I love tips for increasing my car's gas mileage as much as the next semi-aware steward of the earth, but it's hard for me to get on board the "hypermiling" mania. For one, I tend to find it necessary to use my brakes. For another, hypermilers are dorks.
Still, we drivers could all use a break at the pump. The Boston Herald's Working Stiff -- hardly a hypermiler -- has come up with a few tips, some even more plausible than his admittedly asinine suggestion to move to Venezuela, where filling a swimming pool with unleaded costs about the same as it does my neighbor to fill her Jeep Liberty.
- Apparently right turns are more fuel efficient than left turns. (Experts, please tell me why!)
- Be sure your tires are properly inflated. (Which is ... how much?)
- Drive 55 -- it's the most fuel efficient speed (And about 25 miles over the speed limit on the roads most traveled by me.)
- If you're going to be idling more than 30 seconds, it's more fuel effiicent to turn off the car. (It would take me more than 30 seconds to decide if I'm going to be idling more than 30 seconds. Feel my conundrum?)
What's your secret for better gas mileage? Did you cancel the summer vacation? Or are you still glad to be sticking it to SUV drivers?
