Gas Saving Road Trip Tips – Huntington Beach

It’s that time of year again! Time for that summer road trip. And even though gas prices have gone down a bit recently, your family road trip still costs more that it did previously. Here are some gas saving tips to make sure you still have money left to have fun!

Pick the right tool for the job: If you have more than one car to choose from, don’t just try to squeeze everyone into the one – or two – that go the furthest on a gallon. First of all, if you think you’re saving gas by splitting the crew into two small cars rather than taking the big SUV, you’re not. Remember, two small cars will burn gas twice as fast as one, and that’s probably faster than your SUV.

Pack light and smooth: Extra weight cuts fuel economy, so try to pack as light as possible. The savings are slight, but every extra 100 pounds cuts your fuel economy by about 2%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency .

More importantly, don’t pack more than you can fit inside the vehicle. This is especially important. Packing stuff on roof-top bins and racks cut fuel economy by about 21%, according to tests done by Edmunds.com.

Don’t buy the high-priced stuff: Check your owner’s manual for the kind of fuel your car needs. If the manual recommends Regular gas, use it. Putting in Premium will do nothing but waste money.

If the manual says Premium fuel is “recommended,” but not “required,” fill up with Regular. It won’t hurt anything and all you’ll lose is such a slight amount of peak power that you’ll never notice. (How often do you drive with the gas pedal pressed all the way to the floor?) With modern engine sensors, cars can adjust immediately to lower octane fuel without missing a beat. And it will save you about 10% on the price of a fill-up, according to AAA .

Use your cruise control: There are times when cruise control isn’t appropriate, such as in areas with heavy traffic or in bad weather. Also, using cruise control on hilly roads can actually use more fuel, not less, as your vehicle struggles to maintain speed while driving up hills.

But if you’re driving over relatively even terrain, cruise control can prevent unnecessary speed changes which waste gas. In tests by Edmunds.com , using cruise control at 77 mph improved fuel economy by 10 to 15 percent.

Good housekeeping

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