Covering More Ground Without Spending More Money
Your brand new car shines gloriously in the sun, sitting in the driveway, untouched. You rolled it off the lot expecting exemplary gas mileage from those sticker numbers. And then you come down to earth when you fill up for the first time, and those numbers don’t look quite like what’s on your gas pump.
And the truth is that even if a vehicle is the most fuel-efficient model on the market, you’re not going to get its best gas mileage unless you know how to drive it. Today’s cars arrive stuffed with technology intended to save fuel, but they can’t do all the heavy lifting by themselves. How you drive makes a huge difference in the number of miles you get out of each gallon.
The good news? Increasing your fuel mileage isn’t rocket science or even requires you to know how a car works. A few minor adjustments in the way you drive your new car could result in substantial savings. We’re talking about real money back in your pocket each month, not to mention less frequent trips to the gas station.
This guide outlines seven common, easy-to-follow methods that will work on all new vehicles. Whether you’re driving a compact sedan, a luxury SUV or something in-between, there are ways to improve your fuel economy with air conditioning on — not wilting at the wheel.
1. Efficient Acceleration Saves More Than You’d Think
How you press on the gas pedal influences fuel use more than just about anything else. When you mash the gas your car is essentially burning fuel as fast as it possibly can since your engine must exert itself considerably to generate that explosion of power.
Instead of an on-off switch, think of your accelerator as a volume knob. Slow and steady pressure is what allows your engine to do its job without overworking. When you press the pedal to the floor, your car’s computer adds extra fuel to its engine to match what you want in terms of snap power.
Try this at a stoplight: Take 5 or 6 seconds to get up to your cruising speed, rather than the usual 2 or 3. Your engine will reward you by running on less fuel during those vital first few seconds of movement.
Today’s cars show instant fuel economy on their dashboard displays. Pay attention to this number as you play around with acceleration methods. You’ll see the difference immediately. Easy does it — accelerating gently around town can boost your mileage by 20%.
This is not to say that you should drive dangerously slow or hold people up. Get to that sweet spot when you’re gently accelerating without overdoing it. The idea is to get up to the traffic’s speed, making sure not to be too hard on the engine.
2. Cruise Control Is Your Best Friend on the Highway
Cruise control serves not only the purpose of convenience on those long hauls. In fact, it is one of the best fuel economy-boosting tools installed in your new car. The system holds a steady speed with an accuracy that is simply not possible for the human foot.
When you physically control speed, your foot continually makes microcorrections. You pick up the pace, and then you slow down, and then you pick up the pace again. That some of these are slippages can seem negligible — but they keep your engine making the myriad little fuel adjustments.
Cruise control solves this by maintaining perfectly constant speed. Your engine will run smoothly, burning gas at optimum efficiency. Vehicles consume slightly less fuel when using cruise control at highway speeds, researchers report — about 7% to 14% better than manual speed driving, according to studies.
The optimal time to utilize cruise control is on flat or slightly rolling highways when there is minimal to moderate traffic. Don’t use it in heavy traffic where you must brake frequently — or on steep mountain roads where the system may downshift aggressively to keep speed.
When You Should Not Use Cruise Control
Do not use cruise control when it’s icy or slippery:
- Heavy rain or snow when you demand the very best control
- Heavy traffic with too many speed changes
- Downhill sections to give a bit of coasting relief
- Winding roads with sharp curves
3. The Importance of Checking Your Tire Pressure
Your tires are the only part of your vehicle in contact with the road, and their air pressure determines how hard your engine has to work in order to move the car forward. Tires that are under-inflated create additional rolling resistance, forcing your engine to burn more fuel to keep you at a steady speed.
Very few people driving new cars ever get around to thinking about tire pressure, until that light comes on of course. At that point, the tires are already grossly under-inflated. It takes only about five minutes to check your tires once each month and doing so may increase gas mileage by up to 3%.
The sticker inside the driver’s door jamb will have your specific vehicle’s tire pressure. Refrain from using the digit printed on the tire itself—that is not what should be in your car, but rather the maximum amount of air that can be used.
Check tire pressure when cold, which is defined as having been driven for less than three miles. The tires will be warm and your pressure reading will therefore read higher than you initially started with.
Simple Tire Pressure Maintenance Schedule
| Frequency | Action | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Every 2 weeks | Visual inspection | Spot problems early |
| Monthly | Pressure check with gauge | Maintain optimal efficiency |
| Every oil change | Have a professional inspect | Catch slow leaks and wear |
| Seasonal change | Adjust for temperature | Pressure drops 1 PSI per 10°F |
A digital tire pressure gauge costs less than twenty bucks and pays for itself with gas savings. Keep one in your glove box, and make pressure check a part of your routine.
