10 green tips to help you save at the gas station

With average gas prices around $1.25 per litre — 20 cents per litre higher than this time last year — here are some green tips from Be Car Care Aware to help you save money.

• Keep tires properly inflated. Driving your vehicle with just one tire under-inflated by eight pounds per square inch will increase your vehicle’s fuel consumption by four per cent.

• Tighten your gas cap. Be Car Care Aware estimates 22-million litres of gasoline vaporize into the atmosphere each year in Canada as a result of improperly tightened or missing gas caps. It is also a common cause for failing an emissions test, yet it is simple and inexpensive to fix.

• Perform regular maintenance. Regular vehicle maintenance improves gas mileage by an average of 4.1 per cent.

• Replace air filters regularly. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve gas mileage by as much as 10 per cent.

• Replace spark plugs regularly. A dirty spark plug causes misfiring, which wastes fuel.

• Observe the speed limit and use cruise control while on the highway. Save big bucks by cutting your highway cruising speed by 10 km/h or even less.

• Go inside instead of waiting in long lines at the drive-thru window. Two average-sized light-duty vehicles can waste enough gasoline to fill one coffee cup while sitting in the line-up for five minutes at a drive-through.

• Combine trips. Several short trips taken from a cold start can use twice as much fuel as a longer multi-purpose trip covering the same distance.

• Don’t haul unneeded items. An extra 100 lbs in the trunk reduces fuel economy by 1-2 per cent. Unused roof rack and accessories add weight and drag.

•Avoid quick starts and stops. Aggressive driving saves you only 2.5 minutes out of every hour, but can use up to 39 per cent more fuel.