Dieting Cars

[theheretic]

Hypermiling aside, the easiest way to improve your gas mileage OTHER THAN going lighter on the pedal is to remove excess weight from your car. I'm sure you're carrying stuff you don't need in there. When I recently cleaned out J's car, I found 40 lbs of books she hasn't needed in a year, and some rocks and various clumps of paper, partially filled

Comments

[fortyozspartan]

It feels like you are over-rreacting here. Most people don't have the time, know-how, or the desire to seriously modify their cars

[theheretic]

For a year, the price of oil doubled but the price of gasoline barely moved 80 cents. There's something wrong with that. It seems they fiddled the refineries to produce more gasoline and less diesel and heating oil and other products. This kept the price artificially low during an election year. After the election the price rose steeply for a while, then bounced around a bit. Now we're in another election year and the price has risen because oil is higher than ever, though its down $8/bbl this week and if this sticks we could be enjoying another lull in the weird surges and panics that seem to be controlling things. I don't expect to see $3.50/gal gasoline again but I could be proven wrong

[fortyozspartan]

"If you knew that gasoline prices would go up a $1/gal per year, would you switch to a motorcycle for your dry-day commutes? I think I would."

I would become a bad ass bicyclist. My work isn't so far away that it wouldn't work...

[mightymezzo73]

I am sure that one of the reasons my car gets such great fuel mileage in the first place is because it's a sprightly little car instead of a wallowing land yacht. There isn't much else I could do to it to make it lighter.

Incidentally, my MPG on my last tank of diesel was 47. Rock on.