Fire up Your Engine – But Save Money on Fuel

With vacation months upon us, we are witnessing the annual rise if fuel prices that accompany them.  The price to fill up a tank will set you back less than last year, so be glad.  But, that does not mean that you should not be careful to spend as little as you can on gasoline for your vehicles.  Here are some steps that you can take that will save you money for vacation driving.  But it doesn’t stop there – these tips will help you save money even after you return.

Get Maintenance.  One of the areas that people tend to stop spending money on when financial times get tough is the maintenance of their vehicles.  This is the worst thing that you can do because your vehicle continues to wear out mile after mile.  Stopping regular oil changes and other preventive maintenance tasks will just add to that wear.

Your vehicle will not last as long and that will cost you more money in the future.  Either by having to repair the one you have or you are ready to buy another.  Another way that avoiding regular maintenance will cost you money is at sale or trade time.  Your vehicle will be worth less money because of the extra wear that shows up.  Make it a priority to have your oil changed every 3,000 to 5,000 miles and do the other things like filters as well in order to keep your car or truck in peak running performance.

Go Slower.  Learn to drive with less accelerator action.  Take off more slowly from stop signs and traffic signals.  Slow down to posted speed limits or just below.  Use your cruise control on long stretches of highway.  Small actions like these have a direct effect on how much you will save on a tank of fuel.  In fact, make it a game.  See how many miles you can go until you are at the point of needing more gas.  Once your indicator gets down to 1/8 of a tank, then fill up and try again.  Just be careful if you are out on the highway that you have enough gas to get to the next station down the road.

Lighten the load.  If you take fewer items, that keeps the weight of the vehicle lower which saves on fuel by keeping it from having to work harder to pull that load.  You have to be practical here, though because you have to take the essentials for your vacation, too.  If you end up having to wash clothes while on vacation just because you took less so that you could get better mileage, then you will have just defeated the whole purpose of this task.  Also, avoid taking car top carriers if possible.  These cause excessive wind drag which will reduce your mileage significantly.

The small things add up and you can realize a lower vacation bill if you take the steps above and use them to your advantage.