Can This Really Save Gas In Your New Or Used Car?

March 26th, 2010 -

Gas Prices fluctuate daily…. They may be good one day, may jump 20 cents the next. It’s a crazy world out there. Now there are a lot of websites out there that help you determine different ways of saving on gas but there are a few out there that are incorrect as well. Let’s talk about those.

(1) Manual Transmissions will get better gas mileage over the automatic?

Well it used to be that buying a car with a manual transmission received better gas mileage. That is not necessarily true anymore. A modern car with a modern overdrive automatic will typically get the same gas mileage as the manual version.

(2) Buying a Crossover or Minivan over the SUV will save gas?

Traditional minivans have an excellent EPA. SUV’s have much larger engines than minivans or crossovers but they weigh just about the same. They usually burn the same amount of fuel. You can save money on the Minivan or Crossovers simply because they are typically less expensive than most similar sized SUVs.

(3) Just because it’s the cheapest gas doesn’t mean it’s better for your car.

Sometimes it’s possible that cheaper gas has more ethanol and even though ethanol is “green” and “renewable” it really doesn’t contain more energy then straight gasoline does. In fact if you travel to states like Oklahoma it is said that they are proud of the fact that none of their gas stations carry fuel that has ethanol in it. What this means is that as ethanol goes up your gas mileage goes down. So keep an eye out for that. Also if you have an older vehicle say older than 1990 you may want to stick with gas as your vehicle was designed to burn gas and not ethanol. You just want to take precaution that’s all.

(4) Turning your engine off at the light with save gas – No I don’t think so. In fact cutting the engine off every time you stop at a light will not only annoy fellow motorists but there is really no way to tell if the amount of money you may be saving is worth the few seconds you turned your car off. In my opinion it’s best to just continue on to your destination before you turn your car off. Yes sometimes I turn my car off when I’m in line at the bank but at every light? No way.

What do you guys think? Can you think of anything else? Well shoot us an email if you come up with something.

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An iPhone App Could Save You Gas In Your New or Used Car

January 25th, 2010 -

In Today’s Economy Saving Gas Is Very Important To People, Well Any Day It’s Important. The price of gas seems to be constantly shifting. One days it’s one thing the next day it’s 10 cents higher or 4 cents lower… It’s always fluctuating. So it is difficult to budget when you never know what the price of gas will be tomorrow? Well now that task may be a little easier. There is an application on the iPhone called GasBag which based on your current location will give you the gas stations with in close proximity to you that have the cheapest gas.

GasBag is constantly being updated by you and the other users. So for example you are at a gas station in Fairfield and you notice the gas is fairly priced. So then you pull up GasBag and see if the gas station has been added. If it’s there then you can simply update the price with a few quick taps on your phone. If it is not there then you can quickly add it for other users to find.

When GasBag is launched from your iPhone it will ask you if it can use your current location, it will then show a user friendly map that will show not only the name and location of that gas station but the price of regular unleaded gas as well. See the picture above. You can then click on the station and get all of the station details including address and other fuel type prices.

Another neat feature in GasBag has a built-in mileage tracking application. Just tap the Buy Gas Here button on the Station Details screen, and enter the details of your purchase. The program will then track your mileage and spending over time.

There are of course other iPhone apps out there that offer these same services like Gas Wars and iGas. Choose whichever one works best for you. I prefer GasBag mostly because it’s free but that doesn’t mean you will. Just know that there are tons of applications out there to help you. Saving gas is a great one!!

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Top 5 Driving Tips To Help Save Gas When Driving a New or Used Car

December 3rd, 2009 -


In today’s world the cost of gas fluctuates from what is considered affordable and what is down right crazy. In doing research on my own to figure out how I could conserve on gas I found some very interesting tips that could help everyone. Whether you’re driving a new car or a used car saving gas is saving money.

  1. Drive Sensibly – This was an odd one for me but it makes total sense now. Rapid acceleration, quick excessive braking, speeding, and aggressive driving wastes gas. Think about it. It can even lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent when driving in town.
  2. Observe The Speed Limit – Each vehicle new or old reaches their optimal fuel economy at different speeds. It is said that gas mileage can decrease rapidly at speeds over 60 mph. At that pace you can assume that for each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph its like paying .24 cents more per gallon. That can add up really quickly if you’re blazing the roads all over town.
  3. Avoid Excessive Idling – When you’re idling you are getting 0 miles per gallon. Cars waste gas when they idle, cars with larger engines typically will waste even more gas than cars with smaller engines. Why take the risk? When you’re not driving you should just turn your engine off. Not only will it save on gas but its good for the environment too and we should all be thinking about the environment.
  4. Use Cruise Control – Now obviously this is not something you can do when sitting in traffic but using cruise control on the highway can help reduce your gas waste by maintaining a constant speed and not overworking your engine.
  5. Remove Excess Weight – If you’re like me you’ve got junk in your trunk. I’ve got lawn chairs, blankets and the like just sitting back there. Partly because I’m too lazy to take it up stairs and partly because you never know when you might need to use them. Once I found out I could save gas by taking that stuff out, I quickly moved them back to the garage. According to an independent study by the US government, “An extra 100 pounds in the trunk reduces a typical car’s fuel economy by 1-2%.” As you can see it’s time to dump that junk in your trunk and start saving gas.

As gas prices keep rising, and the money in your wallet keeps dwindling. There are ways you can save on gas and reduce your overall fuel consumption. I hope these tips will help you in your quest to saving gas and if nothing else gets you thinking about other ways we can help the environment.

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