Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Increasing gas mileage by hypermiling

One of the key aspects of investing is also saving. Just recently I was driving my car when I was listening to this show on NPR. They were talking about something called as hypermiling. Never knew an official word for the term that some of us already use.
Back in 2008 when gas prices were at a rise people used Oil ETFs to hedge against increasing gas prices. If you buy Oil ETFs and gas prices move up so does theoretically the price of the Oil ETF. If gas prices take a dive you save money at the pump.
Lately gas prices are not in sync with the crude oil futures graph on gas buddy.
Of course you can go all green and get a electric vehicle. Can you do more with your car running on gasoline?
Yes here are couple of takeaways.

1. Brake less. Slow down from gas when approaching a red light. Caution: Look in the rear view mirror to see if you have someone speeding or bumping against you. Might be worth speeding up to save an extra buck or two. Also check if you can time traffic lights, you might need to accelerate in order to meet the next light. I usually pay attention to the sidewalk blinkers indicating that light will soon be yellow.

2. Start slowly: Dont accelerate and make that engine of your car work hard. Accelerate in stages with the tachometer needle not going past say "2".


Ofcourse maintain your car. Ensure that servicing is regular.
For more check out this link on marketplace.
Beware you might get some strange looks from people behind you and trying to overtake.
You might need to build up on your patience.
Need some practice to get used to the hypermiling rules.
Last but not the least check if you saved anything at the pump :).

Do you hypermile?

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