How to get better gas mileage

Dec. 24, 2007 | Drink less, give up sweets -- the clean calendar of a new year inspires many earnest vows of self-improvement. With oil flirting with $100 a barrel, and $3 gas looking like the new normal, perhaps instead of resolving to curb your gluttony in 2008, you should pledge to train your car to be a fuel sipper. "Every time you get into your car and turn on your ignition you can save money," says Bradlee Fons of Pewaukee, Wis., who teaches seminars on efficient driving. "It helps the country with national security and oil dependence, and it helps the world with global warming."

The most efficient way to save gas, as any "one-less-car" transportation activist will attest, is to leave your car in the garage. Walk, ride your bike, take the bus or train, or carpool whenever you can. When you're in the market for a car, choose the most fuel-efficient model. That should get easier to do in the coming years as automakers comply with the just-passed law to move America's fleet from an average fuel economy of 25 miles per gallon to 35 by 2020, a 40 percent increase. It means there should be more fuel-efficient models of all vehicle types from compact to minivan to choose from soon.

Yet there are also simple steps that every driver can take with an existing car, truck or SUV to save fuel simply by improving driving habits. "If you're an aggressive driver, and many, many people are, you should become a moderate driver," says Philip Reed, senior consumer advice editor for Edmunds.com. Unfortunately, most people who drive aggressively don't realize it. "Driving for most people is a completely unconscious act. Just a little bit of self-awareness about how you drive can make a huge difference," says Bradley Berman, founder of Hybridcars.com, which offers both easy and advanced tips for driving more efficiently. Adopting a mellower approach on the road not only will ameliorate your road rage but could save you the equivalent of $1 a gallon, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, by improving your fuel efficiency as much as 33 percent.

"We all learned how to drive when gas was cheap, and we have to relearn how to drive," says Fons. To chill out behind the wheel, first curb rapid acceleration and excessive braking. Start by avoiding so-called jack rabbit starts -- aggressively accelerating from a standstill at a stop sign or a stoplight. But remember, midrange acceleration also gobbles fuel, according to Reed from Edmunds. "You're going 50, and there's an opening in traffic, and you need to accelerate to 75, and you hammer it -- that requires a lot of energy." Learn to accelerate smoothly and gradually. Press down on the pedal with the light touch of a feather.

Adopting a lower cruising speed can also help your car go farther with less gasoline. The efficiency of most cars rapidly declines at speeds over 60. In fact, every 5 miles per hour over 60 you drive is like paying an extra 20 cents a gallon for gas, according to the Department of Energy. So the next time you're tempted to pull ahead of the guy in the Ferrari on the freeway, think of the Saudis and keep out of the fast lane.

Just as hammering the gas is a bad idea, so is slamming on the brakes. Instead, anticipate stoplights and stop signs so that you can back off the accelerator, whenever possible, to slow down, and then gently apply the brakes. "If your vehicle weighs 4,000 pounds, it takes a lot of energy to get that going from a dead stop," explains Fons, who drives a 2000 Honda Insight, and through his driving habits manages to wring as much as 100 mpg out of the car, which is rated at 66 mpg by the Environmental Protection Agency. In stop-and-go traffic, strive to maintain one consistent low speed instead of accelerating and braking, accelerating and braking. To do this, drive in the slow lane, and maintain a long buffer zone in front of you, so you won't have to slam on the brakes to avoid rear-ending the next car.

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