Friday, May 23, 2008

Better gas mileage

As everyone knows, gas now costs an arm and a leg. Last week it cost me over $100 to fill up both vehicles. This is just pretty crazy, and I know it's not going to get better. Also with all the ethenol the gas companies are putting into the gas, my miles per gallon has dropped.

The gas mileage usually runs between 22.3 and 27.7 mpg. I think once I've had the car to over 30 mpg.

I watched a news story a couple weeks ago about slowing down would help with fuel efficiency, so I decided to give it a try. I decided that I'd not drive faster than around 62 mph.

After the first tank of gas, I got 29.5 mpg. Yesterday, I just filled up from my second tank, and I got 30.2 mpg. It really does help. At least for the first 2 weeks I've tried it, I've raise my fuel efficiency by around 10%. That's about a 1 way trip to Tulsa I'm saving each week. Over a months time that will save me enough for 2 round trips to Tulsa! Which is close to half a tank.

And the truth is, you don't lose that much time going somewhere. At 65 mph you can go 65 miles in 1 hour (hence the catchy name). But at least on a daily basis, I'm not going 65 miles. I'm going about 25 miles or so. So it takes me about 1-2 minutes longer to get to work than if i drove 65.

For the moment, I plan on continuing to drive at around 62.

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