**Driving Smoothly and Fuel Efficiently**

If I'm being honest, I get it if you just leave 10 minutes early because I've seen you drive erratically, but that's not my style. As someone who is inherently late, I'm not the best person to talk about this, but what you're talking about is meaning when you leave from a stoplight and don't hit the gas really hard. You know, just ease off the throttle and try to maintain a reasonable speed. Don't overcompensate by slamming on the brakes or taking off too quickly, because that's not how it works. When you brake, you're scrubbing off speed, which means you'll need to get back on the throttle faster, which can be stressful for both you and other drivers.

To drive smoothly like this, try to make a game out of it. See how smooth you can drive and how evenly you can accelerate and decelerate. It's not just about getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible; it's also about being safe and respectful on the road. Pay attention to your surroundings, anticipate what other drivers will do, and try to stay calm under pressure.

**Aerodynamics: The Hidden Culprit of Fuel Inefficiency**

One way to improve your fuel efficiency is by paying attention to aerodynamics. Those fancy vehicles that are designed for speed and agility can be tuned for the best fuel economy, even when they're not being driven aggressively. So, if you've got a car top carrier or a bike rack on your vehicle, consider taking it off – especially during the ski season when those racks aren't being used as much. Not only will it look sleeker and more aerodynamic, but it can also improve your fuel efficiency.

We found this out in our testing of different types of racks and their impact on fuel economy. The more aerodynamic sedans are actually more affected by roof racks and other external accessories than boxy SUVs. This is because those smooth lines and curved surfaces are designed to cut through the air with minimal resistance, which means that adding a rack or two can disrupt this flow. As a result, we saw some surprising results: a Rav4 lost 7 miles per gallon when equipped with a roof rack and bike mount, while an Altima lost 13 miles per gallon – even though it already had a smoother laminar flow.

This is because aerodynamics are all about reducing drag, which means creating a smooth, curved surface that allows the vehicle to cut through the air quickly. When you add a rack or other accessory, you're disrupting this flow and increasing the drag coefficient of your vehicle. So, if you want to save some gas, consider getting rid of those extraneous accessories and keeping things sleek and streamlined.

**Tire Pressure: A Simple Way to Improve Fuel Efficiency**

Another way to improve your fuel efficiency is by checking your tire pressure regularly. Underinflated tires are like driving a brick – they're heavy and slow, which means you'll use more gas to get from point A to point B. On the other hand, overinflated tires can be just as bad, because they'll lose grip and handling on the road.

So, find that sweet spot where your tire pressure is just right. Don't go too high or too low – experiment with different pressures until you find one that works for you. And remember, it's not just about winter months; even in warmer weather, using air conditioning can be worse than leaving the windows open. The AC is like a big blanket of drag that wraps around your vehicle, slowing it down and sucking up gas.

