A Simple Tips & Tricks

With all the worry over fuel prices, you'd
think drivers would do whatever they can not to waste gas. But look around
and you'll see lots of them tooling around as if they owned their own
tanker fleet. One of them might be you.Here are six ways drivers typically
waste gas on every trip:

1. Racing away from green lights
When the light turns green, you don't have to take off as quickly as
possible. That pedal under your right foot is called the "gas pedal" for a
good reason. The more you press down on it, the more gas you're pumping
into the engine.Press lightly on the gas pedal, and you'll still
accelerate, and you'll still get where you're going. You might be
surprised at how little pressure it takes to get your car up to speed in a
reasonable time.



2. Racing up to red lights
When you're driving down the street, and you see a light red light or stop
sign up ahead, you should lay off the gas sooner rather than later.There's
no point in keeping your foot on the gas until just before you reach the
intersection. Let off the pedal sooner and give your engine a rest as you
coast to the stop while braking gently. As an added benefit, your brake
pads will last longer, too.By themselves, these first two tips can improve
your fuel economy around town by as much as 35 percent, according to tests
conducted by automotive information Web site Edmunds.com.



3. Confusing the highway with a speedway
Even if it doesn't involve hard acceleration, speeding wastes gas. The
faster you go, the more air your vehicle has to push out of the way. It's
like moving your hand through water. The faster you try to move your hand,
the harder the water pushes back.In tests by Consumer Reports, driving at
75 miles per hour instead of 65 miles per hour reduced fuel economy by
between 3 and 5 miles per gallon, depending on the vehicle.



4. Bumper-buzzing
Tailgating is a bad move for many reasons. First of all, it's unsafe. You
reduce your ability to react if the car in front of you slows or stops. It
also means you have to pay ultra-close attention to that car which reduces
your ability to scan for other hazards ahead of you and to the sides.And
tailgating wastes gas. Every time the driver ahead taps his brakes, you
have to slow down even more than he did. (That's because you can't react
immediately so you have to slow even more because you're slowing down
later.) Then you accelerate again to get back up to speed and resume your
bumper-buzzing routine.Hang back and you'll be safer - plus you'll be able
to drive more smoothly and use less fuel. A good rule of thumb is to allow
two seconds of space between your car and the one ahead. You can figure
that out by counting off two seconds after the car in front of you passes
an obvious landmark like an overpass.



5. Driving standing still
You've probably heard that it takes more gas to restart a car than to let
it run. Maybe that used to be true, but it isn't anymore. With modern fuel-
injection engines, it takes very little extra gas to restart a car once
it's warmed up.Idling, meanwhile, burns about a half-mile worth of gas
every minute, according to the California Energy Commission. That's why
hybrid cars shut down their gasoline engines whenever they stop, even for
a moment.Now you don't want to shut your engine down for every little stop
in your regular, non-hybrid car - it's not designed for that - but if
you're waiting for someone to run in and out of a convenience store, turn
off the engine.And don't go through the drive-through at fast food
restaurants. You're already paying enough for the oil in those chicken
nuggets.

Bonus tip: Don't idle your engine to let it warm up before driving. It
does your engine no good and it wastes gas. Instead, start driving right
away, but drive gently until the engine is warm.