Okay, so you’ve all probably heard this from me before: saving money on gas is extremely important! I am always looking for new ways to pinch pennies and get the best possible price on gas for my car. But besides shopping around for gas, there are other ways to save on what’s already in your fuel tank.
Say you have a full tank of gas and a bunch of trips ahead of you, short and long. One way to help reduce the amount of gas you use is to watch your speed on the road. If you’ve got a short trip on the highway, don’t drive over 60. If you have a long trip on back roads, don’t drive over 40. The speed you drive definitely determines how fast your gas is eaten up. The slower you drive, the better your fuel economy will be. Another really important thing to keep in mind no matter how close or far you’re driving is what’s in your car. Don’t carry around heavy bags, cases of water or any other unnecessary items that you aren’t going to use on your trip or anytime soon. Having too many extra heavy things in your car can weigh just as much as or more than a person. This weight takes a heavy hit on your fuel economy and makes your car really lag when you drive, especially at higher speeds. Don’t forget that having people in the car follows the same principle on weight: the more people in the car, the worse off your fuel economy will be.
Trying to figure out how much gas you’re using on a single trip isn’t really easy to figure out by yourself. To help out, using a GPS will be able to show you how far you’ve driven in a single trip or even day, how much gas you’ve used and the cost of the gas you used. For example, if you drove 20 miles one day and the cost of gas was $2.99, you used about three quarters a gallon of gas and about $1.50 worth of it. One GPS that is able to give you this kind of information is the Garmin nüvi 1300LM. It includes this fuel economy feature called EcoRoute, which helps increase your miles per gallon and determine how well you are braking, accelerating, your speed and your overall driving habits. It also allows you to view your carbon footprint and become more eco-conscious while driving.
It doesn’t take much to save money on gas or use what you already have more efficiently. Pay attention to weight and speed when you drive and you are sure to go longer between fill-ups. That’s something to be careful of especially when the average cost per gallon is $3 or more. Happy driving!