We test this stuff regularly to make sure we're still on the right page, so don't be afraid to try some new tricks and see what works for you. With a little bit of tinkering and experimentation, you can save some gas and have fun doing it.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everybody welcome to a special bonus episode of talking cars i'm mike monticello and i'm jennifer stockberger so all you have to do is drive past your local gas station these days and you can see just recently uh prices for gasoline have skyrocketed and honestly we don't know how much higher they're gonna get so while there isn't much any of us can do as far as you know to lower the price of the gasoline per gallon there are things you can do to save money and we've done a fair amount of tests here consumer reports to kind of find ways neat tips we can give you so that you can just eke out a little bit more out of each gallon of gasoline and since we're joined by jenn stockberger today jen can you walk us through you know some of those tips more than just we're talking some of the things you might not think about you know beyond obeying the speed limit and don't use premium gas if your car doesn't specifically require that but there's other tips you might not think about right right and these are the ones we wanted to kind of concentrate on today other than not going out at all there are some things and the first one you have to kind of think about a little bit and that is maintain a half a gallon of fuel or a half a tank of fuel and we had that in there mainly to protect against shortages deliveries etc but if you think about it the the prices certainly in connecticut here are going up and down so frequently that maintaining a half a tank of fuel may allow you to kind of play the market a little bit when it's up to four dollars and 22 cents on monday maybe you don't fill up that day but when it's down to 373 on thursday maybe that's the day you go and top off your tank so it will protect you a little bit obviously from delivery but also lets you play the the price game a little bit by just keeping some fuel there gotcha that makes sense what else do you have for us so the other thing is drive evenly um you know we always say you know maintain the speed limit but think about how aggressively you're getting on the throttle braking getting on the throttle again um the more evenly and smoothly you drive the better your fuel economy and the one i would add to this that i do is give yourself a little more time it seems to me i don't know about you mike but when i'm in a rush to get somewhere that's probably my worst driving in terms of maintaining a good fuel economy so i'm i'm more erratic i'm passing people i'm breaking because i'm in a hurry give yourself a little more time and almost make a game of it like maximize how many miles per gallon can i get if i just left 10 minutes early and i've seen you drive and erratic is the exact uh phrase i would use for your driving style i'm kidding i am inherently late so um i'm not the best person to talk about this but what what you're talking about is meaning when you leave from a stoplight don't hit the gas really hard um you know just you you want to try and just go easy on you don't want to be you don't want to take off super slow but you want to just take off at a reasonable speed get up to your speed and then maintain it and like you said kind of play a game like don't over break if you don't have to you know don't slow way down for something you want to keep that you know every time you break you're you're scrubbing off speed you're you're you then will require yourself to have to get back on the throttle so yeah driving evenly like you said try and make a game out of it see how smooth you can drive so the other thing is is pay attention to aerodynamics so obviously these vehicles be it a square boxy escalade or a very aerodynamic sports car they are tuned for the best fuel economy regardless um so when you have things like bike racks roof racks all of those things alter that flow of air over that car you know ski seasons are coming to an end get those ski racks off um even in the warmer months if you've got a bike rack on there that you're not using for a couple weeks it's probably beneficial to get it off there i know you have all those extras for for your sporting equipment so yes and again this is something uh you know we have a big story on all of this on consumerreports.org but one of the more interesting things about this is we found out in our testing of you putting all these different racks on you know whether it's a car top carrier a bicycle rack a hitch-mounted bike rack you think a hitch mounted bike rack well well it won't hurt fuel economy at all but it does but one of the interesting things i thought from the test that we did was that the the more aerodynamic sedans are much more affected by these um roof racks and stuff than say a boxy suv i guess that in a sense that makes sense you know right your engine your engineered brain would think already well a boxy suv how much worse can it get so that makes sense from that perspective but if you have a sedan you are are really uh hurting your fuel economy even more than the suvs by having those roof racks on top right it's about coefficient of drag you know the the big suv is already a box it's also got it's already got a lot of drag the nice smooth camry so we tested a rav4 even lost seven miles per gallon with the mountain bikes and roof rack the altima that we tested lost 13 miles per gallon because it already had a smoother laminar flow and we disrupted that more so so it actually hurt the the ultima more yep right it's something to think about you know something to think about and get those racks off other thing we'll channel our inner ryan pizzelkowski is check your tire pressure again um rolling resistance that force to keep a tire rolling directly related to tire pressure if you are under inflated that rolling resistance is higher it affects fuel economy so a lot of people have put their um pressures up to compensate for winter months set them appropriate to the car you don't want to be over inflated either because then you're losing some some handling and grip and wear potential so optimize that um either under or over set it where it should be and then as we warm up coming into the spring months warmer weather skip the ac particularly as we get to the spring those glorious you know certainly here in new england 60s 70s open the window you may actually be more comfortable and disrupt your fuel economy less than if you pop the ac on yeah you you might think that you know opening the windows really hurts the car's drag but it turns out in in terms of fuel economy it's actually worse to have the the air conditioning on than to have the windows open without the air conditioning on so yeah and we every few years we do these tests just to confirm that we're still on the right page yeah so anyway those are some great tips jen thank you so much for sharing those with us we have like i said a big story on this about you know ways 10 ways to save money at the gas pump and that's on consumerreports.org and don't forget if you have any questions or comments you can reach out