4. Lose Weight and Take Off the Roof Racks
Each extra pound you carry in your car costs you that much more in fuel. Even if your new car was designed to transport passengers and cargo, it costs you fuel on every journey that the extra weight sits in the rear of the vehicle.
Spend a few minutes clearing your car. Take out that bag of sports equipment, the tools you don’t use every day or the boxes you’d been meaning to bring in for donation. Even those extra 100 pounds can lower your fuel economy by 1-2 percent.
Roof racks and cargo carriers can add substantial aerodynamic drag, even when they’re not loaded. That tidy roof box you put on for a ski trip last winter is still penalizing your fuel economy long after you’ve unpacked every snowsuit and icicle-monogrammed boot out of it, all the way back home. An empty roof rack at highway speeds can decrease fuel economy by up to 5%.
Remove your roof rack if you’re not using it every day. Nearly all roof systems go on and come off in minutes, using rudimentary tools. Keep it in your garage when you’re not using it, and you will save gas right away.
Rear-mounted bike racks will be more aerodynamic than roof-top ones, but they will have a fuel economy impact. Take them off when you are done using one for the best fuel economy.
5. Smart Planning of Routes Prevents Fuel Waste
GPS navigation has all but eliminated the possibility of getting lost, but most drivers don’t consider how their route choices can impact their fuel use. Five minutes spent planning your route will also save drive time – and fuel, particularly if you can use the car for several errands.
Whenever it’s feasible to do so, try to consolidate visits as opposed to scattered trips. The most fuel is used by your engine on the first couple of miles following a cold start. This has the advantage of keeping the engine warmed up and running at its peak efficiency temperature when you combine errands together.
Stay away from routes with an abundance of stop signs and traffic lights when possible. Fuel is burned every time you stop and go. Driving a bit further with a constant traffic generally takes less gasoline than a short route with several stops.
We know that stop-and-go rush hour traffic is the enemy of fuel economy. If you have the flexibility, travel during slow periods. Stop-and-go traffic can reduce your fuel economy by as much as half versus that of the same route with light traffic.
Numerous GPS apps now have eco-routing features that can figure out the most fuel-efficient way to get where you’re going. All these routes mitigate distance, traffic distribution, and road characteristics in order to minimize fuel.
Trip Planning Checklist
- Group errands in one location
- Time your visits when traffic’s not at a standstill
- Select routes with the least number of stops
- Leverage the eco-routing capabilities in navigation apps
- Drive for errands less than a mile away in combination with walking
For more comprehensive strategies on fuel-saving driving techniques, explore additional resources that can help maximize your vehicle’s efficiency.
6. Idling the Engine Burns More Fuel Than Starting It Up
Old wisdom used to tell us that restarting our engine burns more fuel than idling. (Actually, this was true a generation ago, but nowadays with fuel-injected engines it’s mostly obsolete). Engines these days use hardly any fuel when fired back up.
If you end up stopped for longer than 10 seconds, save fuel by turning off your engine. Your idling car burns a quarter to half gallon of gasoline per hour, depending on engine size and how much air conditioning you use. They really add up during the school pickups, drive-through lines and waiting for appointments.
Many new cars have automatic start-stop systems that turn off the engine at red lights and turn it back on when you release the brake. Many drivers disable this feature as annoying, but it can save 5-10% fuel in city driving.
You can do that manually if your car doesn’t have automatic start-stop. Kill your engine if you know you’ll be sitting for more than a minute. The starter motors on modern vehicles are made to be able to start many times without failing and doing damage.
Cold snaps are the exception to this rule. In sub-freezing temperatures you want to keep your engine at operating temperature. Perhaps short times of idle in cold weather may be needed for engine regulation and heating the passenger area.
7. Keep up With the Service Due on Your Vehicle
Your new car has a maintenance list in the owner’s manual, after all. Working according to this schedule doesn’t just help avoid breakdowns — it also can affect your fuel economy. A properly kept engine functions more efficiently and burns fuel better.
One of the simplest and most vital maintenance chores that can play a role in fuel economy is changing air filters. A dirty air filter can restrict airflow to the engine, causing it to work harder and burn more fuel. Replace your intake filter at regular intervals or if you drive in particularly dirty environments.
Your engine oil provides a thin layer of protection to moving parts, reducing friction inside your engine. Following the proper oil weight as specified in your owner’s manual assists in maintaining the power and performance of your engine. In general, synthetic oils do perform well and may modestly offer small improvements in fuel economy when compared with conventional oils.
Spark plugs provide the spark that ignites the air-fuel mixture in your cylinder. Worn spark plugs that fail to fire effectively increase the engine’s fuel consumption, while incomplete combustion results in wasted gas. The newer plugs last longer than the old ones, but you still have to change them based on your maintenance schedule.
