How do I get such great mileage?

I get 32 MPG with my car.

It's not a hybrid.

It's just my 1999 Saturn SL2.

Wanna know how I do it?

1. I coast whenever possible.
If the light up ahead is red, or even yellow, I'll just coast. It never ceases to amaze me when someone speeds up to zip around me only to have to slam on their brakes for the red light. And you know what? Sometimes, by the time I get there, it's already changed back to green. This means I'm accelerating again from a moving position instead of a full stop -- which also saves gas.

2. I treat my gas pedal like it's a fragile Ming vase.
Imagine that you're a lab rat, and every time you touch a lever, you get a food pellet. Now let me transfer that analogy to you and your car. Every time you touch the gas pedal, you don't get food. No, you've just wasted some of your money. Every time you touch that gas pedal, you are spending money. Here in LA, the cheap gas is now up to $4.29. That stuff is like gold. So when I use my gas pedal, I baaaarely touch it to get up to speed (35 MPH on the streets). Once I'm up to speed, I'll coast a little bit, and then baaaarely touch my Spending Money on Gas pedal again.

3. I give my brake pedal gets the royal treatment too.
Did you know your brake pedal is also a Spending Money on Gas pedal? Every time you brake, you're throwing away the velocity you created with the gas pedal. Hey, you paid for that velocity. Treasure it. Plan ahead -- if a stop sign or a red light is coming up, just coast to it. If some jerk cuts you off, just change lanes. Don't let some jerk make you waste your velocity.

4. I don't use my car for storage.
I had this friend who stored her luggage, about 8,000 CDs, a number of large blankets, and I think a chair in her car. No, she wasn't homeless. She just never got around to clearing out her van. Would you be surprised to know that it cost twice as much money to get her car from Point A to Point B as it did my car?

5. Oil changes. Every 3,000.
On the dot. No excuses.

6. No AC
Okay, we're getting a little hard core here. There are some people who cannot handle this extreme measure. I crack the windows so I don't die, and once I'm traveling over 40 MPH I'll turn on the vent (make sure the Recirculate button is bringing in fresh air) to let the air flow through the car.

7. I overinflate my tires.
Less rubber contact with the road, less friction, less gas used. Simple.

Hard facts on saving money

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Drive Smart: Fuel Savings Add Up

Drive efficiently

Watching how you drive can improve your car's mileage per gallon, cutting global warming pollution and saving you anywhere from $200 to $500 each year.

• Travel light and pack smart. Extra weight decreases fuel economy. Hauling an extra 100 pounds in your vehicle reduces fuel economy by up to 2 percent. Place luggage inside rather than on the roof or trunk to minimize drag and increase mileage.

• Drive less aggressively. Aggressive driving—rapid acceleration and braking—can lower gas mileage by as much as 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent in town. Aggressive drivers are using an extra 125 gallons of gas and spending over $250 more than average drivers each year.

• Slow down. In highway travel, exceeding the speed limit by a mere 5 mph results in an average fuel economy loss of 6 percent.

• Know when to use the air. Air conditioning can decrease your fuel efficiency by as much as 12 percent in stop-and-go traffic, so consider cracking the windows. But at high speeds, driving with the windows open can decrease the overall efficiency of the vehicle.

• Don't idle. If you are stopping for more than ten seconds—except in traffic—turn off your engine. Idling for more than ten seconds uses more gas and creates more global warming pollution than simply restarting your engine.

Maintain your car

Keep your vehicle operating in peak performance by following these recommendations.

• Keep your engine tuned properly. Checking spark plugs, oxygen sensors, air filters, hoses and belts are a few examples of maintenance that can save a vehicle owner up to 165 gallons of gas per year, resulting in potential savings of $380.

• Check the tires. Have your wheels aligned and keep your tires properly inflated. Low tire pressure wastes over two million gallons of gasoline in the United States—every day. For every pound of pressure below recommended levels, fuel economy drops 1 percent. Keeping your tires properly inflated means saving about a tank of gas a year.

Drive less

No matter how smart you drive, leaving the car parked always saves more gas and pollution.

• Combine trips. Consider running all your errands in the same area at once, rather than making separate trips. Cutting a 20 mile trip out of your schedule each week can reduce your global warming pollution by more than 1,200 pounds a year and save you over $100 in gas expenses.

• Telecommute once a week. Americans traveled 614.5 billion miles to and from work in 2001. If all commuters worked from home just one day a week, we could save 5.85 billion gallons of oil and cut over 65 million metric tons (roughly 143 billion pounds) of carbon dioxide each year.

• Carpool and use public transportation when possible. An average 2005 passenger car costs about 31 cents per mile in fuel, maintainance and depreciation to drive. If you share rides and use other means to get to work, you'll save yourself money, reduce congestion on the roads and cut your global warming pollution.

Sources

AAA. 2005. Your Driving Costs 2005. Heathrow, FL: American Automobile Association. www.aaawa.com/news_safety/pdf/Driving_Costs_2005.pdf (16 Feb. 2006). Assumes costs of gasoline at $1.939 per gallon, and fuel economy at 23 mpg.

FuelEconomy.gov's Gas Mileage Tips: www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/drive.shtml

Federal Trade Commission: Good, Better, Best -- How to Improve Gas Mileage [PDF], September 2005.

Hu P. and T. Reuscher. December 2004. Summary of Travel Trends - 2001 National