AAA’s Top 10 tips for sing money on gas.
Maintain car care – Take your vehicle in for a bumper-to-bumper ‘health check’ to make sure it is running at peak fuel efficiency. Adjust your driving behiors – Avoid ‘jack rabbit’ stops and starts and slow down. Speeding uses more fuel. Best fuel efficiency is around 50-60 mph. Limit your time behind the wheel – Consider consolidating errands to make fewer trips. Use the right gas – AAA research shows that Americans waste billions of dollars each year ‘treating’ their vehicles to premium gas with no benefit whatsoever. Only use the octane recommended by the vehicle manufacturer. Make sure your tires are properly inflated – Tires that are underinflated increase drag, using more fuel. Shop around – Gas pricing can vary dramatically corner to corner, county to county. Use the AAA app or the AAA Fuel Finder to locate the least expensive gas near you. Map it out – As you make plans for that Great American Road Trip, use the AAA Gas Cost Calculator to determine your fuel costs so you can budget accordingly. Sign up for the AAA Shell Rewards program – Se 30 cents/gallon on your first fill-up and 5 cents a gallon after that using the AAA Shell Fuel Rewards program. Fill up, don’t break down – In recent months, ACA has noticed an increase in ‘out of fuel’ calls across most of our footprint. As painful as the pump price might be, running out of gas can be even more costly and also put you and your passengers at unnecessary risk. Rethink your commute – Consider walking, biking, carpooling or using mass transit when possible. Take advantage of the opportunity to work from home.Finding the cheapest gas prices isn't the only way to se money on gas. There are other great ways to make sure you're using as little gasoline as possible. Be sure your car is properly maintained. A faulty oxygen sensor in your engine can wipe out 40% of your fuel economy. After a proper tune-up, drivers see an erage of 4% increases in fuel efficiency, according to the US Department of Energy. Want some help with that? Schedule an appointment at a AAA Car Center center to get a thorough checkout. Inflate your car tires to the maximum safe limit specified by your vehicle manufacturer. Underinflated car tires may provide a slightly more smooth ride, but at the expense of lower fuel efficiency. For every 1 PSI under the recommended maximum limit, you lose 0.2% of your gas mileage. If your tires will support 38 PSI and you're riding around at 28 PSI, you could be losing 2% of your gas mileage. Get the correct motor oil. The wrong motor oil can reduce gas mileage and gas sings by 1-2%, like using 10W-30 motor oil in an engine designed to use 5W-30 or 5W-30 in an engine designed for 5W-20. Be sure to look for motor oil that says "Energy Conserving" on the API performance symbol; energy-conserving motor oil will help engine performance. For more ideas about improving gas mileage, check out these articles on The Extra Mile: Know the difference between premium and regular fuel How much does traffic congestion cost you? Should you really top off your gas tank? (source data: https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel)