As you can see over there on the right > Twin Cities Chevy is one of my blog sponsors. With their recent release of the sonic, I’ve been hearing a lot about MPG and such. In fact the new Chevy Sonic Hatchback boasts 40 MPG Hwy with its 1.4L turbocharged engine. Pretty good for a non hybrid.
But maybe your not in the market for a new car, what you have works just fine and we don’t want to buy new just for the heck of it do we? I thought I would review some MPG boosters for those cars you already have.
The first thing to do is make sure your driving the right car. We own both a Prius and a Pathfinder. Pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum. For about 1 1/2 years I drove my car and Mac drove the truck. Until we started thinking about it. He works twice as far as I do from the house so why was he driving the car with 1/2 the mileage? Dumb. So now we share cars. It normally goes something like this:
I drive the Prius Monday and Tuesday when he is off work.
He drives the Prius Wed-Sat for work.
Then I drive the Pathfinder Wed-Thursday for work.
Fri-Sunday the Pathfinder just sits there (unless I run errands.)
Doing this we save around $200.00 a month in gas alone! Crazy!!
Other things you can do to keep up your MPG are:
- Keep up with the scheduled maintenance. All of those things in your manual may cost you a bit but they are meant to keep your car running as well as possible.
- Keep your tires properly inflated, your cars manual should tell you the right amount for your car.
- Drive the speed limit, its safer and better for your MPG.
- Plan your errands to get them done in one trip and as little back tracking as possible.
- Use cruise control when possible.
- Remove excess weight (ie don’t leave your winter emergency kit in the car year round.)
Do you have any other suggestions? Let me know!