UPDATE: By following some of the steps i mentioned below, i recently got 37mpg with 75% Freeway miles and 25% city miles... thats higher than the EPA estimate on a 13 year old car! BIOTCH, so do what u gotta do! GAS SAVING TIPS This is for all of you who complain about gas prices and saying how expensive it is and how you waste hella gas driving and should stop driving because gas prices are high. Here are some simple ways to save gas (increasing MPG (Miles per gallon) even with a car that is not gas efficient: 1s. Drive the speed limit, use your cruise control if you have it, if you don't know how, learn how. 2s. Keep your tires properly inflated (usually around 30-32psi) 3s. Take all the crap out of your trunk, weight kills MPG 4s. Change your air filter (the engine one, not fuking air freshners aite Alvin) (if you don't know what it is, ask me, i'll even help you change it) 5s. Find pleasureable, easy going music like jazz or something soothing, not huk chai or hardcore rock music (driving behavior/mood really affects MPG) Those were some basic steps you could take which can easily increase 1-2 mpg Next are a few moderate steps in increasing MPG further 1m. This contradicts (1s) but to be honest, cruise control sucks if you are a good driver and can control the gas pedal really well, trust me, use ur foot, never accelerate, control the pedal really constantly even up and down hills. 2m. Tune up your car, some basic tune ups (especially if you car hasn't had one in a few years) you can probably make your engine run more efficient. 3m. NEVER step on your brakes, i mean almost never! basically carry as much speed as you can into turns because brakes take away the speed that your engine has worked up to give you speed, and when u brake, u take away speed and thus have to have your engine work to get you going again. Do this only if you know your car well enough (ie: if you can go down O'Shaugnessy at like 60 mph or something) 4m. DRIVE SLOW, ie: below the speed limit, WAY below, try driving at about 10 mph less than teh speed limit, for example if it is 65 mph zone, drive 55, you will save gas, trust me, and you only spend like 5-10 more mins max on like 20mile trips... 5m: . Drive with your windows closed, no AC on, this is moderate because for you davis people in the summer time, it gets pretty fuking hot, but if u can handle it with no AC, you are good. i've done it b4, its a pain, got pretty sweaty and stuff. AC kills Gas since it takes power away from teh engine to turn a belt and causes teh engine to work harder Thank you to Alvin for reminding me this. These are the moderate tips, now here come the more hardcore ones: 1H. There is something called DRAFTING. basically i you following a car in front of you on the freeway, like tail gating style, ur car becomes much more aero dynamic since it doesn't have to push the air in front of the car away from it at whatever speed you are traveling, find something like a big rig (18 wheeler) to follow since your driving slow and they will be too, this easily can improve MPG (not joking) just follow at about 4-5 car lengths behind, thats plenty close enough, (although i've done about 2 car lengths b4, but takes too much concentration 2H. DRIVE REALLY SLOW, NEVER suddenly accelerate, or accelerate at all for that matter. basically when u drive the 10mph below speed limit (say 60), stay that way and when u reach hills, u never accelerate faster up the hill and never press on the gas harder, u keep it constant and eventually u will get up the hill and save some gas since your car doens't have to work harder to get up the hill, obviously when u finish the hill ur car will be at a slower speed, this is normal, you will end the hill at maybe 55 or 50, thats fine 3H. PATIENCE, a lot of people will cut you off and i know from experience, even big rigs cut me off. this is normal, just ignore them and drive your own way, remember the easy going/ pleasurable music i told you to bring along with you, this comes in handy! never get mad and start accelerating to cut off people again and stuff 4H. IF YOU HAVE THE GUTS TO DO THIS: (I did) drive the slow pace you set for your self (60, 55, 65) whatever. Normally i would advise people to drive in the slow lane (the most right lane--->) BUT this time you do it in the fast lane (the most left lane <----) why i say this? its mosly due to the crappy roads in the slow lanes that have been ruined by heavy trucks and big rigs, the fast lane has much smoother lanes and therefore less drag on the car, less momentum is loss to the bouncing off pot holes and bumps and what not, therefore you spend less power and gas. 5H. Last tip, combine all of these and you will save plenty of gas at least 3-4 mpg Thank you for viewing this and feel free to leave me comments. Here is a photo of my car after a recent trip from Davis to San Francisco (70 miles) 
In this first picture, as you can see im driving at about 50-55 mph, trust me saves SO much more gas compared to driving like 80 and you only spend like 10-20 minutes more on freeway 
After 70 miles you can see that my fuel gauge (the bottom right one) is still pointing at full actually maybe beyond full. Note: my car is a 95 celica with a 1.8L 4 cylinder engine that produces 110 horsepower and its a stick shift (not liek that matters since most new automatic cars have insanely good MPG because of the gearing). Yes my car is slow and it sucks. Also note that my car has 197500 miles which is A LOT more that most of you people im sure. So don't say Oh my car has a lot of miles i can't get good gas mileage. With these tips i can reach 35 mpg most of the time. If i don't really take account the tips, i get about 26 -28 mpg. See the difference in MPG. With 10 gallons of gas, that comes out to about 70-90 miles more driving. In conclusion, to all you people who complain about gas prices, learn how to drive first, then complain. Sorry i just had to vent, been having a crazy week at school ( but my tips do work, feel free to use them) Im pretty sure i left out a lot, please forgive me and i may update this as i remember them. Driving under the speed limit gives you time to think about stuff very easily. | 
