Have car will travel!

July 2nd, 2011

What about the price of gas? Here’s how to deal with it
Even though gas prices are unpredictable, up one day and down the next, we still pile into our cars as the most economical means for visiting family and friends. But for many, it is an expense we cannot afford and we must learn to cut the costs of traveling. Here are some suggestions:

Tune your car
This is a matter of proper maintenance. Keeping tires properly inflated, using the recommended grade of gasoline and replacing clogged air filters can easily increase fuel efficiency by 10 percent or more, according to some fuel-economy sites like www.fueleconomy.gov. A tune-up will likely save you even more in gas: Just fixing a faulty oxygen sensor, for example, could improve your mileage by as much as 40 percent!

Slow it down
According to www.fueleconomy.gov, for every five miles per hour you drive over the rate of 60 miles per hour, you’re essentially paying almost 25 cents more for each gallon of gas. That’s how dramatically gas mileage decreases beyond standard speed limits of 55-60 mph. That’s also not factoring in the cost of the speeding tickets you’re more likely to get at high speeds. To the same end, aggressive driving, rapid acceleration, fast cornering, and sudden breaking can lower your gas mileage by as much as a third.

Breaking bad driving habits
To help break those bad driving habits, try keeping a full cup of cold water in the cup holder on your dashboard. Your goal is to drive so smoothly that you never spill a drop.

Rent it
Depending on the condition and fuel efficiency of your family car, you may want to consider renting a car to use for your holiday travels. Most rentals now come with unlimited miles, so if you plan to drive very far in a short period of time, it may pay to leave your car parked at home and pick up a more fuel-efficient rental instead.

Bring it with you
The old-fashioned ice chest has become the fashionable travel accessory of the new economy. When you drive on your holiday travels, it’s easy to pack one along and save some big bucks. Also, by shopping carefully for sodas, snack foods, and sandwich-making supplies before leaving home, you can probably save 80 percent of what you’d spend at vending machines and other roadside stops. Plus, the fastest food of all is just an arm’s length away in the ice chest.

Catch the Chinatown express
Traveling the Eastern Seaboard? Even if you have your own set of wheels, you can’t beat the so-called “Chinatown buses.” (For info, Google “Chinatown bus”—with the quotation marks around the phrase.) These independently operated bus lines run between the Chinatown areas of major cities, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. The buses are even sprouting up on the West Coast and Midwest. Comfortable with air conditioning, restrooms, and even wireless service, the buses are clean, on time, fast, fun, and dirt cheap; sometimes as little as $35 round-trip from Washington, D.C., to New York City. Think about it!

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 2nd, 2011 at 3:40 am and is filed under Car Loans, Economy, Finance, Money, Personal / Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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