Top tips for improving your gas mileage

These are all based on "official" tips from the US Department of Energy

1. Drive like a motorist, not like a racecar driver - rapid acceleration and harsh braking (breaking) waste fuel
2. Don't break speed limits - driving at above 50 to 55 mph wastes fuel
3. Take off the roof storage box  if not entirely necessary. A rear mounted storage box uses less fuel.
   Leaving on cross-mounted removable roof bars also increases wind noise and uses extra fuel.
4. Remove all unnecessary junk from your car, thus making it lighter and thus the motor doesn't have to work quite so much
5. Turn off the engine while parked, rather than sitting there with the engine running.
6. Use cruise control - this is usually much smoother on the gas pedal than "human" drivers :-)
7. Use higher gears (or overdrive, if fitted) - reducing the engine speed to closer to the maximum torque speed reduces fuel usage for the same vehicle speed. It also results in slower acceleration, but that's a good thing (remember point 1 !)

I also have a couple of other tips for you to consider:

1. Select the most fuel efficient route - the shortest route is not always the most fuel efficient. Choose a route with not many junctions, and that is likely to be less busy. "Bypass" roads that go around town centres are a good example.
2. Select a more fuel efficient time to travel - turning up for work half an hour early, for example, can impress the boss, and, depending on the time of travel, can mean travelling in lighter traffic and being able to drive more smoothly, thus resulting in a fuel saving. For those workers able to work "flexi-time", then use it to time your journeys to maximise your fuel efficiency.