Reduce Cold Starts to Save Gas

With rising gas prices putting extra strain on wallets across the country, Smart Money magazine offers strategies for saving money at the pump, including changing the way you drive to use gas more efficiently. For example, combining errands into a single run instead of separate outings can help:

Cars use much more energy for cold starts (i.e; when the car hasn't been driven in a couple of hours and the engine is cool), says [vehicle analyst Shruti] Vaidyanathan. In fact, making several cold-start trips, say, to the store, the dry cleaners and the babysitter, will consume twice as much fuel than if you combine errands and make them all in one run, according to FuelEconomy.gov. An owner of a 2008 Ford Focus, who combines 10 errands (each requiring 10 miles of driving) into two weekly trips could save $107 over the course of the summer.

Tires looking a bit low? Keeping your tires properly inflated for instance yields a potential savings of ~$29 over the course of the summer. Lead foot? Every five miles over the speed limit adds ~20 cents per gallon to your fuel bill. A love affair with cruise control could save you hundreds over the summer. Have a tip not covered in Smart Money's nine solutions?
Photo by Andrew Baron.