How to Save $20 on a Tank of Gas
Gas prices are nuts. The Department of Energy says that with mindful driving, you can make your tank last longer. But can you really save enough to make a difference? Prices aren’t expected to come down anytime soon, so I conducted an investigation. Here’s what the experts had to say.
STATS BASED ON FUEL COST OF $4.34/GAL
SAVINGS BASED ON 15-GALLON TANK
Drive Like Sade
Being a “Smooth Operator” lol—the opposite of gunning it at the light and then romping on the brakes at the next light—conserves so much gas. Aggressive driving consumes an extra 30% in the city, so for whoever needs to hear it: Put some chill in your driving and save $1.30 a gallon. That’s $19.53 savings on a tank, just for being the cool guy.
Speed Kills (Your Wallet)
Fuel economy peaks at about 50 mph and then declines rapidly. For every 5 mph you drive over 50, it’s like paying an extra 30¢ per gallon of gas. So if you’re going 75 down the interstate, you’re burning an extra $1.50 per gallon, which adds up to $22.50 a tank. Using your cruise control helps!
Idling Engines Are The Devil’s Work
For every hour of idling, your ride consumes a quarter gallon of gas (AC off) to a half gallon (AC on). According to AAA, we sit at stoplights an average of 58.6 hours a year. That’s about 22 gallons of wasted gas, which equals $95 spent just sitting there at stoplights.
The average time spent at a stoplight is 75 seconds, but if you shut your engine off, it only takes about 10 seconds worth of gas to restart it. So turn your car off if you’ll be stopped for more than a minute. Which pretty much means every stoplight. Which is why lots of cars turn themselves off at stoplights.
Inflation At The Pump
Keep your tires inflated to the proper pressure and to improve mpg by about 1.8%. Under-inflated tires lower gas mileage by 0.2% for every 1-digit psi drop in the average pressure of all tires. This all adds up to maybe 50¢ a tank. Meh.
Cold Is The Enemy
Obviously combining errands in an efficient manner—planning time frame to avoid peak traffic, mapping out your route to avoid backtracking—reduces time spent in the car and therefore gas. But there’s another driving reason (lol) to combine errands: Fuel economy is much worse when your engine is cold. So, several short trips taken from a cold start uses twice as much gas as a longer trip with several stops that covers the same distance.
Don’t Hesitate, Recirculate
Running the AC in hot weather reduces fuel economy by about 25%. In a related story, not running the AC in hot weather increases my displeasure by about 75%. Nobody’s doing without AC in Florida, so just make sure it’s set to recirculate interior air.
Don’t Pay a Premium
Going premium gas when your whip doesn’t require it won’t do anything for your gas mileage. Most cars are made to run beautifully on regular gas, but not all of them (mostly the turbos but some regular cars too). Here’s a small sampling of cars that do require premium gas: Buick Regal, Chevrolet Malibu (turbo), Fiat 500L, GMC Terrain (turbo), Honda Civic (turbo), Kia Stinger, MINI Cooper, Mitsubishi Outlander (V6), Nissan Maxima, Volkswagen Arteon. Pro tip: Don’t buy them if you’re really into fuel economy.
Make Driving Rewarding
If you typically use a credit card to buy gas, get one of those cards that gives you cash back on fuel. There’s some really good rewards programs out there too. Peep this guide to the best cash-back and rewards programs
