Although driving costs have gone up, you can fight back against these escalating expenses and save money on your driving costs. While we frequently can’t avoid using a car, especially when it comes to commuting to work or doing weekend chores, there are ten proactive measures we can take to reduce driving costs.
1. Buy a Hybrid Car
Can you really afford to drive a car that guzzles gas? In the long run, that big pickup truck or that sporty SUV will cost you a huge chunk of your annual salary. If you can shift your paradigm, then you’re on the right track with dealing with our current economic challenges and save gas. Think of four cylinders instead of six; or, better still, consider a hybrid vehicle. Imagine how your personal economy will improve if you can slash your gas consumption in half. Today most car companies offer cars that run on both gas and electricity.
2. Shop for Cheaper Car Insurance
There are two ways to save on car insurance. The first is to shop around and find the best insurance companies for your needs. The second is to get special insurance deals by insuring your car and your home with the same insurer.
3. Pay Less Parking Expenses
If you have to pay for parking on a regular basis, then it is well-worth your time to find either a cheaper place to park and walk a little more or get a contract for long term parking from an underground parking complex.
4. Plan Your Trips
There are a number of ways to reduce your use of your car. One way is to walk, bike, or take a bus whenever you can. Another way is to plan your trips ahead of time so that you can combine your errands.
5. Consider Carpooling
You can carpool to work with your colleagues and you can carpool with your neighbours, friends, and relatives for shopping and driving chores.
6. Warm up Your Car Correctly
On a cold day, don’t do what everyone else does to warm up their cars: allow the engine to idle. This is an urban myth. Your car will actually warm up better and faster by driving it slowly for the first mile. Every 15 minutes of idling wastes at least a litre of gas.
7. Rethink Your Gas Choices
There are three ways to rethink the choices you make about your gas consumption: one, find a cheaper gas station; two, use a cheaper type of gas; and, three, learn the best way to fill up a tank.
Since gas companies compete against each other, prices fluctuate. Many companies make their profits by reducing prices to attract more customers. By shopping around you can find these cheaper gas stations. Use online resources to find cheap gas stations in your neighbourhood.
Next, consider the type of gas you use. Unless you have a high- performance engine, the manufacturer recommends that you only use premium gas, or your engine knocks, there is really no need for you to consider high octane gas.
Finally, while filling up a tank is a simple enough task, you waste gas when you top up your tank on a warm or hot day. This is because gasoline expands and overflows. So fill up your tank according to weather conditions rather than personal preferences.
8. Improve Your Driving Habits
While you may be an excellent driver, there are many things you can improve your driving to improve fuel economy.
• Avoid accelerating unnecessarily; instead accelerate gently and only when necessary. Acceleration puts a demand on the engine to consume more gas.
• By driving at a consistent speed, you may double your fuel consumption. Don’t drive too fast or too slow. Did you know that driving at 70 mph rather than 50 mph can increase gas consumption by as much as 30%?
• Keep an eye on traffic, anticipating congestion and traffic signs. Instead of driving at full speed and then slamming on the breaks when you need to slow down or stop, anticipate what is coming up ahead.
9. Improve Stick Shift Driving Habits
If you drive a stick shift because you want to save on gas and because you want more control of your car, here’s a valuable tip: drive in high gear when you can because it will consume 45% less fuel.
10. Take Better Care of Your Car
There are quite a few things you can do to reduce driving costs and make your car last longer by improving car maintenance.
• Tune up your car. Poor tuning can consume 25% more gas.
• Keep your tires filled to the right pressure. Check weekly. Underinflated tires can consume more gas.
Specifically, every underinflated pound will reduce gas mileage by 6%. This means that if your tires are underinflated by 5 pounds, your gas consumption will increase by 30%.
• When you use steel-belted radials, you can improve gas consumption by 10%
These ten tips will go a long way to help you save money on your driving costs. What’s more, they are practical and easy to apply.
You forgot the biggest one – stop driving! Walk, bike, roller blade, skate board, run! You will reduce your driving costs to zero!
Or, take public transit and help reduce vehicle emissions.
Buying a hybrid is PRICEY. Adjust your lifestyle prior to shelling out $40k on a plugin car.
All excellent points–especially numbers 9 & 10. As a person who does a lot of county-road driving, I would also add that you should regularly check your air filter. I’m not a mechanic, so I’m not sure what the reason is, but my car gets about 3 mpg better with a clean filter.
Those are good ideas! I agree with everything except the hybrid. Part of the cost is replacement of the batteries ($5-7K). I think a high mileage car is a better choice for the foreseeable future.
I, too, will contest the point about buying a hybrid. I recently researched a new car for my mom and compared the hybrid version with the standard version. Though the hybrid would obviously save money on fuel, the vehicle costs quite a bit more. In our scenario, fuel savings still would not have offset the extra vehicle cost after ten years of driving. Add a large expense if you ever have to replace the battery, as krantcents notes, and the hybrid will likely never pay off. Do the math yourself to see what truly saves you money; don’t just follow the hype.
I like Sustainable PF’s point about minimizing how much you drive in the first place.
I just bought a new car last month — a Volkswagen that runs on diesel. So far my overall combined mileage is about 41 mpg. On a recent 300 mile highway trip, I averaged over 48 mpg. This mileage is comparable to or better than most hybrids, and these high quality cars start around $23k brand new. You can also find used older VW diesels that get comparable mileage for much lower prices. Not to mention they’ll run forever — it’s not unusual to see a diesel VW at 200k or 300k miles and still going strong. Additionally, it has pretty decent performance and doesn’t feel like I’m driving a big slow brick like some hybrids do. (Also, for now I have been finding diesel fuel about $0.20/gal cheaper than regular 87-octane gas, though this won’t always be the case as prices fluctuate during the year.)
I’m confused by, “By driving at a consistent speed, you may double your fuel consumption.” Do you mean that we will HALVE our fuel consumption?
i’m also not interested in the hybrid. on a few levels including the battery, the other is logevity. Its a big expense to take a chance with. Great tips though!
Thanks.
There’s also the gas factor; especially as pump costs are on the rise.
Chip the ice off the car, drive the speed limit, keep the windows shut on the highway (puts a drag on the car) and keeping your tires properly inflated will go a long way towards savings.
Tim
http://www.frugal-save-wave.com/how-to-save-gas.html
Another way to save fuel is to clean up your trunk and take out anything that you don’t need out of your car. A heavier car will use more gas.