A few years back when Gas first started to increase in price I wrote something for a “money saving” writing competition, needless to say, I did not win. My topic was gas prices. I believe you had a word limit. Anyhow, I recently stubled across a text file on my hard drive with a copy of it and thought it might be an appropriate thing to post (with a few modifications and corrections from the original copy):

“In this current market of high gas prices anything to save money would be a blessing. Forget buying a new hybrid or even a small four cyliner import car which claims outragious mpg, my vehicle has a large-ish V6 engine and I get a relatively healthy mpg figure and i drive over 350 miles a week! – not all highway either!

There are various tips which you can take on board to get more gas milage and to save money and buying gas.

Maintain your car, every weekend I check tire pressure (if underinflated this can cost you maybe 10%), oil level and give the car a clean and polish (a clean car is more aerodynamic..even those little bugs stuck on the paintwork create drag!) This exercise costs me 45 minutes at most – worth the effort. Not just for personal satisfaction (in driving a clean vehicle) but in savings!

Also change the way you drive, anticipate, rather than brake harshley and pull away fast, take it more leisurly, ease off the gas and pull away gently. This can save loads! Jut because someone at the lights wants to pull away at lightning speed doesnt mean you have to, just smile quietly to yourself and think of the gas they are wasting! Another tip is when buying gas keep an eye on all of the gas stations on your route to work, do not make a special trip to buy gas many miles away unless it is a huge discount (Maybe only a mile or two extra at most – I have driven one extra mile off my route once because gas was 20c’s off because the station had just opened) so once you have mastered this trick of looking at every gas station you will get to know the ones which are generally cheapest. Take advantage of road works (often gas stations behind roadworks keep their prices lower than those around them to keep customers coming in during the construction) Another tip is that gas is normally cheapest mid-week as the oil prices have stabalised from the weekend, but you should buy in the morning (early as possible!) where the gas is coldest, it is sold by volume and you will get much much more for your buck- it is noticable! Also a good tip when you are starting to run low is to check the internet, gasbuddy.com has good local sites that rely on volunteers to report prices. – I saved a bunch on filling up with that new gas station which opened only 6 weeks ago, selling gas at 25c below the average - They even had a competition to win free gas for a year, and as it was a big promotion I got a free sunglass clip for taking part!

Finally there is one tip which I havent tried yet… a gas credit card, giving you 5% back.. thats next on my list!”

In short, I would like to add that I believe that the US should relax importation of good European diesels – there are many diesels (Ford, Audi, Mercedes etc) which are clean and gain in excess of 60 miles per gallon – the Diesel smart car gets 35-40% more miles per gallon than its gas counterpart. Would be a great boost to the economy! In fact, there are some American made cars in here in the United States that are made with diesel engines for the European market only and are illegal here (Chrysler Diesels for instance)

Anyhow..

Good luck all!

P.