How to save fuel when driving?

Some tricks I use to save money and improve fuel efficiency while driving.

Not everything will work for everyone, so the first tip is learn how to calculate fuel efficiency.   Some cars will tell you with each trip, so put that screen on.  For older vehicles, each time we fill up with fuel, reset the trip counter thingy. Keep the recipe, and do the mileage math (or kilometer-age math).  It doesn't matter which math, just keep it consistent and useit to evaluate how changes in driving style influence fuel efficiency.

If you live somewhere flat and are going a long distance, try cruise control.

If the trip is in town, or hilly, avoid cruise control.  I find it especially useful to use the hills to slow and speed up, and with practice, can keep the speed within 5km range without touching the breaks and hardly touching the accelerator.

Avoid fast acceleration and breaking.   Try to drive several cars ahead, so they say.  And with this comes the avoiding distractions so to increase reaction time and decrease fuel needs.

Unless conditions or law requires it, avoid coming to a full stop.  For example, crawling traffic - instead of speed up and stop, try going slower and creeping along.  Starting from a full stop costs a lot more fuel than starting from slow.

Right turns are your friend.  (Or left if you live where they drive on the left side).  I've seen lots of studies where they show planing a path with as few left turns as possible can save 20% or more fuel over the same path with left turns as idling while waiting for a gap, then accelerating quickly to do the turn uses a lot of fuel.

Planing multiple stops per outing.

Working from home isn't always possible, but nice.  Instead, see if you can avoid rush hour.  Either by changing work hours, or maybe driving into town an hour early and spend time doing something enjoyable like people watching or a packec breakfast.

Carpooling of course

And bikes!


What are your gas saving tips?

Awesome stuff.  It's nice to see some thoughts that are rarely noted.

First, on fuel economy - it's also a level of preventive maintenance / early warnings.  If a tank shows a significant change (assuming similar driving conditions), it may be indicative of something like a bearing starting to go and increasing friction or a dragging brake pad.

Three rights make a left.  If you don't understand, draw it out.

Keep in mind on newer vehicles (in North America at least) that using Imperial units will use the smaller US gallons.  If you want to use Imperial gallons (4.54609 litres), you'll need to change the math.  Online Conversion fuel economy is useful.

I'm old enough to have started Canadian life in miles and gallons.  The measure of miles per gallon is relatively intuitive to me - if I put X amount of fuel in the tank, it's an easy multiplication to estimate how far that takes me.  The metric version of litres per 100 km makes me think a lot harder.  Harder thinking takes more brain energy and time.  Of course, for others who are younger or may have only ever used that measure, it may be more intuitive.

Your mileage may vary.  

Tires/tyres have something to do with it, but I never really understood the details.  I know it is a big amount like 10% fuel efficiency overall.  

Pressure correct for the conditions or season.  Where i live, full pressure in the summer when the roads are dry.  During the rain and mud season, letting the tire pressure slack very slightly, improves traction so better breaking and acceleration, which makes better fuel efficiency.

But this seems to be a very local view.  There is probably some overall logic to tire pressure and seasons.


New vs old tires.  Tires correct for the conditions.

For complicated reasons beyond our control, we have all season plus snow tires right now.  These are massively less efficient for fuel consumption.   Our regular tires are all season rain, mud, and snow, and when we have these on the vehicle, uses significantly less fuel and have better stopping and starting power.

Part of this is we don't live somewhere where people change tiess during the year.  Part of it is the roads often have a lot of detritus as it's either stormy so stuff blows off the tree onto the road, or zero rain so stuff gathers on the roads and doesn't wash off.

My conclusion
A. Measure your personal fuel use and observe how things change
B. Right tires for conditions where you live.

Indeed.  In the range of $250/tire for my truck (last I bought some years back for a different truck), I stick with the OEM tires until they are ready for replacement and switch to snow-rated all season tires.  They may not be ideal for anything, but even with today's prices, $1000 CAD buys a fair bit of diesel fuel and I don't drive enough to justify the added costs of additional rims and tires and switching twice per year.

Sadly, I've lost some of my better habits from when the vehicles didn't have the fancy doo-dads like tire pressure monitoring systems, like checking more regularly.

