More Bang For Your Buck

I never thought I'd see the day when we would be looking at gas prices getting close to two dollars a gallon and people feeling sorry that they bought a big gas guzzling domestic vehicle. But, as the great Yogi Berra once said: "It's deja vu all over again." Some of you may be too young to remember the 70's and 80's when gas prices jumped over a dollar a gallon and gas stations actually sold out of gas in a matter of hours and lines for stations that did have gas stretched for blocks. It looks like those days may be back. Even if you drive an SUV that gets worse gas mileage than a Sherman tank there are some steps you can take to help stretch those miles per gallon.

First, look in your vehicle. If you have more clothes than the Gap and more books and CDs than Barnes and Noble laying under the seats and in the trunk it may be time to do a little spring cleaning. All that extra weight can really bring the mileage down. Think about jogging. You can jog a mile and still feel okay (or if your like me maybe a quarter mile). Now think about jogging that same mile with a hundred pound weight strapped on your back. A little tougher isn't it. Your car goes through the same thing. The more it has to carry the harder it has to work so the more fuel it's going to use.

Next let's open the hood. Check the air filter and fluids. If they are dirty go ahead and have them changed. Check the PCV valve and air intake hose too. If the engine can't get enough air it will use more fuel. Think about running that mile again after smoking a pack of Camels, that's what your engine feels like trying to run with a gunked up air filter. Also, make sure that you are using the correct grade of oil. Don't use the cheapest oil you can find. How can oil effect gas mileage you ask? Simple. If the oil does not have the right viscosity (not slippery enough) then it's going to cause friction in the engine to increase. Increased friction means the engine is going to have to work harder to move the pistons. Some brands such as Valvoline's Max-Life oil even claim to increase gas mileage so you might want to check into something like that.

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