Save money on gas by taking a few simple steps to increase your mpg. Be smart about driving and caring for your vehicle so you can make your gas budget go further.

It's frustrating to see gas prices skyrocketing. Consumers can feel helpless in the face of seasonal and economy-driven price fluctuations.

Combat rising gas prices by taking responsibility for what you can control. Follow these simple guidelines on how to improve your gas mileage. You might be surprised by how fast each little action step can really start adding up to significant savings for your gas budget.

Fuel economy is all in the little details.

Tires

Keep your tires well inflated. Auto dealerships often keep the tires somewhat under-inflated to allow for a softer, cushier test drive. Check to see that your tires are properly inflated.

Acceleration

Jackrabbit starts hurt your mileage. Don’t jam on the gas from a dead start. Find your zen on the road by anticipating traffic flow: ease up on the accelerator instead of braking and gassing, braking and gassing.

Weight

Smaller vehicles will benefit most from decreased cargo weight. Unload your vehicle of unnecessary weight—even 100 pounds can affect gas mileage.

Aerodynamics

Remove bike racks and other cartop racks to improve aerodynamics. This doesn’t have a huge effect on mileage, but every little bit helps.

Speed

Maximum fuel efficiency is 55 mph. This may vary slightly depending on the type of car you drive, but speeds over 60 mph decrease fuel efficiency drastically.

Cruise control on longer trips will also help prevent excess gassing by keeping the speed at a constant. Driving in the mountains is an exception to the rule of using cruise control.

Idling

Obviously, idling gets 0 miles per gallon. Sitting in your car with the air running to keep cool may be a convenience, but it hurts your overall mpg efficiency. This is especially true for larger vehicles.

Overdrive

Using overdrive reduces the amount of rpm’s your engine requires and helps increase your mpg.

Air Conditioning

Running the air conditioning hurts your mpg by about 3%. Running the defroster also reduces your mileage, so use sparingly.

Rolling the windows down does create a drag and can reduce mileage, however, it puts less of a strain on the engine than running your air conditioner.

Tune-Ups

A well-tuned engine is critical and can make a huge difference in gas mileage. Spark plugs, oil changes, air filters, fuel injectors, and tire inflation are easy things to keep up with.

Engine Oils

Use synthetic engine oil. Good oil improves fuel economy by reducing friction.

Fuel Quality/Additives

Use the grade recommended for your vehicle by the manufacturer. Higher octane fuel may not only be a waste of money but may harm your vehicle, as well.

Be wary of fuel additive claims. Check to make sure that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has registered the product. If a product is registered with the EPA, by law your warranty cannot be voided and you know that it won't harm your vehicle or the environment. The EPA does not, however, guarantee any claims to more efficient fuel economy for any product.

What else can you do

• Ask others who drive the same car and see what kind of gas mileage they get. Compare notes.
• Read your insurance and auto dealer newsletters for tips on how to get better gas mileage.
• Carpool or ride a bike.
• Buy a more fuel efficient automobile.
• Combine your errands into more efficient trips.
• Read your owner's manual.

Just for fun

For an independent, thoroughly annotated, extensive research report on engine performance and fuel efficiency on a 2006 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, check out OmniNerd's article: Improve MPG: The Factors Affecting Fuel Efficiency. You might just be inspired to do some tests and comparisons for your own vehicle!