Three Easy Ways to Get Better Fuel Economy from Any Car or Truck

With the price of gas in America selling for more than most people ever imagined, we’re all very interested in learning more about how to get better fuel economy. It is not hard to do. You just need to focus on squeezing as much as you can out of a gallon of fuel.

Here are three simple techniques that contribute to more miles per gallon. Each contributes a little to the equation. Practice these and many other techniques to get the best fuel efficiency your vehicle is designed for. If you ignore the techniques, you will pay more than you should to operate your vehicle.

The first technique is to simply drive further than normal in front of your bumper. This means keeping an eye on the road ahead so you can anticipate slowdowns, stops, the need to pull off the road, and the need to speed up a bit.

For example, going up a hill requires gradual acceleration to help get over the hill without the need to downshift to lower gears. If you wait until you’re on the incline, you’ll be wasting fuel by going full throttle or downshifting a gear or two to climb it. The easiest way is to anticipate the incline and gradually accelerate up the hill while maintaining momentum to stay in top gear.

Just remember to watch your speed as you increase it a bit to go up the hill. A speeding ticket costs much more than any fuel you can save using this technique.

We are often told to keep our car in service to get the best fuel economy. This is still good advice, especially for older cars that don’t have computer controls to help maintain optimum fuel economy while driving. If you still drive a carburetor-fed engine, a tune-up once a year or every 10,000 miles is a good idea.

For any vehicle, keep up with your air and gas filters. A clogged air filter makes your engine work harder to suck in air. A clogged fuel filter can cause a failure that discharges sludge into the carburetor or fuel injectors.

One of the best ways to tell if you need a tune up is to monitor your fuel economy with every fill up. You need to know what kind of economy your vehicle gets based on the type of driving you do and the time of year. Summer offers the best fuel economy, while winter offers the worst.

Turn off the air conditioning and you’ll improve your miles per gallon a bit. In older cars, the AC compressor runs all the time, so it’s a constant load on the engine. This affects fuel economy the entire time you drive. Also note that some models turn on the air conditioning when the “climate control” is in any position except “vent” and “off”. That means even “defrost” and “heat” make the AC compressor work.

Newer models run the AC compressor intermittently, so they have less of an effect on fuel economy. However, it’s still a good idea to minimize AC usage at lower speeds and just roll down a window. If you’re traveling at highway speeds, use the air conditioning instead of opening a window. Also, turning off the air conditioning a few miles before your destination will allow you to take advantage of the remaining cooling effect of the heat exchanger simply by letting the fan run in recirculation mode.