Gas Guzzlers

Saving Money on Gas---Don't be a Gas Guzzler.

Saving money on gas is not as hard as you may think it is.According to some recent statistics from the U.S.Department of Transportation, most Americans drive an average of 29 miles andspend somewhere around 55 minutes a day in their cars.If you add this to the fact that the national average for car fuel efficiencyis somewhere around 24.4 miles per gallon,which was the lowest since 1986 when the nation overall average was about 25.9miles per gallon. What is cool is that 65percent of U.S.households nowadays own two or more cars. Ofcourse, the War in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina have changed these statssignificantly.

Knowing this is the case, driving more sensibly can greatlyassist you if you learn to  conserve gasduring this time of excessively high prices. Aggressivedriving, such as speeding and accelerating to quickly and braking to fastactually wastes gas. It can lower your gasmileage by 33 percent whenever you are driving at highway speeds and you arealso wasting gas by 5 percent when you are cruising around town with noparticular place to go. In fact, this 5 to 33percent is the same thing as gas savings of 7 cents to 49 cents a gallon.This is just too cool when you know it.

Checking out the speed limit when you are driving andadhering to it can also help. Gas mileage lowersquickly when you are driving at speeds that are above 60 mph.basically for every 5 mph that is driven over 60 mph it is just like paying anextra 10 cents per gallon. Using cruisecontrol on the highway helps you to maintain a constant speed that can help yousave money on gas. If you can expect beingstopped for more than one minute for things like trains, or tickets, your bestbet is to shut off the car during this time.Contrary to popular belief restarting the car uses up less fuel than justletting it sit with the engine on.

You will want to try to consolidate all of your trips anderrands that you need to make to cut down on the driving time which will cutdown on gas money used. Also, take the time toclean out that trunk because the heavier the load in your car is, the moregasoline will be used. And with the summer startingto creep up on us you should keep in mind that using the air conditionersparingly will also save gas. The A/C putsmore force on the engine, which forces you to use more gas.About 20 percent m