6 GAS SAVING MYTHS – DON’T TRY THESE AT HOME

There are a lot of gas saving myths circulating about the best ways to save money on gas. Our last gas saving tips post highlighted some darn good tips on how to save. This post focusses on – the gas saving myths that don’t work, so don’t bother trying them.

1. Using premium gas – Some cars absolutely require premium gas (like our 2013 Chevy Volts). But the good news is, most don’t. (However, if your owner’s manual tells you to use premium, you should.) Premium gas doesn’t help improve fuel economy and the concern about lower grades “knocking” is a thing of the past. You might as well save some money by buying a lower grade, especially if the higher ones don’t do anything more for you except spend your hard-earned cash.

2. Just sit idly by… – This gas saving myth is almost LOL funny. The idea is that you if you turn on/off your car’s engine, you use additional fuel. Not true. Fuel injectors stopped this myth cold. So, if you’re not moving (as we suggested in our last post), turn it off. In fact we monitor idle time in our fleet to the minute. Once a car arrives at a clients home we want that engine off. Saving every little bit counts.

3. Adding more doesn’t work – Putting more gunk in your engine (fuel and oil additives) won’t do a thing for your fuel economy. Nothing exists that can make gas or oil last longer. Sorry to break the news to you. This gas saving myths is busted, and many of these additives may just bust your car.

4. Over-inflate your tires – Keeping your tires at their maximum pressure is fine – over-inflating them can be downright dangerous. Not only do you risk an accident by have too-full-of-air tires (because they have less road grip), you won’t impact your gas usage. Conversely, if you under-inflate your tires, you lose money because this causes you to use more gas. So – optimum tire pressure = efficient gasoline usage. Most newer cars have a warning light to let you know if your tire pressure is too low or high. Pay attention to this warning light.

5. Make your car breathe better – It used to be that changing the air filter would help your car run better. Key words… ”used to be.” Today that is no longer true. Now, the air filter is important, but changing a dirty one won’t improve fuel economy.

6. Stay cool, Baby – Turning off the air condition in your car will do only one thing – make you hot. And if you opt for rolling down the windows instead of using the AC, you’re actually using more gas due to the drag caused by open windows. Today’s air conditioners use very little gas when they’re in use, so stay cool – you won’t use that much fuel by following this gas saving myths.

Have you experienced a gas-saving “truth” that’s really a gas saving myth? Feel free to share!