How to deal with high Gas prices?

[AlexJet]

As far as it goes now, the gas is becoming more and more expensive. We have regular for 95cCAD/litre, that's $3US per gallon and it going up.
Does anyone thought about how to lower gas consumption? I think it can be one of the best mods. I know that it also depends on driving, but just thinking about the same driver and same driving style. My friend drove my 4Runner V6 for 350km and he had 16l/100km (14.6mpg) and I can do 13l/100km (18mpg). That

 

[Thai]

Drive like a grandma!

Check tire pressure to make sure that it is within normal limits...this is probably the best thing to do. Higher tire pressure = better fuel economy. However, on my car, it doesn't make much difference...so, i stay at recommended psi. Avoid under-inflation!

Don't drive with the windows open.

You can also take off any fender flares or running boards because these things are not aerodynamic.

Minimize blasting your A/C.

Keep electronics usage to moderation.

Avoid fast acceleration. Avoid going over speed limit. Basically, the faster you go, the more gas you use, especially in a tank like ours.

Avoid bling-bling huge rims...more weight to your car.

Avoid putting on off-road or all-terrain LT tires...more weight to your car. Those Dunlops or highway tires have the advantage here.

Avoid excessive unnecessary cargo weight (including mother-in law).

Drive only with the wind behind your back. Stay at home if you're heading into the wind. Good reason to tell your boss. Although this may be an impractical suggestion, it makes a HUGE difference, especially in big SUVs. Or, more practical, drive slower when heading against the wind.

What i am doing is getting an econobox (maybe chevy cobalt). It actually does not make much financial sense because i would have to own the econobox 10-15 years before i see any financial return on it, but it will also save miles on my car.

Gas prices are killer these days. I have to fill premium gas every 5-6 days! And this is mostly highway driving!! Damn fat ass (the car, not me) and brickwall aerodynamics!

 

[Thai]

As for gases, my suggestion:

1. If you go to a high quality gas station, then be ready to pay top dollar. But, it is probably worth it. My favorites are: Chevron and Shell. See link:

http://toptiergas.com/

Click on "Retailers" to find out which ones were certified.

2. Buy cheap gas...but i would recommend that every 3000-5000 miles, use a Fuel System Cleaner. I use Chevron Fuel System cleaner. Basically, it has the Chevron detergents to clean out the fuel system. Not sure if i see much difference now, but i may see it down the road. In addition, Chevron makes quality stuff, including gasoline (1st top tier gas brand to be certified) and oil.

I jump between #1 and #2 option...depending on how deep my wallet is that week.

 

[AlexJet]

Gas prices are killer these days. I have to fill premium gas every 5-6 days! And this is mostly highway driving!! Damn fat ass (the car, not me) and brickwall aerodynamics!

I know what you are talking about. I like G-wagen for it quality and off-road capability, but you're absolutely right; brick aerodynamics kills all positive features.
The point is to find out some way to low the gas consumption without loosing important features of 4Runner. I'm having an idea that if lower engine and transmission "resistance" we should get better mileage. May be to do something with engine "black box" (chip). One of the mechanics in my dealership told me that he saw '03 4Runner with chip upgrade that had more power and torque with the same consumption. This is also the way out. My original question was how to get as much as possible from the vehicle with less as possible money investing. For example, 18mpg with $3 for gallon and 245hp means that we have 17c peer mile and it comes to 14.4 hp/c per mile. If we would have 22mpg, we'll come up to 18 hp/c per mile. OR of we could get 280hp with same 18mpg consumption; we'll get 16.5 hp/c per mile.

 

[kimboy]

Thai,

I don't know about buying cheap gas... I more content using Hess 99% of the time.

Moreover, fill up @ that half way point so that you don't become sticker shocked at every fill up.

 

[GatorGreg]

How to deal with high Gas prices?

I might be getting one of these soon
<img src="http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=flinstone+car/v=2/SID=e/l=IVI/SIG=120fnikpj/EXP=1123861598/*-http%3A//www.robpatton.com/pics/fpics/car1.jpg">

 

[live4swell]

I thought about the same problem with gas and my answer was buy a 1992 Toyota Corolla w/ 5sp....i have been getting 28 - 33 mpg. It cost me about $1600 and its in pretty good condition. So i put the miles to work on this and get better gas mileage and save my truck for the weekend and driving on the beach. Atleast its another Toyota

 

[Bluto]

You can also take off any fender flares or running boards because these things are not aerodynamic.

What about the roof rack and cross-members?



Synthetic oil in the motor, t-case, and diffs can help. But the cost of synthetic may be greater than the increased MPG savings.

 

[Bluto]

The 4Runner is a safe vehicle. I would not put a price on safety by driving an econo box.

Like Thai pointed out, a safe small car (newer, side air bags) is not cost effective.

 

[AlexJet]

Did anyone thought about replacing engine computer chip?

 

[vandert]

Here's how I deal

Every day in the summer, rain or shine

 

[Jim_Chow]

Get rid of the roof rack, or at least the cross bars. In the shots in a JDM hilux surf mag, none of their rigs have the cross-bars installed on the roof rack, so there must be some way to remove them. I suppose if the torque converter could lock-up immediately, there would be less loss from the tranny.

If cars had electronic gauges that reported how much money they were burning at any given instant over 1 mile, motorists would probably drive a lot slower.

 

[Thai]

Re: Here's how I deal

Every day in the summer, rain or shine

Well, i don't want to become an organ donor yet....

 

[JB.]

