Alaska News

Smart driving will save you money on fuel

Like water pouring out a growing crack in a dam wall, rising fuel prices are siphoning off more and more of Valley residents' paychecks with each upward tick of the per-gallon cost.

The escalating cost has some Valley residents looking for miracle cures like magnets that seem as likely to increase mileage as spray-painting hair follicles to make baldness disappear.

"One of the things we're seeing is, there's a lot of panic out there over gas prices," said Stephen Brown, a University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension agent based in the Valley. "A lot of people are doing things that don't make sense."

Brown and another Cooperative Extension agent, Julie Cascio, told a small group last week to ditch the "snake oil" cures and take hope: The solution to the gas crisis is in your hands.

Well, sort of.

Brown said simple steps like driving the speed limit and inflating your tires to the number specified by your car or tire manufacturer, can save drivers between 5 and 10 percent on gas mileage.

Doesn't sound like much, right? Well ... "If you commute to Anchorage, you're putting 25,000 to 30,000 a year -- miles -- on your vehicle," Brown said. "If your vehicle gets 18 miles per gallon (and you increase it to 20 mpg) and gas is $4 a gallon, that's a savings of $555."

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Of course gas prices are higher than $4 today, he said, so the potential saving is even greater.

The biggest way to save is by driving with an eye to the fuel gauge, Brown said.

"The truth is, it's how you drive. I can testify to this. For the last two months, I've been deliberately altering my driving behavior," he said.

He follows the speed limit, doesn't speed up to pass when it's not necessary and uses road conditions to his advantage, such as speeding up slightly while on a downhill grade in order to carry his vehicle farther with less effort on the opposing uphill slope.

"Before, I was averaging 18 miles per gallon in my pickup," Brown said. "My average shot up to 22 miles per gallon."

CHECK TIRE PRESSURE

Another big spot to save, he said, is by regularly checking tire air pressure. Underinflated tires put more rubber in contact with the road and increase what scientists call road drag, meaning energy is lost between the tire and road surface.

"These days, 32 is no longer the sacred number. In my truck, it's 30 pounds. My wife's Subaru is 29 pounds in the rear and 30 in the front," he said.

Tire pressure fluctuates over time and with the temperature, Brown said. Tires lose up to 1 psi each month. Each 10-degree drop in temperature means another psi lost, he said.

Get a good gauge, Brown said, and check tires after they've been sitting outside for a few hours. Checking pressure in a heated garage will give an inaccurate reading, he said.

If under-inflating increases road drag and reduces mileage, overinflated tires should travel more smoothly across the road and increase mileage, right? Not so, says Brown and other car researchers.

Popular Mechanics writers in Oct. 2006 chronicled a road test with a Honda Fit subcompact car in which they drove 800 miles on overinflated tires at 70 miles per hour and then repeated the test on properly inflated tires.

The result? Almost identical gas mileage, but over-inflation resulted in compromised handling. In road conditions where traction matters, Brown said, that could compromise safety.

Another big way to save on mileage is to lower your profile, Brown said. Ditching the monster tires could increase mileage by 50 percent, he said.

"Big wheels really suck down the fuel," he said.

Other factors, such as changing air filters frequently, using the right oil weight and unloading the bags of sand left over in your trunk from last winter, can add to gas mileage, he said.

WHEN TO TRADE

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But what if even a 10 percent increase in gas mileage still means your monthly fuel bill is bigger than your mortgage?

Cascio, a home economist, said there's an easy formula that can help drivers decide if it's really time to trade in a paid-off gas-guzzler and buy a new high-mileage hybrid.

First, keep a record of your gas mileage by recording miles driven and gas purchased every time you fill up. A calculator at www.fueleconomy.gov can help, Cascio said.

Once you have a good mileage estimate, calculate the total cost of your fuel in a month and weigh it against the monthly payments and monthly fuel costs of the car you have your eye on. A formula at www.edmunds.com/calculators/gas-guzzler.html can help with that number, Cascio said.

For her family, buying a new car recently made sense.

"My husband drove a Jeep," she said. The Jeep got 15 miles per gallon and he commuted 100 miles a day, or about 2,500 miles each month. At today's fuel prices, that's $753.33 a month. He had his eye on a used diesel Volkswagon Jetta that got 48 miles per gallon, she said.

He bought it and it's paying off. It costs $273.44 a month to fuel the Jetta and he's saving about $480 a month, she said. The money he saves in fuel costs alone will pay for the car in about two and a half years, she said, although that doesn't include higher insurance or other costs like interest for a vehicle loan.

But don't go out and buy that hybrid just yet, Cascio said. A gas-sipper doesn't always pay for itself. She wanted a Toyota Prius, she said, but since she only drives 750 miles a month, it would take her nearly 20 years of fuel savings to pay for the new car. She'll stick with her Ford wagon for now, she said.

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The efficiency of other transportation options such as motorcycles might not pay off either, Brown said. Motorcycles in Alaska don't really pencil out, he said.

"The biggest reason is because of our weather," Brown said. "It would take about 30 years for you to break even on the gas mileage you would get on a $6,000 motorcycle," he said.

At best, motorcyclists get five months of use before having to store their bikes, he estimated. And with frequent bad weather, many riders can count on riding weather only three or four days a week.

Brown and Cascio said they expect to hold more fuel-saving classes as prices continue to go up. But they can answer questions about gas-saving gadgets and provide fuel-economy tips any time: Call 745-3360, Brown said.

DOWNSIZE VEHICLES

Gina Courson, mother and full-time chauffeur of seven children, attended the class last week mostly for tips, she said.

She's already made the biggest gas-saving choice she can: parking her big Suburban and instead using her family's older-model Nissan Altima or Volvo car to get her kids to appointments on time.

"It was a real time-appropriate class and had a lot of good information," Courson said.

Now she's trying to teach some of the lessons she learned at home.

"I'm trying to convince my 20-year-old, who drives way too fast and passes, you know, how much gas he's using," she said.

So far, those lessons haven't rubbed off, but she said she'd keep trying with her son and her two other driving children.

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709.

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CALCULATE: Find out if you should ditch your paid-off gas-guzzler for a more efficient vehicle. Calculate your miles per gallon and your annual fuel cost and find more gas-saving tips at these sites:

www.edmunds.com/calculators/gas-guzzler.html

www.fueleconomy.gov

By RINDI WHITE

rwhite@adn.com

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