 1% here and 3% there, but the difference is mostly unnoticeable and modifying the vehicle is more expensive than the gas it will save, and in some instances, may void a warranty.

What CAN be fine tuned is your driving habits.  Don't accelerate hard at a green light.  If you see a red light ahead, start coasting instead of keeping up your speed until the last second and slamming on the brake.  The biggest gas-saving tip is DON'T SPEED.  Drag increases exponentially with speed, meaning drag is 4 times greater at 60 mph than it is at 30 mph and 8 times greater than at 20 mph.  Mileage doesn't follow the drag curve exactly, but cars do run most efficiently at around 50 to 60 mph.  When cars are doing 80 mph in a 70 mph zone, it's using a lot more gas and it's only saving about 3 minutes on a 30 mile trip, not to mention the safety factor.  

If that hypothetical 30 mile commute is your daily routine, driving 60 mph on that same 30 mile trip would take about 7 minutes longer than driving 80, but it would probably save about 10-15% on gas.  Do this twice a day and that's probably about a $2 a day savings, or $10 a week or $40 a month.