Trying to Look on Bright Side of High Gas Prices

As we continue to track the national average price of gas daily — $3.55 a gallon, according to AAA — it’s sometimes healthy to step back and realize that it isn’t the most expensive commodity we purchase.

This graphic from Good puts things in perspective, charting the price of gas in California against everyday items like orange juice and bottled water.

The full chart (below) will make you feel a little better until the next time you have to fill up your gas tank.

Gas Is Still Way Cheaper Than Water (Gizmodo)

Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Everything Old Is New Again

That’s at least when it comes to gas prices. The national average tipped past $3.50 a gallon this week, up about 12 cents from the previous week and up 76 cents from last year at this time.

Even though the circumstances behind the recent price spike are different this time, the end result will affect your wallet — unless you take some steps to save on gas. To help you out, we’re reviving the Gas-Saving Moment of the Day, an old favorite of ours that provided tips ranging from the mundane to the eccentric. Below are 10 favorites that can help you save some cumulative bucks at the pump:

Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Avoid Using Reverse 
Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Yes, Really, Check Your Tires 
Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: A/C vs. Open Windows 
Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Watch Out for a Cheating Pump 
Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Avoid Drag 
Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Lose Some Weight 
Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Everyone Buy a Hybrid 
Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Low-Rolling-Resistance Tires 
Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: The Four-Day Workweek 
Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Drive Slower

Tips for Saving Fuel Video, Revisited

Is it 2008 all over again? That summer, gas prices surged to the highest levels ever seen, with some areas of California topping $5 per gallon. While prices aren’t that bad yet — the national average is $3.28 a gallon — prices are climbing at an alarming rate, with a 6-cent jump occurring overnight Thursday.

During the two-year reprieve from unstable, pricey gas, you may have forgotten all those common-sense practices we gave to save fuel, so we’re dusting off an oldie here to enlighten us all. Watch as Cars.com Editor-in-Chief Patrick Olsen goes over some best practices.

2011 Begins With Gas Price Spike

Drivers across the country saw gas prices leap over the past few weeks, hitting a national average today of $3.09 for a gallon of regular.

“It sucks, but you have no choice,” said Curtis Carter, 32, as he filled up at a BP station at N. Clark Street and N. LaSalle Boulevard in Chicago. The Windy City currently has the title for the country’s highest recorded gas prices. This particular station was selling a gallon for $3.55.

“I do a lot of driving between here and the suburbs, but it helps that I’m driving this,” said Carter, nodding to his 1996 Toyota Tercel. “I still get about 30 to 35 miles per gallon, even in the city. I usually only fill up about once a week.”

Jake Wishnoff, 18, has a different take. “It’s definitely a burden financially. I live on my own, so this is terrible,” he said. “I knew Chicago had the highest prices, but even two months ago it was only at $3.15 or $3.20.”

For those who do not closely follow crude oil and gas prices, this price spike is not typical. Normally, fuel prices drop between November and January while hitting high tide in the late spring and early summer. For the past month, crude oil prices have hovered around $90 per barrel.

Shell Talks Gas Mileage and Latest Motor Oils

Motor oil is moving ahead to GF-5. Why should you care? Well, it went on sale beginning Oct. 1, it protects engine and emissions components incrementally better than GF-4, and it’s responsible for roughly 0.2 percent better overall fuel economy, Shell’s Jeffery Hsu said.

Hsu, a technology manager based at the Dutch company’s U.S. headquarters in Houston, works on Shell’s motor oil brands, which include Quaker State and Pennzoil. I caught up with him recently at a briefing for journalists in the Chicago suburbs.

With federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards pushing cars and trucks toward higher standards by the 2016 model year, Hsu said he’s never seen automakers come to the table looking for motor-oil providers to help raise fuel economy quite like they’re doing today.

Social Networking Site Tracks Gas Mileage

Fuel-conscious drivers now have an innovative new way to not only calculate and compare their car's mileage to others, but devise ways to raise their own fuel efficiency.

Fuelly.com lets you add your car to its system by entering the year, make and model, then tracks your mileage, gas expenditures, how your vehicle compares to EPA estimates and even how much money you could save by improving your mileage in different ways.

One of the most useful features is that you can see how your car compares to identical vehicles. If you're getting significantly poorer mileage, this can tell you a few things: For instance, maybe your driving habits are particularly lousy when it comes to burning gas, or maybe your tires need to be inflated or your air filter needs to be replaced. Whatever the case, fuelly.com could serve as a valuable warning system. Also, if you own an iPhone or another mobile device, you can update your remotely. Like while you’re waiting at the pump.

If anybody decides to try out fuelly.com, be sure to let us know in the comments if you find the site useful.

Fuelly Offers Social Networking for the Mileage-Conscious, Green Dragons (Jalopnik.com)

Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Avoid Using Reverse

The easiest example of this is in a parking lot at the mall or grocery store. It will save a small bit of gas if you pull through the parking space so your vehicle faces out. When you leave, simply pull forward and you're off. This won’t save you hundreds of dollars by any means, but it's an important part of being fuel-conscious in your driving habits.

Why is backing up so bad? Think about it this way: Do you enjoy creeping around parking lots in first gear? Of course not, and low gears make the worst use of fuel. Not only does reverse get poor fuel economy, but you’re often covering the same territory when you use it.

For example, backing up and pulling forward is twice the driving of just pulling out of the parking space and driving away. This may seem insignificant, but over the course of a year, better driving practices will add up.

Related:
More Gas-Saving Moments of the Day (KickingTires)

Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Teach Fuel-Efficient Habits

An easy way to save money while reducing U.S. oil consumption is to start young when it comes to having fuel-efficient driving habits. Changing the curriculum of driver's ed courses to include instruction for young drivers on how drive more efficiently would cost nothing and would save a tremendous amount of gas.

We've written before about how you can improve your fuel economy by adjusting your driving habits (and even devices that help you do it). Why not teach our fresh-faced youth that avoiding jackrabbit starts is as important as maintaining your hands at 10 and 2? Sweden has already begun implementing a similar plan, and you can bet a country that frequently sees gas prices higher than $10 a gallon has a decent idea or two about saving fuel.

Let us know what you think: Did you learn fuel-efficient driving techniques when you took your driver's ed classes? Would you support implementing such a plan in the nation's driving schools?

Sweden Requires Fuel-Efficient Driving Lessons (Morning Edition)

Related:
More Gas-Saving Moments of the Day (KickingTires)

Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Buy an iPhone

Seriously: Is there anything an iPhone doesn't do?

If you already own one or are considering caving to pop culture and corporate pressure and buying one, you can download fuel-saving applications for as little as 99 cents.

Some applications help you locate the cheapest gas in your area, gauge your miles per gallon, track your driving performance to tell you if you're driving as efficiently as you could be, and convert pollution into a clean-burning fuel that emits only dreams and pixie dust.

OK, I made that last one up, but still, the more information you can arm yourself with when it comes to your driving habits, the better performance you'll be able to coax out of your car. Plus, you can play Tap Tap Revolution when stuck in traffic.

5 iPhone Apps to Help Save Gas (Earth2Tech)

Related:
More Gas-Saving Moments of the Day (KickingTires)

Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Yes, Really, Check Your Tires

We don't like to get involved in political food fights, but the hash between John McCain and Barack Obama over checking your tire pressure has gotten fairly absurd, culminating in "Obama Energy Plan" tire gauges.

As we recommended earlier, keeping your tires at the proper inflation will improve your vehicle's fuel efficiency by 3% to 4%, according to the EPA, and yes, if every driver in the country did this it would save us more oil than can be found drilling offshore.

For instance, the Department of Energy estimates that, in 2005, Americans wasted 1.2 billion gallons of gas because of underinflated tires, which equates to roughly 61 million barrels of oil. Yet if the government opened every last spec of the ocean now closed to offshore drilling, the Department of the Interior estimates it would only find 17.9 billion barrels of oil, but not all at once.

This—after a minimum of five to ten years—would introduce only 200,000 barrels of oil per day to the market, or as the Energy Information Administration puts it, not enough to have "a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030."

McCain continues to ridicule Obama for the statement, but by the government’s own numbers, the Illinois senator is correct: Properly inflated tires could save around 305 million barrels before the first drop of oil stands a chance of coming out of the ocean.

The lesson? Actually put that tire gauge to use.

How Air in the Tires Became a Gauge of Candidates (Detroit Free Press)

Related:
More Gas-Saving Moments of the Day (KickingTires)