Top 5 Ways You’re Needlessly Adding Weight to Your Car
April 14th, 2007 | by Brian Carr |One of the simplest ways for you to increase your car’s gas mileage is to reduce all of the excess weight you’re carrying around. According to FuelEconomy.gov for every extra 100 pounds you carry around in your car, you’ll reduce its gas mileage by 2%.
So, with that being said, what extra things are you needlessly carrying around in your car that could be reducing its gas mileage?
Here’s the top five list of common items that you might be carrying around in your car and effectively reducing your gas mileage:
- Sports equipment. Golf clubs, baseball bats, cleats, basketballs - all that stuff needlessly adds weight to your car. So, take all of this stuff out of your car when you’re not going to be using it.
- Your cases of CDs. The other day I took two full books of CDs out of my car. Just for fun I weighed the two of them and found out that I had been carrying around 35 extra pounds in my car.
- Unused child safety seats. Now, I know it’s a pain to schlep this stuff in and out of the car, but if you’re really trying to improve gas mileage, it may be worth considering taking unused safety seats out of your car.
- Miscellaneous trunk items. Tool boxes, luggage,
- You. If you’re overweight you’re bringing down your car’s fuel economy. Lose some weight, get better gas mileage.
Anyway, if you can get all of the excess items out of your car, you should see a jump in your car’s gas mileage. As I’ve said before many times on this site, every little bit counts.
11 Responses to “Top 5 Ways You’re Needlessly Adding Weight to Your Car”
By Ankur on Apr 17, 2007 | Reply
I agree - weight is the enemy!!
I cant stand to see cars getting heavier and heavier, do people really need a car that weighs over 3200 pounds anyways?
By Brian Carr on Apr 17, 2007 | Reply
Ankur - thanks for the comment. I definitely agree with you regarding the lack of a need for the massive vehicles that a lot of us drive around. Fortunately, I think we’re starting to see a shift toward people purchasing lighter, more fuel efficient vehicles - which may be the only good thing that comes out of consistently high gas prices.
By Randy on Aug 7, 2007 | Reply
How much does a spare tire/jack mounting mechanism weigh? How many times in the last 50,000 miles have you needed these, even though you lugged them around for 50,000 miles? We don’t lug around a spare alternator “just in case” or a spare starter motor “just in case”, why a spare tire? Pretty much every car on the road is lugging around this very seldom needed weight. Most people I would guess would not even change their own tire and would call on the cell phone to a road service. I propose that except for a long trip maybe, that people take out the spare tire and associated tools and keep them in their garage. What do you think?
By Leroy Brown on Aug 9, 2007 | Reply
The spare tire is an interesting idea. I’ve never had a flat ( crosses fingers ) but I know it’d be a PITA to get one and not have a spare handy…. so I’m not sure that I’d be willing to take the risk. Perhaps I’ll just look for runflat tires on my next car?
By Andy on Dec 6, 2007 | Reply
whatabout exchanging your spare tire and jack etc for a can of that tire fixer stuff that inflates and fixes your tire? would that work?
By Phil on May 28, 2008 | Reply
The gas in your tank weighs over eight pounds per gallon. Consider filling your tank only half way.
By Brandon Fredriksen on Apr 20, 2009 | Reply
Actually, gas only weighs about 6.2-6.3 pounds per gallon. It is not the same weight as a gallon of water (8.34 lbs) so that information is false. Also, filling your tank halfway, means you have to spend more time at the pump re-fueling as well as possibly causing faster deterioration of your fuel pump and fuel filter as you have the potential to drive around me on almost empty tank by filling up only halfway each time vs. all the way. Just my $0.02.
By Michael on Apr 21, 2009 | Reply
@Brandon
Actually, depends in if you’re using US gallons or Imperial gallons.
US gallon of water weighes 8.345kg
Imp. gallon of water weighes 10.022kg
So don’t split hairs over figures for no good reason other than to pick holes in someone’s good, and valid suggestion. Just my two cents.