Living green-Fuel Efficient car facts & tips for driving green

With the skyrocketing cost of gasoline-now averaging over $ 4 per gallon, up to a dollar just a year ago-all fuel economy is tops the minds of most consumers. Sales of hybrids and other fuel efficient cars are growing. Of course, is not just about the fuel-economy is also on the environmental impact, as well.

In fact, daily activity more polluting by u.s. consumers is increasing and improve fuel economy by just 5 miles per gallon would save Americans 1.5 million barrels of oil per day.

To improve your life green efforts and reduce your impact on the environment, follow these simple tips to increase fuel efficiency.

Tips to increase fuel efficiency

Avoid excessive idling: allowing his car to idle for long periods of time, so while you're waiting for someone or warming up your vehicle during the cold winter months, not only wastes fuel, but also reduces the overall lifetime of your vehicle.Perform regular maintenance of the vehicle: Keep your engine properly tuned can improve your gas mileage, as much as 4%, according to fueleconomy.gov. Not to mention such fixing faulty oxygen sensors can increase fuel efficiency by up to 40%. other maintenance of vehicle fuel saving regularly includes: checking and replacing your air filter can increase fuel efficiency by 10%. Maintaining proper tire pressure and alignment is not only more secure, but can also increase fuel efficiency by 3.3%. Use the appropriate engine oil – the kind recommended by the manufacturer-can increase fuel efficiency by 1%.

Slow Down on the road: Driving fast can get to your destination faster, but is terrible for fuel economy.For example, you will lose about 2% on gas mileage for each mile per hour over 55.And while reducing your overall mpg, driving fast wears out faster your tires due to heat generated during speeds. Drive driving higher gracefully: rapid acceleration and braking fast are not only hard on your vehicle, they are bad for fuel efficiency. smooth driving will make its passengers more happy-and save you gallon about 2 km. remember, just like the tortoise and the Hare, slow and constant will win the race. fuel economy Removes the junk from your trunk: another way to increase fuel efficiency is travel light.For every 50 pounds you drive around, you lose 0.25 mpg. Remove items you don't need to keep in your car before making your daily commute and you'll save a little money-and every little bit helps!errands your plan: whenever possible, combine your errands and plan your route in advance, so that do less driving. you can't increase your fuel efficiency, but you will reduce your environmental impact by using less gas.

Fuel Efficient Cars

In addition to following these tips to increase fuel efficiency, you can always buy a car that gets good gas mileage. Besides hybrids, electric cars and other cars that run on alternative fuels, there are plenty of gasoline cars that average equal to or higher than 30 mpg.

Second fueleconomy.gov, cars top fuel efficient for 2008 are:

1) Toyota Prius (48 mpg city/highway 45 mpg)

2) Honda Civic Hybrid (40 mpg city/45 mpg highway)

3) Toyota Corolla (28 mpg City/Highway 37 mpg)

4) Toyota Yaris (29 mpg city/highway 45 mpg) *

5) MINI Cooper (26 mpg city/highway 35 mpg) *

6) Smart fortwo cabrio (33 mpg city/highway 41 mpg)

7) Ford Escape Hybrid FWD (34 mpg city/highway 30 mpg)

8) 2WD Mazda Tribute (34 mpg city/highway 30 mpg)

9) Mercury Mariner Hybrid FWD (34 mpg city/highway 30 mpg)

* Gas mileage is calculated on the basis of automatic transmissions. gas mileage in models with manual transmission is generally higher.

Green Living Beyond Fuel Efficient Cars

Remember driving green is more than just increasing fuel efficiency. before choosing a car to fit your lifestyle green, you should also consider the overall environmental impact created by construction and driving your car.

For example, the Prius gets some of the largest indexes of gas mileage. However, nickel is used to produce the battery in the Prius. environmental damage caused by mining, transporting the nickel to build Prius results in a surprising statistic: Building and driving a Prius more global environmental damage due to battery nickel that uses to construct a Hummer, which is on the road three times longer.