I deal with it by not worrying about it. When I sell my 4runner down the road I'm going to end up with a final cost per mile of owning it. According to AAA the average cost of driving a new car in 2004 was $.56 for all costs, so I'll pick $.45 for my ballpark number. If I were to knock that down $.02 by worrying and paying constant attention to gas mileage instead of consistently enjoying the driveability of my 4runner, I would have done myself a great disservice, IMO.

 

[JB.]

I thought about the same problem with gas and my answer was buy a 1992 Toyota Corolla w/ 5sp....i have been getting 28 - 33 mpg. It cost me about $1600 and its in pretty good condition. So i put the miles to work on this and get better gas mileage and save my truck for the weekend and driving on the beach. Atleast its another Toyota

Are you sure you're saving money? If you found an insurance company that charges little to nothing for insuring an extra vehicle, please pass that company's name along.

 

[Bluto]

Are you sure you're saving money? If you found an insurance company that charges little to nothing for insuring an extra vehicle, please pass that company's name along.

I could carry just collision insurance on a 2nd vehicle for an additional $300/year.

 

[live4swell]

Are you sure you're saving money? If you found an insurance company that charges little to nothing for insuring an extra vehicle, please pass that company's name along.

It is costing me about $350 more per year with the second car. I have Geico...they give you a multicar discount which dropped the insurance on my truck a little. I think right now for 6 months it is around $800 or so for my truck and $300 for the car. I wont save money for a couple years probably but I figure I am not putting the wear and tear on my truck. Plus I barely make 5 days on a tank. I drive 50 miles roundtrip to work every day plus another 10 just around town so it adds up. I have gone a week of work with the corolla and that has a 10 gallon tank. Honestly...its just fun having another toy...i love driving manual transmission so its a change.

 

[BenSD]

I fit into the "drive like a grandma" category. There is one other thing that's great about grandma driving.... there is so much less stress when you have to do a lot of driving. When I'm on the freeway, I lock in 65MPH on the CC, then get into whatever lane I can without bocking traffic. That means I'm usually in the #2 or #3 lane. If someone wants to zip past me at 75MPH, more power to them. I just relax at 65 and chuckle at the occasional rice burner, or monster truck that wants to go 80MPH and end up paying twice as much as they really should on gas.

On surface streets, I also go the speed limit. When at a stop light, I gradually ease on the gas as the light turns green. I've never had a speeding ticket (or any ticket for that matter) in my life, and I never have to keep an eye out for cops.

I'm tellin' you, it's nice not to worry about all that stuff.

Last week when I filled up, I got 20MPH on my 04 V6 4WD. This is with constant AC since it was in the 90's all last week.

 

[TeryT]

I fit into the "drive like a grandma" category. There is one other thing that's great about grandma driving.... there is so much less stress when you have to do a lot of driving. When I'm on the freeway, I lock in 65MPH on the CC, then get into whatever lane I can without bocking traffic. That means I'm usually in the #2 or #3 lane. If someone wants to zip past me at 75MPH, more power to them. I just relax at 65 and chuckle at the occasional rice burner, or monster truck that wants to go 80MPH and end up paying twice as much as they really should on gas.

On surface streets, I also go the speed limit. When at a stop light, I gradually ease on the gas as the light turns green. I've never had a speeding ticket (or any ticket for that matter) in my life, and I never have to keep an eye out for cops.

I'm tellin' you, it's nice not to worry about all that stuff.

Last week when I filled up, I got 20MPH on my 04 V6 4WD. This is with constant AC since it was in the 90's all last week.

I'm with ya here! I just baby the thing along - like there was an egg sitting on the accelerator & brake. With the 2/3 or more highway I'm doing now, I can approach the magic 20 MPG for my V8. We have gone over 20 MPG in it, but conditions have to be just right.

I find the biggest improvement to MPG occurs when I leave my 10 foot high (with the roof A/C) travel trailer at home! :bouncy2:

Remember that the odometer underreports about 3% (and the computer over-reports about 7%).

One thing which is really helpful to me is to monitor that trip computer closely. Often times I will reset it just to see how high I can get the numbers - sorta like how my old man uses a vacuum gauge info.

Does anybody really have any idea how much MPG could be gained by taking off the roof rack cross bars & the running boards? These things seem pretty aerodynamic as it is, as they run parallel to the wind flow.

 

[kgatch]

You know gas prices would drop if we all drove like "grandma". I'll go into cruise-control at 65 mph (highway speed limit) and see tons of cars passing me.

If I'm not mistaken, going at 70 mph reduces efficiency by 15%. Therefore, thats why highways were at 55 mph for so long. We drive gingerly in our vehicles all we want but its the others on the road who are making prices sky-high.

We think in America we have to go faster or getting there faster actually saves gas when that's not true. If everyone drove at more reasonable speeds and didn't think it was Nascar out there then we'd have less of a demand for gasoline consumption.

Nothing beats simple math either:
70 mph = 70 miles traveled in an hour
60 mph = 60 miles traveled in an hour
Time to travel 70 miles @ 60 mph: 1 hour, 10 minutes (1 mile per minute)
Do people really need to get to their destination 10 minutes faster? Does it make that much of a difference?

Ok, that's pretty philosophical to ask. But within reason, no. Most people are not in a life or death situation traveling Saturday morning wherever their going.

In any event, we're just too lazy to leave 10 minutes or 15 minutes earlier. No wonder Exxon has profits of over $7.5 billion dollars!?!?

:bash: