Rising gas prices doesn’t have to mean leaving our car at home. It just means some slight adjustments to your driving style and ownership behavior.

If there is one thing which every motorist can agree on, it’s that gas prices are high and showing no signs of lowering to the prices we remember. However, while many vehicle owners think that the only way to save on gas is to leave their car in the garage, a few small changes are all it takes to improve your fuel efficiency.

Improving Your Fuel Economy

Jim Ackney knows a lot about engines and vehicles, namely, just how convenient they are and fun to drive. If you have been considering leaving your car at home, below are some great tips to help you enjoy your vehicle without needing to return to the gas station as often.

Use Your Gears Correctly

It can easy for a driver in a manual transmission vehicle to use their gears to slow down. That is, changing down through your gears and using this resistance to slow your vehicle for a turn or even to bring it to a stop. On the flip side, these motorists also tend to push their gears each time that they accelerate. Instead:

• Your brakes were designed for one thing. To stop your vehicle. So use them! If you can see a turn coming up or you need to stop for a red light, take your foot off the gas pedal and use your brakes to slow your vehicle or bring you to a stop.
• When the light changes to green, instead of pushing your gears, change each time that you can hear them approaching their limit, before you hear them screaming for the action.

Each time that you raise your engine’s RPM, your engine needs to work harder which means using more gas. Simply using your brakes and accelerating more comfortably are easy ways to reduce gas usage.

Swap the Warm Up

You were likely taught that you should allow your vehicle to warm up each morning before driving. And while the point of the lesson is solid, the lesson itself is a little misleading. Each morning that you warm up your engine, you are actually warming up the conventional oil inside it. Over night, when the temperatures drop, conventional oil thickens, leaving it unable to protect your engine. In order for it to become protective, it needs to be warmed up. Synthetic oil, on the other hand, has been designed to withstand low temperatures, which means that it maintains a protective consistency and is ready to protect your engine as soon as you are ready to drive. While it may not seem like much, removing 5 minutes every morning over the course of the year can add up to more than an entire day of solid driving and gas usage. Click here to buy Signature Series 0W-20 Synthetic Motor Oil and remove the need to warm up your engine each morning with a synthetic oil change. To learn more about the benefits of a synthetic oil change or for help placing an order, speak with an expert on the subject by calling Jim Ackney at (780) 476-0545, or feel free to browse the online store.

The Better Route

If you have a number of errands which you regularly complete each week then you have a great opportunity to reduce your gas usage by reducing the miles you drive and the amount of time you are stuck in traffic.

• Use a mapping service to give you an easy way to see which of your errand are close to each other.
• Rearrange your schedule to collect close errands together.
• Find the best route between each of the errands, both fewer miles and fewer instances of traffic.
• Identify places to park your vehicle and walk to complete some errands.

Simply optimizing your routes and schedule is a great way to reduce the number of miles your vehicle travels and needs gas for and the amount of time you waste gas stuck in traffic waiting.

Don’t Discount Your Windows

It is easy to simply reach for the air conditioning button each time that the temperature inside your vehicle rises. However, while it will make you comfortable, choosing an air conditioner over your windows isn’t always the best option. If you are traveling around town for the day, like grocery shopping or a school run, then lowering your windows is the best choice to make your vehicle more comfortable. By lowering your windows, you can facilitate air flow, pushing the hot air out of your car and inviting fresh air in. However, if you are traveling on a freeway, then lowering your windows can create a large amount of resistance, requiring your engine to work harder just to keep you moving. In this instance, choosing your air conditioner can be the best option as it allows your vehicle to remain streamlined.

Improve Fuel Efficiency with a Synthetic Oil Change in Edmonton

A synthetic oil change is a great way to improve your engine performance, facilitate smooth engine part interaction, and reduce gas usage. To find out more, speak with an expert at Jim Ackney by calling 1 (888) 476-0545 and ask about which product is best suited to your engine.