to us at talking cars at icloud.com thanks so much for watching and let's all try and save some gas out there okay and we'll see you next timehi everybody welcome to a special bonus episode of talking cars i'm mike monticello and i'm jennifer stockberger so all you have to do is drive past your local gas station these days and you can see just recently uh prices for gasoline have skyrocketed and honestly we don't know how much higher they're gonna get so while there isn't much any of us can do as far as you know to lower the price of the gasoline per gallon there are things you can do to save money and we've done a fair amount of tests here consumer reports to kind of find ways neat tips we can give you so that you can just eke out a little bit more out of each gallon of gasoline and since we're joined by jenn stockberger today jen can you walk us through you know some of those tips more than just we're talking some of the things you might not think about you know beyond obeying the speed limit and don't use premium gas if your car doesn't specifically require that but there's other tips you might not think about right right and these are the ones we wanted to kind of concentrate on today other than not going out at all there are some things and the first one you have to kind of think about a little bit and that is maintain a half a gallon of fuel or a half a tank of fuel and we had that in there mainly to protect against shortages deliveries etc but if you think about it the the prices certainly in connecticut here are going up and down so frequently that maintaining a half a tank of fuel may allow you to kind of play the market a little bit when it's up to four dollars and 22 cents on monday maybe you don't fill up that day but when it's down to 373 on thursday maybe that's the day you go and top off your tank so it will protect you a little bit obviously from delivery but also lets you play the the price game a little bit by just keeping some fuel there gotcha that makes sense what else do you have for us so the other thing is drive evenly um you know we always say you know maintain the speed limit but think about how aggressively you're getting on the throttle braking getting on the throttle again um the more evenly and smoothly you drive the better your fuel economy and the one i would add to this that i do is give yourself a little more time it seems to me i don't know about you mike but when i'm in a rush to get somewhere that's probably my worst driving in terms of maintaining a good fuel economy so i'm i'm more erratic i'm passing people i'm breaking because i'm in a hurry give yourself a little more time and almost make a game of it like maximize how many miles per gallon can i get if i just left 10 minutes early and i've seen you drive and erratic is the exact uh phrase i would use for your driving style i'm kidding i am inherently late so um i'm not the best person to talk about this but what what you're talking about is meaning when you leave from a stoplight don't hit the gas really hard um you know just you you want to try and just go easy on you don't want to be you don't want to take off super slow but you want to just take off at a reasonable speed get up to your speed and then maintain it and like you said kind of play a game like don't over break if you don't have to you know don't slow way down for something you want to keep that you know every time you break you're you're scrubbing off speed you're you're you then will require yourself to have to get back on the throttle so yeah driving evenly like you said try and make a game out of it see how smooth you can drive so the other thing is is pay attention to aerodynamics so obviously these vehicles be it a square boxy escalade or a very aerodynamic sports car they are tuned for the best fuel economy regardless um so when you have things like bike racks roof racks all of those things alter that flow of air over that car you know ski seasons are coming to an end get those ski racks off um even in the warmer months if you've got a bike rack on there that you're not using for a couple weeks it's probably beneficial to get it off there i know you have all those extras for for your sporting equipment so yes and again this is something uh you know we have a big story on all of this on consumerreports.org but one of the more interesting things about this is we found out in our testing of you putting all these different racks on you know whether it's a car top carrier a bicycle rack a hitch-mounted bike rack you think a hitch mounted bike rack well well it won't hurt fuel economy at all but it does but one of the interesting things i thought from the test that we did was that the the more aerodynamic sedans are much more affected by these um roof racks and stuff than say a boxy suv i guess that in a sense that makes sense you know right your engine your engineered brain would think already well a boxy suv how much worse can it get so that makes sense from that perspective but if you have a sedan you are are really uh hurting your fuel economy even more than the suvs by having those roof racks on top right it's about coefficient of drag you know the the big suv is already a box it's also got it's already got a lot of drag the nice smooth camry so we tested a rav4 even lost seven miles per gallon with the mountain bikes and roof rack the altima that we tested lost 13 miles per gallon because it already had a smoother laminar flow and we disrupted that more so so it actually hurt the the ultima more yep right it's something to think about you know something to think about and get those racks off other thing we'll channel our inner ryan pizzelkowski is check your tire pressure again um rolling resistance that force to keep a tire rolling directly related to tire pressure if you are under inflated that rolling resistance is higher it affects fuel economy so a lot of people have put their um pressures up to compensate for winter months set them appropriate to the car you don't want to be over inflated either because then you're losing some some handling and grip and wear potential so optimize that um either under or over set it where it should be and then as we warm up coming into the spring months warmer weather skip the ac particularly as we get to the spring those glorious you know certainly here in new england 60s 70s open the window you may actually be more comfortable and disrupt your fuel economy less than if you pop the ac on yeah you you might think that you know opening the windows really hurts the car's drag but it turns out in in terms of fuel economy it's actually worse to have the the air conditioning on than to have the windows open without the air conditioning on so yeah and we every few years we do these tests just to confirm that we're still on the right page yeah so anyway those are some great tips jen thank you so much for sharing those with us we have like i said a big story on this about you know ways 10 ways to save money at the gas pump and that's on consumerreports.org and don't forget if you have any questions or comments you can reach out to us at talking cars at icloud.com thanks so much for watching and let's all try and save some gas out there okay and we'll see you next time\n"