Tips on how to improve gas mileage

Step 4 Driving habits

Another simple alternative is to drive more efficiently. Drive at around 55 mph, or the lowest rpm in your highest gear. You should also make sure overdrive is on, which tells your car to shift gears sooner. If you drive a manual, shift up into a higher gear as soon as possible.
When you are approaching a stop light, let the car coast for as long as you can. If you are far away and it is red, sometimes you can time it in a way that you won't even need your brakes. This will greatly increase mileage, considering that it takes the most energy to accelerate form a dead stop.

Comments

[cheftpm]

IF YOU HAVE A 4 WHELL DRIVE ITS BEST TO KEEP IT 2WHEEL MODE TO SAVE ON FUEL

[Darwinfish]

You don't drive 4WD when you're worried about fuel economy. You drive 4WD in mud, ice, or snow, where 2WD would strand you.

(Besides, driving 4WD when you don't need to is really hard on the car.)

[demigod123]

driving with 4wd on isnt hard on a car switching while driving down the road is hard on the drivetrain and driving with 4wd on actuall does give you better gass mileage because your car is pushing and pulling in the same direction to move as opposed to just 2wd is just pushing

[Walis]

The ideal RPM to fuel consumption efficiency is just on the top of the torque diagram of your engine - you get the most power out to drag the vehicle. So get that, read carefully the RPM for max torque and try to be always around that value. The "highest gear + lowest RPM" works only with old gasoline cars with carburetors. Coasting described works great in hybrids, but also in usual car, if you run faster than you need and do not use the gas pedal, you are braking with your engine inertia and the ECU switches the gas injection off if the engine RPM are above certain level. So if you need to decrease your speed slightly, just shift the gear one step lower and release the gas pedal and you save some gas again:-)

[HARMON_RACING]

This step is not neccessarily true. All vehicles have a resistance sensor in the CPU. This sensor measures how much force is needed to turn the crankshaft to complete it's cycle.If you are towing, you need more power to get moving. The sensor will pick up on the lack of power to the wheels, and increase the FUEL in the cylinder to make up for this deficit. Using higher gears (even if your not towing or have any cargo) can imitate a heavy cargo load as well. So by putting it in a higher gear, you make the engine have to work harder to move the vehicle (just like if you were towing another vehicle, ect.). So in reality while you ARE turning fewer RPM's (Revolutions Per Minute) your actually using more gasoline to turn those RPM's. So really your better off putting it in Neutral and coasting to a stop.

[Woodenbikes]

I like the coasting advice in step 4. Coasting treats your entire vehicle as a very efficient energy storage battery in a hybrid. As you coast the stored energy is being discharged to move you forward w/o gas. When you accelerate, you are recharging the kinetic energy "battery" of the entire mass of the car. There is some old, good advice about not flooring the gas pedal. "Drive gently, like you have an egg between your foot and the gas pedal." Or my new version "Drive gently, like you have the fate of the planet between your foot and the gas pedal." To help you coast more, remember there is an egg between your foot and the brake pedal also.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Thanks, good advice!