Green Driving Techniques to Save Gas, Increase Mileage – Green Oil and Lube

Are high gas prices getting to you? Do something about it!

It costs a lot to live in the San Francisco Bay Area. A recent study released in  2012 showed that the average household in San Francisco spends 39.5% of their income on housing and transportation. Those that lived in the suburbs spent even more, probably because they had to drive longer distances. People that lived in Marin County spent 56.3% on housing and transportation, while those lived in San Mateo County spent 53.3%. Finding ways to reduce our transportation costs is very important.

How to Save Money on Your Car

There is more to saving gas in your car than just driving a Hybrid 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

5 Steps for More Fuel Efficient Driving

With climate change and global warming issues frequently populating our daily news, there has never been a better time to do our individual parts to help save the planet. There are many steps one can take in order to decrease their individual carbon footprint, one of the easiest is to start with your vehicle. There are many great green cars produced each year by top car manufacturers; however it is possible to lower your emissions without purchasing a new car. This article outlines some simple steps that will result in a more fuel efficient approach to driving.

Step 1- Vehicle Usage

Cars consume more fuel thus producing more CO2 emissions during ignition and short trips. This is due to the catalytic converters, which reduce carbon emissions, being more effective once they have warmed up. Short journeys don’t allow this to happen, so it is best practice to combine short errands and car runs into one larger trip. Even simpler than that, judge whether you journey actually requires you to take a car, walking or cycling will not only save you money of fuel, it will also provide you with a great source of exercise.

Step 2- Driving Consistently

Constantly stopping and re-starting your car produces a large amount of emissions, try to avoid driving at peak times when heavy traffic will ensure start/stop driving. Keeping distance from the car in front, not only increases safety, it will allow you to judge braking making it easier to keep a steady consistent pace. Driving consistently will have a positive effect on the CO2 emissions produced by your vehicle.

Step 3- Speed

As it is illegal you should not be speeding anyway, but it is fact that driving above 70mph will use up to 25% more fuel. Maintain steady speeds whilst driving on motorways, if driving a new car that benefits from cruise control use it, this will help you to control your driving speed and lower the CO2 produced by your vehicle.

Step 4- Minimize Aerodynamic Drag

Aerodynamic drag is the effect caused by reducing the aerodynamics of your vehicle. This can increase CO2 emissions by up to 20%.  Don’t add to the amount of drag caused when driving, additional parts attached to your car such as spoilers, bike racks and roof racks will only increase drag. Think about weight too, your car is for transport not storage, filling your cars boot with unnecessary items will add to the weight and significantly alter your cars performance and carbon emissions.

Step 5- Look after your car!

This final step may sound like an obvious one but is surprising how often it is overlooked. By simply taking good care of your car, through regular maintenance, you can not only reduce your CO2 emissions but also the life expectancy of your vehicle. Take your car for regular checkups and maintenance to ensure that you car is healthy and running smoothly.

By simply following these steps you will be able to live with peace of mind that you are doing your bit to lower your carbon foot print and help save the planet.

Hybrid Car Mileage Tips

It is hard matching EPA estimates for any car, especially hybrids. I found some helpful Prius Mileage tips, some of which are counter intuitive.

• Quickly accelerating to your cruising speed, is more efficient than slowly accelerating
• Using the windows instead Air conditioning is more efficient even though drag is caused by the windows.
• For every 1 MPH you drive above 55 MPH, you will lose almost 1 MPG. Primarily due to aerodynamic drag.
• Try to keep your speed below 42 MPH, this will prevent the engine from running.

Replacing a vehicle with a fuel efficient model has the biggest aggregate potential reduction in green house gas emissions at 31.4 millions of metric tons of carbon a year. Even more than Weatherizing a home (21.2), buying energy efficient appliances (11.7), or carpooling (6.5).

When does a Toyota Prius lose the MPG battle?

I got blown away by a Prius doing probably 90+ on the highway. Gotta wonder if the driver understood the reason people by Prius’.

Check out this video. This entertaining video shows that a lead foot on a Toyota Prius loses the gas economy war to a high performance BMW M3 sedan even though the BMW is rated far lower in EPA gas mileage.

Fuel Economy.gov shows that gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. Each 5 mph you are over 60, costs you an additional quarter in gas.

Aggressive driving obviously wastes gas and can reduce your mileage by up to 33%.

I see many people going 70 mph or faster, when highways in the San Francisco Bay Area allow it. It is ironic to see a hybrid such as the Prius, speeding along at 80 mph. 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.

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.

Car Roof Racks Reducing Car Mileage

The cost of gas is starting to go up again. Car Racks significantly reduce car mileage. It is amazing how many people drive around with ski or bike racks permanently attached to their car. They are used only on some weekends. 99% of the time, these car racks are empty. Why not just remove them and install when they are needed. The extra gas burned adds up EVERYDAY.

A recent Lawrence Berkeley Lab study from April 2016 found that they can cut gas mileage by as much as 25%, depending if the rack was loaded or not.  Almost 1% of USA fuel consumption is wasted by these racks.

A more aerodynamic car like the Toyota Prius will see a bigger impact on gas mileage than other cars.

No doubt convenience is the main reason. Car racks interfere with aerodynamics. We can hear a distinct noise whenever a rack is on our vehicle. A site did a test and measured 12% less miles per gallon with an empty rack and 27% less mileage with a bike on the rack. Placing a rack on the back of the car reduces mileage far less, so consider a hitch mounted ski or bike rack.

Buying a New Rack

Newer racks are responding by becoming more aerodynamic. Yakima has the wind tunnel tested Whispbar that is more aero and more quiet.

Green Sports car – New Ford Mustang V6

Read an article the other day about a surprisingly fuel efficient 305 horsepower 2011 Ford Mustang V6 Pony car, that gets an amazing 31 miles per gallon on the highway. Review

Some of the innovations include:

• The new Electric Power Assist Steering (EPAS) system which eliminates the drag of an engine-operated hydraulic power steering pump
• Six-speed transmissions that allow lower cruising revs without sacrificing off-the-line performance
• Aerodynamic improvements such as a new front fascia, tire spats on the rear wheels, modified underbody shields, a taller air dam and an added rear decklid seal

Hopefully all this technology will trickle down to regular cars were mileage improvements will be even higher due to smaller engines.

Garmin nuvi GPS ecoRoute Fuel Saving Routing

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.

Gas-Guzzler Trade-In Calculator

Edmunds.com has a new Gas-Guzzler Trade-In Calculator that helps you figure out the pay back period and fuel saving associated with trading in a vehicle for a new more fuel efficient one.

A major problem with ditching a gas guzzling SUV is one of calculating how much you will save in gas and then figuring out how long it take to pay for the new more fuel efficient car. It may take years to just break even.

Considering a Prius would probably cost more than $21,647, the pay back time is even longer especially if gas prices fall. Consider regular high mileage compacts such as the Honda Fit.

Also consider a recent (2 or 3 year old) vintage fuel efficient pre-owned car. The biggest cost in owning a car is depreciation at almost 50%, followed by fuel costs at near 20%.

Natural gas powered Honda Civic

Honda is offering a $3000 debit card for compressed natural gas to buyers of its Honda Civic. The card can be used at any Clean Energy Fuels station. This promo ends at the end of 2012. This vehicle costs $26,305 and gets 31 mpg of equivalent fuel. A gallon of compressed natural gas costs roughly $2. Natural gas is produced within the United States, keeping money within our country and not sending it to the Middle East.

Posted on March 13th, 2022
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