There is more to saving gas than just driving a Prius.  How you drive is as important as what you drive.  Give your current car a mileage boost with some of these techniques. Warning, other drivers many not smile when you are in front of them. EcoDriving covers many of these ideas.

1. Do not floor the accelerator from a stop sign
2. Empty the car of unnecessary items to reduce weight
3. Slow down before entering corners, don’t hit the brakes hard in the turn
4. Keep engine RPMs low when cruising.
5. Do not speed,  keep speeds around 60mph, do not tailgate
6. Coast down inclines
7. Keep your car tuned and tires maintained and inflated properly
8. Close windows at high speeds and use the air conditioner or better yet fan ventilation
9. Use the recommended grade of gas and oil
10. Smoothly accelerate and brake
11. Remove racks from your roof when not using them

Fuel Economy.gov shows that gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. “You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.24 per gallon for gas.”

“Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas. It can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town.”

I see many people going 70 mph or faster, when highways in the San Francisco Bay Area allow. They could save $ by driving slower.  Of course time is money too..  Speeding has also has a social cost of more speed related crashes.  Save up to $200 a year on gas by obeying speed limits and by driving smoother!

DriveSmarterChallenge.org helps you calculate your savings.

Motorcycle or Car?

Is it being more green, riding a motorcycle instead of a car? A recent Mythbusters episode found the motorcycles were more fuel efficient and produced less carbon dioxide than cars. However, the motorcycles emitted more carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitric oxide emissions, all of which pollute the air and contribute to help problems.

Green Motor Oil and Green Car Care Products

Green Earth Technologies has new car care products and biodegradable Green G-OIL Motor Oil from Green Earth Technologies. It is made from American-grown renewable animal fats. There is presently a mail-in rebate form for a FREE 5 quart bottle of G-Oil 5W-30 Bio-Based Full Synthetic green motor oil (a $26 value) Walmart and other stores carry this product, but you need purchase this motor oil by April 30, 2011.

Amazon also carries products from Green Earth Technologies.

Save Gas – Drive Slower

With gas prices falling, this tip will definitely get very little attention. It is guaranteed that someday gas prices will rise again, so keep this in the back of your mind when you are at the gas pump.

See our post Green Driving Techniques to Save Gas, Increase Mileage

Tri Flow Soy Lube – Green Lube or Eco Friendly Lubricant

As good sign of the green wave is Tri Flow Soy Lube for lubricating bikes and other moving parts. This Green Lube is natural soy oil based so it is rapidly biodegradable. Less petroleum products = more eco friendly. 90% will biodegrade in less than 28 days according to them. It does contain PTFE Teflon though.

New tools to extend car mileage. Garmin has a new EcoRoute HD cable that plugs into your cards onboard diagnostics port (OBD II) and communicated via Bluetooth to their GPS navigation units.  Fuel flow, in take, oil pressure, throttle position, etc are send to the GPS for analysis and display.  This data is used by their ecoRoute software. ecoRoute HD will be compatible with many current and future nüvi models, including 1260, 1370, 1390, 1490 and 1690.

Garmin has free ecoRoute software for some of their nuvi GPS navigation devices that adds a “less fuel” option as a routing preference. When selected, the Garmin nüvi GPS will determine if more fuel efficient routes exist based upon road speed data and vehicle acceleration data for a given route.

It is compatible with Garmin nuvi 205, 705, 1200, and 1300 series of GPS’s. Amazon has most of these models on sale.