While gasoline costs across the country have stabilized and, incredibly, even gone down a bit in the last few months, gas is still over $3 dollars a in most states and close to $4 a gallon in some. Now, to be perfectly honest, we’ve written quite a few blogs about how to lower your gasoline costs and increase you are mileage with every tank of gas. That being said, below we’ve put together a few of the best tips that we have so that if this is your first time searching for these types of tips you get some of the best. Enjoy.
Tip 1: Lighten the load. Even as little as five extra pounds of weight in your vehicle can lower your mileage and, unless it’s something that you need for your work, your best bet is to completely clear everything out of your car that isn’t 100% necessary. From extra clothing and maps to bowling balls, fishing gear and even bricks (yes, bricks), that extra weight is causing extra damage to your wallet or purse at the pump.
Tip 2: Catch a ride with a friend or neighbor. You might not know someone who lives close by and works close to where you work as well but websites like RideSearch.com and eRideShare.com can help you to find someone. If they don’t simply Google the word “carpool” and the name of the city or town that you live in and you’re bound to find all sorts of information that can help you. Carpooling will not only save you gas but also maintenance on your car as well as allowing you a little bit of extra time (if you’re not the driver, of course) to get yourself prepared for the day on the ride to work.
Tip 3: Use an app to compare gas prices. There are a number of them but the two best are GasBuddy.com and gaspricewatch.com, both of which are excellent smartphone apps that can show you which station in your town has the best price. If it’s on your way and convenient, you can sometimes save up to $.20 a gallon depending on where you live.
Tip 4: Make use of your car’s aerodynamics. Listen, unless you’re a professional skier or you use your bicycle (street or mountain) more than once a week, there’s no reason to have ski or bicycle racks on your roof all the time. (Yes, they might look slightly “cool” but if you waste gas aren’t you then also a “fool”?) Save money by taking them off.
Tip 5: Get a gas rewards card. If you do a lot of driving you might consider getting a gas rewards card but only with one caveat; you must pay your credit card bill in full every month. If you do then the rewards can be well worth it but if you don’t the extra charges in interest can negate any rewards that you might get.
Tip 6: Consider a four-cylinder engine in your next new or used car. Want to know what uses a lot of gas? A big engine. Yes, it might get you going faster on the highway but seriously, the difference is so negligible in most cases as to make it not worth it unless you’re going to be towing something on a regular basis.
Tip 7: Make sure to maintain your car regularly. Checking the air pressure in your tires is something that you can easily do yourself but things like making sure your oil is good, your transmission fluid is up to snuff and your car is running well in general are things that you’ll have to go to your local mechanic to have done. If you want to save money at the pump as well as on major repairs, there’s no better way to do it then keeping up with your car’s maintenance.
Tip 8: Learn how to coast. While we aren’t fans of turning your engine off and coasting to a stop, something that might be dangerous depending on the type of car that you have, keeping an eye on traffic and taking your foot off the gas so that you coast to a stop while in drive is a great way to conserve gas. The fact is that once your car is moving you’ve already used gasoline to get it up to speed. If you see a stop sign or traffic light coming and you know you’re going to be stopping, what’s the sense of using even more gas to get there? Take your foot off the pedal and simply coast, using your car’s momentum to get you there instead.
And those, dear readers, are some of the best Tips that we’ve come across in the last few years for saving money on gasoline and increasing your MPG. We hope that some of them might be helpful to you and we also encourage your questions and comments.
Excellent tips. I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but here in Australia the price of petrol is getting ridiculous. Everything seems to be increasing in price and saving money on petrol is a huge help to the family budget. Although it does cost money, I keep my car regularly serviced to make sure it is running right and save petrol. Your tip about choosing a 4 cylinder engine if possible is good too, especially since here it makes registration costs less also.