Some more tips and tomorrow, the final 10.

- Don’t idle your car engine to warm up.  This even includes new turbo models. It warms up best and most safely by driving immediately but without accelerating rapidly. For colder areas like my previous homeland of Winnipeg, use a block heater with timer, cold engines can use up to 50% more fuel for short trips.

- Keep a fuel consumption log to compare your mileage and track compared to what your car is supposed to get.

- If you have to run errands and you live in a hot climate, do them early in the morning or later at night to avoid use of AC.

- When buying a car, avoid the sunroof, they create drag

- Park your car in shady or covered areas. You will need less AC and there will be less evaporation of gas.

- Use a solar car cooling device while parked.

- Instead of driving to some far off store (like a far away mall) order things online.  A trip from Fort collins to Denver might cost me $50 in gas when its all said and done

- Leave for work earlier and come home earlier.  This will help avoid rush hour where you are stop and go wasting gas.

- If you have a long commute, look to bring your work closer to you…or move closer to your work…or see if you can work from home a couple days a week.

- Get your own accurate (digital) pressure gauge. They are cheap and more reliable than those crappy 80s ones.

- Watch out for faulty oxygen sensors, if yours is faulty you can improve your mileage by up to 40%!

- If you have a huge load of things you are carrying for a long distance, try to balance the weight more to the front to avoid lifting the front of the car and increasing air drag

- If you are shopping for a new car, buy a lighter color, it will reduce cooling needs

- If you are not getting a new car but have a dark interior, add lighter colored seat covers

- Buy a motorcycle or scooter and use it during the summer (or year round if you live somewhere warm)

- For short distances, ride your bike, its good exercise and saves gas

- Opt for manual transmission over automatic transmission when car buying

- Dont fill up when the gas truck is pumping fuel into the tanks.  A lot of times any dirt and junk in the tanks will get stirred up and

- The bigger your car, the more you should slow things down. Rolling resistance increases linearly with speed but air resistance increases exponentially with speed. Twice the speed = 4 times the air resistance.

- Get a gas card and save a bunch over time

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