I do not want legislation on gas prices though I just want to never have to use gas again. :-) It scares me when I see politicians spouting off about a "windfall" tax on oil company profits. Ok I hate oil companies. I would love to see them out of business like anyone else. but windfall tax is unamerican and unconstitutional and immoral. Your PUNISHING someone for doing well (the issue is not WHY they are doing well thats a whole nother ball of wax)

Plus any and I mean ANY corporate tax is by DEFINITION a tax increase on the regular citizens. Its not possible to tax a business. ANY tax is automatically amortized into the cost of the product! IE 'WE" pay for it not the companies. Only citizens can actually pay taxes in the real sense since we can not "amortize" it off on someone else. The buck stops there :-(

ON TOP of that a windfall tax would have exactly the OPPOSITE desired effect since now the government would NOT want gasoline to go away and would in fact WANT to keep it Expensive as hell. Think about it. The MORE gas costs the BIGGER the check uncle sam can cash out of US. They now have incentive to NOT change the problem. To infact fight to KEEP the status in order to retain that tax income.

NOT a good thing folks :-)

I read most of what was posted here and I wanted to add one more thing...

Use tape to close the gaps between fenders and doors along with other body panels. And as mentioned before keep the vehicle clean, wash clay and wax it as often as you can. If you can feel the difference I'm sure the air will too :P

Well, my point was that there are more variables, and you can't have a complete idea of the financial effect of your trade unless you figure them all. In my case, the monthly payment is far less than the difference in gas costs alone.

As for the new vs. used thing, I don't think anybody believes that buying a brand new car is more economical. I certainly don't.

Nerys,

you are wise to see the real "game" with taxes, and i agree. oil profit is in volume not margin. and that volume of profit is, yes, OUR fault as consumers.

my point was in regards to the US economy. many cannot afford a different vehicle, have mass transit, or even the option to walk/bike. it is unfortunate that our economy revolves around oil, but if something is not done about these fuel prices, the economy WILL get much worse!

back to the topic...the best two mods are a more efficient vehicle and driving techniques, PERIOD.

Why couldn't you just refill then start the trip counter? test at 1/4th 1/2 and 3/4ths empty?

My 96 volvo wagon burned out the fuel pump because I was on less than 1/4th tank religeously for...months.

Another gas saving tip is not mentioned here, and is completely obvious. Not so much gas saving actually as money saving, which is: gas stations almost always have cheapest gas on tuesday. Why? Think about it... you had an eventfull weakend, you forgot to get gas and you MUST get to work quick. They can charge you alot because you're unprepared. But this isn't true in all areas. Fill up tuesday, the comute rush is over, and no one is making plans to go many places. thursday through sunday night is the most expensive gas for the week, and you can bet your *** they will jack the price because you want to go have fun.

Also, if you have a indian reservation, or a nearby military exchange, it can sometimes be an incredible savings. Buy some large gas cans. I go to the indian reservation and get both my car and my 2 gas cans filled. Traveling to the gas station itself is a waste of gas too yknow.

I have also seen a graph of daily fuel costs and saw Tuesday and Wednesday were typically the least expensive days to get fuel over a 3 year time span. I am not sure why but won't argue with history so I will buy fuel on Tuesdays ;)

As far as buying a used car vs. new I would agree that is normally true, but over the life time of our new car (TDI) to date 74,500 miles we have paid $.35 a mile including fuel. Our used Van we paid a LOT less for is up at $.55 lifetime as well. So buying a fuel efficient vehicle and keeping it for a long time could pay for itself. I have had some bad luck with used vehicles that weren't maintained well by their previous owner. Our new car, the only new one we have purchased new, has also been our cheapest per mile of any car we have owned in the last 25 years.

Great to be onboard
 

I have been reading all these great gas saving tips. I am brand new to this
group. I currently drive a 1992 Honda Accord with almost 203,000 miles.

I have always consistantly gotten 31-33 MPG. Even for an ol' girl, not bad.
The only thing I have done for years is coast in neural whenever possible.
It is a manual, so pretty easy.

thanks to all. Looking forward to future gas savings.

Dump The Alternator
 

This one made me laugh the hardest.

I don't even know if this would work, but whole idea of charging my battery every day to save .3 mpg makes me cringe. If it works, you know some one is doing it, though.

User named rgathright did it on a Jeep Wrangler. Here's where he first described it:
https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=7140
He seems to do well with it.

Sites with air filter replacement comments
 

The air filter replacement comments will increase mpg is driving me crazy. (I didn't see any posted here but the link listed has it) I spent hours today researching it and what I found was....unless your air filter is really clogged, a new air filter or a high performance one will not increase mpg. Actually the better ones will decrease mpg. I found that out the hard way at a cost of 40.00 for the high performance H&K filter. My mpg went down by 5.

I think most of the mpg sites parrot what the air filter company's have been saying. Think about it! If you increase air flow then the oxygen sensor see's a situation where it wants to increase gas.

I bought into the myth until I proved it! I went back to my cheap filter that was reasonably clean and my milege went right back up! It doesn't take genius to figure that one out.