There's also value in a walk-around the vehicle before departure simply to note if there's a tire that is obviously low...better to take the time and confirm than to ruin a tire and possibly rim by driving on it.

Not just tires! (but if you're checking yours, don't forget the spare... if your car's old enough to have one)

Hubby believes that changing your oil on the best schedule for your car, helps the engine stay healthy, which helps the mileage not suffer with age.

This too takes some thinking and involves knowing something about the type of oil you use and whether you drive a lot, thus changing based on mileage may be best, or like me, only drive twice a week and usually not more than 30 km, so our oil "times out" before I would ever hit the "change after ~10,000 km". I drive so little, that the "every 6 months" option seems excessive to hubby, but he knows cars, and uses an oil in my car that can last more like 9 months.

As Derek suggested, keeping an eye and ear out for car trouble and dealing with it early can save a lot of gas.

My dad used to take his foot off the gas pedal when going down hills.  He said that was free power ... I don't know.

One thing  we hear in the mechanic shop every day is "my car is such a gas hog". Most of the time the person in question came screaming in and goes screaming out. Drive the limit- take it easy. If you're coming up on a stop sign or light there's no need to accelerate-- you have to stop soon anyway! I was super lucky to learn to drive on a tractor hauling heavy loads. Drive calm and you'll accelerate less and get better mileage.

Learning to anticipate lights while driving is one big way I save gas. In the city, most lights have a helpful count down timer for pedestrians, but you might also get used to the timings of your local lights. I try to judge from at least 500m away if I am going to 'make it' and let my foot off the gas long before the light changes to yellow. Accelerating or maintainjng speed to a red light is a waste of gas that gets you home 0% faster. If I time it right, I never have to come to a complete stop at all, and sometimes don't even need to brake. I'm still rolling when the light turns green.

I also play that game when in heavy traffic on a freeway like Ontario's 401 - I try to average our the car in front of me's stop/go into a slow crawl by leaving some space and preventing a lot of gas use. Any time you come to a complete stop, you need to overcome static friction to restart, using more gas.

(Bonus! My brakes (and on this vehicle, clutch) last significantly longer than average!)

On big hills, I allow some variance of speed, especially if there is no one behind me. I let my speed drop up the hill, and don't brake going down. I'll also take my foot off the gas long before a sharp bend in the highway, rather than braking like I see lots of people do.

If I'm turning off a rural highway, I'll start signalling and take my foot off the gas long before my actual turn.

I used to share a truck with a work colleague. He'd keep it for 2 weeks, I'd keep it for 2 weeks...  It averaged fuel efficiency over the last 100 km, and 1000 km.  I made a game out of seeing how much lower I could get it than he left It (he liked to idle, so I could usually cut the L/100km in half, in the winter, I got it down to about 1/3!).  I definitely have the most success with lowering gas consumption when I treat it like a game, and regret my current car doesn't have the fuel efficiency calculator built in!

Reducing speed is a big factor. Once you get above 80 km/hr (50 mph) the penalty imposed by wind resistance really kicks in, and it goes up exponentially. So going turtle mode will beat the bunny every time when it comes to getting the most out of what's in the tank...or battery, as anyone who has driven an older EV with a limited range can attest.

Of course, keeping tyres inflated and bearings greased is important as well, and so is avoiding rambunctious acceleration. Anticipating stops and coasting whenever possible helps a lot, because turning your forward motion into heat by braking is a net loss of useful energy.

I used to squeeze over 40 mpg out if my 3Series BMW and manage to get 30+ mpg out of my truck.  I pretty much stick with much of what has been mentioned here.

I try to think ahead in planning what route I will take. I look for minimum traffic, stops, and distance.

I do not exceed the speed limit and try to stay 5 mpg under it.

I slow down in advance of a stop sign.

I keep tires inflated.

I try not to haul around extra weight in my vehicles.  A filled tool box, filled gas tank, and an extra tire or feed bag can cost several mpg.

I plan trips so that multiple tasks can be handled … with a minimum of city driving.

I mostly bike, but much of the above is applicable for biking as well.

Something I have learned from this is that I can get by fine going out much less than is usual, by making the best use of foods that I can store or harvest from the immediate surroundings, and being gentle on myself emotionally so that I need less stimulation and movement in order to function.