We all want to save on gas, but it's not always clear what that really means. After all, you can save on gas by walking everywhere, but most people don't want to do that. For most people, saving gas means they want to use less gas while doing the same amount of driving. In other words, they want to improve their fuel economy.
Fuel economy is the distance a car can travel using one gallon of fuel. That's why it's measured in miles per gallon. A car that's rated at 30 miles to the gallon can travel 30 miles on a single gallon of gasoline. Simple, right? You can find out what kind of fuel economy a car gets by visiting fueleconomy.gov.
Where fuel economy gets complicated is when someone buys a car with poor fuel economy and then gets stung by the high price of keeping that car rolling down the road. That's when you usually start looking for ways to improve fuel economy. The good news is that there are some ways you can do it. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that 74- to 86-percent of the energy that's stored in the gasoline in your tank is lost to other factors. So that means only 14- to 26-percent of the energy in a gallon of gas is actually powering the wheels [source: fueleconomy.gov]. If you can lessen the impact of things like wind and rolling resistance, you can use more of the energy in the gasoline to power the car, and get more miles per gallon. You can also make sure to keep your car in good mechanical shape; well-maintained cars use less gas to go the same distance as an abused clunker. You can also alter your driving habits; hard acceleration uses more fuel than gentle acceleration. And then there's using gadgets or fuel additives that say they can improve your fuel economy.
We take vitamins to stay healthy, Prozac to stay sane, diet pills to stay thin and aspirin to stop a headache. That's probably why putting a fuel additive in your gas tank to improve fuel economy seems to make sense to most of us.
That is, until you remember that people and cars are not, in fact, the same thing.
Most fuel additives claim to improve fuel economy by cleaning or removing impurities from an engine's internal components. That sounds pretty intuitive. An engine that's gunked up won't run as efficiently. Some gas companies even advertise that their fuel will clean your engine -- so why wouldn't an aftermarket fuel cleaner work?
Some fuel saving products claim to ionize the gas in your fuel lines for better mileage. Others say they'll use power from the car's battery to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, which your engine will burn instead of gas.
Other fuel saving products claim they can help improve air intake to the engine, resulting in more power with each stroke. That also seems to make intuitive sense. After all, proven products like superchargers and turbochargers make more power by bringing more air, or cooler air, into the engine. Also, it's a common recommendation that keeping your air filter clean will result in better fuel economy because the engine won't have to work as hard to breathe. So why wouldn't a device that says it brings more air into the engine improve fuel economy?
That's what a lot of consumers wondered. So the Federal Trade Commission tasked the EPA with finding out.
The best way to minimize the amount of gas you use is to drive your car less -- or adjust your driving habits.
So, if most of the fuel-saving additives and gadgets on the market are worthless, what's a fuel-sipping driver to do?
Instead of following the advice of late-night infomercials and Internet ads, listen to the EPA. Keep your car well-maintained. Drive efficiently by accelerating slowly, coasting when you can and doing your best to avoid slamming on the brakes. Try to minimize unnecessary wind resistance by taking external roof racks and cargo carriers off your car when they're not in use. Keep extra weight out of your car. If it's August, you probably don't need to keep that bag of kitty liter in your trunk in case you get stuck in the snow. Trust me, the odds of that are really low.
Of course, the best way to minimize the amount of gas you use is to drive your car less. Combine trips when running errands. Carpool, or take the bus. Walk where you need to go if you can. With all the money you'll be saving on gas, you'll be eating a lot of Cheetos. You'll need the exercise.
I'm beginning to think there are two quick-fixes Americans will never give up on: Weight loss and improved fuel economy. We seem to think that the Holy Grail of both is just around the corner. The key thing I learned while researching this piece is that when it comes to improved fuel economy in the gasoline engine, we're only going to see incremental improvements. It's an engine that's been around for over 100 years. It's unlikely someone working in their garage has found a way to make it markedly more efficient. Depressing, yes. Then again, maybe that easy weight-loss device is still attainable.