Fuel Economy: What Really Saves Gas? And How Much?

[lagizma]

Yahoo! recently had a front-page story about fuel economy. It was interesting but too fluffy. It cited a 2005 study by Edmunds.com, so Miss Gizmo, Consumer Maven searched out the original data to share with y'all. I was especially interested in the test that challenged the conventional wisdom that air conditioning is more fuel efficient than

Comments

[helpimarock]

I liked all of these except #6. Well, that and I'd like to add to #3 that if you're not on relatively flat roads, then cruise control will excessively burn gas when it overcompensates with acceleration upon hitting a significant upgrade

[lagizma]

The justification I read on yahoo for #6 is as follows:

When our cars had carburetors, that made sense. However, modern fuel injection systems make idling a costly way to wait. The experts say if you plan to idle for more than 30 seconds, turn off the car and you'll save gas.

Another source says:

Idling gets 0 miles per gallon. Cars with larger engines typically waste more gas at idle than do cars with smaller engines. Simple solution: Turn off your car if you need to wait more than three minutes.

As for Gizmo? Turning off the car means turning of the AC. So she's not gonna do it. She'll drive her air conditioned Civic right over to Iran to get gas if she needs to. :)