Essential Maintenance for Fuel Economy
| Service Item | Effect on Fuel Economy | Typical Change Interval |
|---|---|---|
| Air filter | 2-6% if dirty | 15,000 – 30,000 miles |
| Oil change | 1-2% using proper grade | Every few months |
| Spark plugs | Up to 4% when worn out | Varies |
| Tires (Rotation) | Maintains even wear which maintains efficiency | With rotation |
| Tires (Alignment) | Reduces rolling resistance | When tread has uneven wear |
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, proper vehicle maintenance can improve gas mileage by an average of 4%.
Progress Tracking to Get Yourself Motivated
The only way you’ll really know if these fuel-saving maneuvers are worthwhile in your own driving environment is by keeping track of them. Begin recording your fuel mileage before you modify anything, then keep an eye on how it improves as you apply the following tips.
The dashboards of most new vehicles include a display showing average fuel economy. Reset this reading and observe how it changes over a week or two of conscious fuel-efficient driving. You should notice impressive progress after only a few days.
Use a simple log, either in a notebook or with a smartphone app. Write down the date, your odometer reading, the amount at the pump in gallons and your miles per gallon for that fill-up. This provides a baseline and you’ll start noticing the patterns in fuel consumption.
First, determine your fuel costs per month now and with these strategies. It’s nice to actually visualize dollar savings so that you feel the effort is worthwhile and worth keeping up.
Keep family members who drive the car informed of your progress. And when everyone knows the tips and sees that they work, there’s a better chance for all to drive more efficiently. What this does is it turns your fuel economy gains into a fleet multiplier.
Real-World Results You Can Expect
Actually using all seven of these fuel-saving strategies will not double your gas mileage, but they can plausibly increase your car’s average fuel efficiency by 15-25 percent. For a car that now returns 25 miles per gallon, this is approximately 29-31 MPG.
Weight the monetary consequence in context of longevity. If you drive 12,000 miles per year and gas costs $3.50 a gallon, improving your car’s fuel efficiency from 25 to 30 MPG would save you about $280 each year. Over the course of five years of ownership, that’s $1,400 you get to keep rather than let go of at the gas station.
The environmental benefits matter too. Higher fuel economy results in fewer emissions and a reduced carbon footprint. Around 20 pounds of carbon dioxide are released for each gallon of gas burned. Those 80 gallons you save in a year prevent the release of 1,600 pounds of CO2.
These methods don’t need bulky equipment, no mechanical alteration and do not require technician know-how. They’re just asking that you be more aware of your behavior when behind the wheel. The behaviors simply become automatic after a number of weeks.
Taking the First Steps Today
You don’t have to do all seven strategies at the same time. Begin with one or two you think may be easiest to do given your own situation. Perhaps you start using cruise control more and checking the tire pressure in your car once a week. Once these are habits, try another trick.
The great thing about driving in accordance with your fuel diet: It costs nothing to test. You’re not investing in expensive equipment or visiting a specialist with your car. You’re only changing the way you drive, and always driving in well-maintained vehicles.
Your new car is already engineered and technologized to deliver great fuel economy. These seven pragmatic tips unlock that potential by working with your car instead of against it.
Every efficient mile makes you a little more money, you emit less gunk into the air and don’t need to dig up or pave over as much of this great green Earth. When you perform tiny actions over and over again for months and years, they accumulate into massive results.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is driving slowly really good for the gas tank?
Not exactly. All cars have an effective speed range for fuel mileage, generally between 45 to 65 mph. Driving below this speed starts to sacrifice time without yielding enough fuel savings. The trick is to go steady rather than constantly accelerating and stopping.
Can premium gas help fuel economy if a car is rated for regular?
No. There is no fuel mileage advantage with premium fuel in a car intended to run on regular gas. Follow your owner’s manual recommendation. Only use premium if your vehicle manufacturer requires it.
How much does air conditioning influence fuel economy?
The use of air conditioning increases fuel consumption by 5-25%, depending on the outside temperature and how hard the system is working. At highway speeds, AC is more fuel-efficient than open windows because of aerodynamics. In city traffic, we advise you to use ventilation instead when possible.
Do gas additives work to improve your mileage?
For a modern car, most of the fuel additives do not improve the fuel economy or have little effect. The engine management system of your car already adjusts the fuel mixture to be at its best all of the time. Don’t do it — save your money and concentrate on the good old-fashioned driving.
Should I fill up the tank all the way or add little bits at a time?
Fill your tank completely. Half fill-ups just make no sense when trying to save trips to the gas station. A full tank can also help prevent condensation from building up in the fuel tank that can lead to other issues.
Is there an appreciable impact on fuel economy when the weather is bad?
Yes. For short trips, fuel economy will suffer driving in cold weather (10%-30%) due to engines taking longer to warm up and operate at optimum efficiency. The rolling resistance is raised by rain and snow. Your engine is working harder when you have a strong headwind at highway speeds.
