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Gas prices creeping toward $4.00 per gallon? Ouch!

Fortunately, there are several things you can do to ease the pain at the pump.

Blatantly commercial tip #1: Buy a Saturn. We’ve got the most affordable hybrids, the most fuel efficient eight-passenger SUV and the Sky and Astra blend great fuel economy with great performance.

Now, on to some not-for-profit fuel-saving tips from Saturn’s automotive experts:

Plan your trips and driving routes to avoid congestion. Reducing the number of times you stop and re-accelerate can significantly improve fuel economy.
Slow down. Each 10 mph of highway speed can reduce fuel economy by 4 mpg.
Accelerate smoothly. By gently applying the accelerator pedal and not accelerating too briskly, the engine spins at a lower rate and requires less fuel.
Maintain steady speeds. Using cruise control helps some drivers improve fuel economy by 2 percent.
Limit the use of accessories. Accessories such as air conditioning, heated seats and rear window defoggers all use energy that ultimately comes from the fuel consumed by your vehicle.
Don’t carry more than you need. An extra 100 pounds in a vehicle can reduce fuel economy by as much as 2 percent. Items such as bike racks and roof-top carriers also increase wind drag and reduce fuel economy.
Properly maintain your vehicle. Following the manufacturer's regular maintenance schedule can improve mileage by as much as 10 percent. This includes replacing dirty air filters and maintaining proper tire pressure.
Avoid extended engine idling. A 20-mile trip that includes 10 minutes of idling could reduce fuel economy from 20 mpg to 17.5 mpg.

Have we missed any? Please share your ideas!

-Lish Dorset, site editor

Tags: efficiency, fuel, gas

9 Comments

Comment by KarenAnn on April 24, 2008 at 5:21pm: Keep your tires properly inflated is very important, I see it mentioned, but 38% of all vehicles have at least one tire under inflated!
Karen Ann in Nanaimo

Comment by Gord888 on April 25, 2008 at 10:07pm: In spite of all the boring ways to save gas, there are fun ways too. Get performance lowering springs. lowering your vehicle can result in up to 3% gains in highway fuel economy by reducing the drag coefficient of your car. Also, it means you can brake less around the corners which means less fuel is required to get you back up to speed. Isn't that more fun than driving slower?

Comment by marlin on April 26, 2008 at 7:02pm: talk about ouch i am already at $4.04 per gallon which ran me about $47.00 easly ... this is str8 garbadghh

Comment by Julia on April 26, 2008 at 9:03pm: Great advice! Does anyone know why the prices are raising so high?

Comment by montrealvue on April 26, 2008 at 9:39pm: Complaining about $4.00 a gallon? It has been $5.09 a US gallon here in Canada for the last week. I WISH I could get gas for $4.00 a gallon!

Comment by Ron on April 27, 2008 at 4:29pm: How about losing body weight that many of us don't need anyway? Any 100 pound "total passenger" loss is 2%!!

Comment by Saturn team on April 28, 2008 at 4:15pm: Thanks for the additional tips!

Comment by Daniel on May 2, 2008 at 4:34pm: Here are a few more tips and ONE BIG QUESTION!

Fill up in the morning. Most resevoirs are kept underground, and the morning is the days coolest. By filling up in the morning you actually get more fuel in your fill up and less vapors in the vapor return that registers as gas received on your pump read out.

Likewise, don't put the pump at full speed on the nozzle. Once again as the fuel splashes or is pushed out at higher speeds, vapors are released and proceed back into the vapor return, which reads as fuel received, even though its not.

Make sure your gas tank never goes below the halfway point as an unfull tank has room once again for vapors to evaporate thus changing your gas pressure and the likelihood of another quick fill up.

QUESTION: Why aren't natural resources neccessary for living, gov't controlled? I think that profit margins should have a maximum allowable margin cap, that would require oil companies to charge no more than a certain percentage above their true cost per barrel...

This would force Oil companies to provide at a lower cost to consumers, and if regulated/worded properly, may even force oil companies to negotiate with their oil providers and distributors rather than passing the buck along to the consumer at the pump!