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My gas bills are a fourth of what they were when I commuted 30 miles each way.
I don't need a new car every few years so my cars are 7, 14 and 16 years old and paid off so I only carry liability insurance.
I have the time to do all the maintenance on them and when I need parts I order them off the internet and can afford to wait a week for delivery. I just ordered a radiator support wall to replace my trucks rusted radiator wall and I bought it for $55 dollars. If I had a "pro" replace it, it would have been $400 for the part and $500 for labor to replace it.
All four tires should be the same model and size recommended by your vehicle manufacturer. Tires should be properly inflated with same pressure in all tires. Wheels should be properly aligned and balanced.
If you've been running cheap gas in your vehicle, buy a bottle of Chevron Techrolene at your local auto parts store or Chevron station and follow the directions... be sure to add it to the gas tank on a empty tank just before filling up. You can check reviews of this product at Amazon.com. I was a doubter, but it worked wonders on my 06 4Runner. I am now getting 22 mpg combined mileage. And I drive fast on the freeway.
When you are stopped and want to move forward, don't mash the pedal. Imagine there is a raw egg under the pedal and if you push it too hard too fast, it will break and make a big raw egg mess all over your floor and shoes. Easy does it. But don't go so slow as to **** everyone behind you off lest you set up a accident by a road rager.
Don't race up to a red light or stop. Use your vehicle's momentum to take you there. This will also save on brakes. If you're on a street with lots of signals, they're typically timed. Pay attention to the signals way ahead and drive accordingly. .
Believe it or not, a clean and waxed vehicle gets better fuel economy. Just waxing the front and hood of your vehicle can make a difference. I even use auto wax on my windshield. Think of it this way; Your vehicle is pushing air out of the way as it moves forward. If the vehicles surface is slick, the air will be less resistant.
All very good suggestions except the waxing. Mythbusters TV show disproved the myth of waxing saving fuel.
Some of it has to do with NYC driving, as I have a relative whose vehicle rarely leaves the city, Riverdale and Manhattan, with some forays into Lower Westchester and Fairfield. I have to go to her house and take the car out on the highway for an hour or two, and invariably when I get behind the wheel, the average fuel economy recorded by the computer is at about 10-12MPG for a straight 6 AWD sedan that is well maintained and has extremely low mileage (maintained as low mileage car). I easily return 2.5X the fuel economy in the same car, with much more spirited driving.
Even driving to Queens on the highway, it's not really highway driving, as in open, non-congested, non-toll roads where you have to slow down for the toll plaza, even with EZ Pass, etc. It's more akin to limited-access city driving, in my experience, even if you can maintain 60MPH. Look more to your city fuel economy figure as being the average for NYC, as I have found that accurately reflects my own experiences with different vehicles in the city's mixed driving.
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- i live in nyc , in the bronx .. not much hills here in the "uptown" section of the bx. they (nycdot) just repaved roads during the first half of 2012. i use cruise control on the highway, i set it on 60 and turn on the ac. not too sure on my shocks/struts but i will check them out asap. i use (87) gas with 10% ethanol added to it. i never jackrabbit acceleration ,thats highly dangerous ! i go to school out in queens so i hop on the highway .. not to much traffic signals .
First of all, your car is simply not going to get better mileage than it's designed to get. Check the EPA ratings to see if you're in the ballpark. Fuel Economy
That said, I bolded something that caught my eye. 10% ethanol. For the record, I've never experienced much of a drop in mileage when using ethanol. But some people do.
I just calculated my gas mileage and it was just shy of 21 MPG with mixed driving, no air conditioner. Its a '99 V 6 sedan and I know that ethanol cuts the MPG by 10%.
I've heard about a lazy O 2 sensor although its never given an error message. I've had the air cleaner checked at the oil change, I guess it was okay. A while back I had a camshaft position sensor error but it went away a day later and never seemed to make the engine run any different. I had the fuel filter changed and used Lucas fuel cleaner which seemed to give it a little more power. Spark plugs are going on 3 years old.
I'd like to get a little better MPG but maybe it isn't so bad. I just remember getting the full 27 MPG highway years back pre ethanol.
I Drive A Small 4 Door Sedan ... Cant Seem to drive economically .. any tips ?
Fills on $36-$39
empty trunk
no roof rack
runs fine
ac fine
Hi Bx4Life--
Living in NYC itself I'm not sure how much you can do to improve fuel economy, especially in the face of some of the other drivers I'd had the misfortune of sharing the road with up there.
I would press up my tires to the max sidewall pressure - the number of PSI stamped on the side of the tire (typically 44, sometimes 35 for cheap tires) rather than the 30-32 recommended. It's completely within spec and will get you 5-10% better fuel economy, especially on the highway.
The rest of the stuff is pretty cookie-cutter: avoid jackrabbit starts and stops, keep it under 65 on the highway, and take the longest trip first (since it gets the engine warmer quickly, and helps keep it there).
Lastly, you mentioned living in NYC. Have you considered mass transit, and whether it's feasible in the face of gas prices these days?
Drive the speed limit or less. When I first started doing this, I felt like I was being rude to other drivers behind me. Now I get a kick out of the fact that other people are wasting their money on extra gas that they wouldn't have to buy if they were as smart as me. Plus I enjoy my car, so I have no reason to minimize my time in my car. And I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in 15 years.
Driving speed relative to the speed limit has nothing to do with fuel economy. The speed limit changes where as the "sweet spot" for fuel economy depends on the car and environment, not the speed limit. This speed could be anywhere between 40-60mph depending on the car.
Probably the largest factor to fuel economy that you can control is how often you are braking. Whenever you break you are wasting a lot of energy. If you can keep your speed constant at around 50mph you will maximize your fuel economy. If you need to slow down, coast as much as possible. The lower you drop in speed the worse your fuel economy becomes. Braking to slow down will worsen you fuel economy the most however since you are losing speed AND distance versus just coasting which still uses some of that energy rather than wasting it.
And then obviously we have the general car maintenance things that help fuel economy like keeping the right tire inflation and wheel alignment, etc. This has less impact than your actual driving behavior though.
Drive the speed limit or less. When I first started doing this, I felt like I was being rude to other drivers behind me. Now I get a kick out of the fact that other people are wasting their money on extra gas that they wouldn't have to buy if they were as smart as me. Plus I enjoy my car, so I have no reason to minimize my time in my car. And I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in 15 years.
As long as you drive on the slow lane (right side), you aren't interfering with those who want to drive faster and pass you on the left. Now, if you get on the passing lane, somebody will eventually give you a hard time.
That said, depending on the type of work one does, driving slower is a waste of money. Truck drivers, or those who get paid by the hour to work may not want to drive slow. Of course, it's a good idea to drive somewhere close to the speed limit in most places. But then, in some places the limit could be 80MPH
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To the OP: as mentioned by another poster, the proper tire pressure is very important. But you can add to it by selecting tires for road driving that provide low road friction. Just go to "tire rack" and read the articles referring to tire friction and such.
Also, unless you do a lot of stop and go, the use of the AC should not be a problem. Cruising on a road while using the AC hardly wastes any fuel. In fact, every time that you turn the defrost ON, the AC comes on automatically, even if you don't see a light for it. This feature is automatic in modern automobiles, and used to remove moisture from the cab.
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Plus I enjoy my car, so I have no reason to minimize my time in my car. 
And I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in 15 years. 
