How would you like to buy 30% less gasoline per year? The AAA says that the average American pays $1268 a year in gas so if you cut your gas bill 30%, that’s a savings of almost $400 per year.  That’s a good chunk of money so it must be worth striving for, right?  Yup, and the good news is that it’s pretty easy to do.

We spoke with the service department at Urse Honda of Bridgeport, WV, an authorized Honda dealer, they gave us 8 suggestions that if you follow, you should easily be able to save 30% of your gas budget.

• Check your air filter – According to the AAA nearly 25% of the cars on the road have dirty air filters. Dirty air filters prevent air from easily flowing into your engine and this can reduce a car’s gas mileage by up to 10%. If your air filter hasn’t been changed in a while, consider doing it soon. For the DIY crowd, this is usually not hard to do yourself.
• Inflate your tires to the proper level – Driving on underinflated tires is a real gas waster. According to AAA, around 25% of vehicles on the road have under inflated tires. This really wastes gas because when a tire is soft, it doesn’t roll as easy.
• Don’t drive as fast – No, really, for every 5 mph you reduce highway speed, you can reduce fuel consumption by a full 7%. This is especially true for vehicles that have large, flat front surfaces such as vans and trucks. Here’s how easy it is to do: instead of driving at 65 MPH on the highway, scale it back to 55 and you’ll instantly be increasing your gas mileage 14%.
• Align your tires – Poor alignment not only causes tires to wear out more quickly but it also forces your engine to work harder and thus use more gas than what is needed.
• Make one trip – It’s simply amazing how few people do this. It is possible to save a great deal of money by simply combining all the errands you need to do into one or a small number of trips.
• Use the lowest octane gas – Don’t use a higher octane gas than what your car requires. Some people do this because they think it’s better for their engine. Higher octane gas is only required for higher compression engines. Check your owner’s manual for the grade of gas that you should be using and stick with that.
• Is your CEL on – When your Check Engine Light (CEL) goes on, it is often because you need an O2 sensor or your Mass Airflow Sensor (MAS). Unfortunately, this can really wreak havoc with your fuel mileage, sometimes up to 20-30%.

Don’t idle – Besides causing air pollution, idling wastes gas. If stopped for more than a minute or two, turn off the engine.

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