Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Forget Tilt-Up Mode on the Moonroof

We've written before about the drag created by opening the moonroof, but at least that’s preferable to using the tilt-up mode.

Be assured the gas-savings you'll get from never using the tilt-up mode are Minimal, with a capital "M." However, it makes us question what really is the purpose of moonroofs’ tilt-up mode. It doesn't add a cool, refreshing breeze inside the car, it's obnoxiously noisy, and our staff felt overwhelmingly indifferent to its existence.

This begs the question: Why does tilt-up mode even exist? Simply to create unnecessary drag that burns more fuel? For smokers?

Let us know if you do use the tilt-up option regularly and, if so, why?

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Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Mix Your Octanes

Today's gas-saving moment comes courtesy of Cars.com senior editor Joe Wiesenfelder, who has an interesting idea about octane ratings. We mentioned before that unless your car "requires" a higher octane, you can go with the cheap stuff. Even if it's required, though, you can consider splitting your octanes.

According to Wiesenfelder, "Yes, most cars can run on regular, but some cars require premium and some drivers insist on using the recommended octane.

"To that end, I’ll use Chicago as an example. We get a choice of 87, 89 and 93 octane, but the overwhelming majority of cars that call for premium want 91 octane. That means there are people out there who pay extra for 93. There is zero benefit to running any car on higher octane than it’s spec’d for.

"It was probably too much of a pain before, but with pennies being squeezed, it might be worth people’s while to fill half with 89 octane and half with 93. The result is a tankful of 91 for less money."

How much less money? Not a fortune certainly, but when evaluating how to best pinch your pennies, it's good to check out every last nook and cranny for savings.

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Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Take a Caroliday

What, you might wonder, is a "Caroliday"?

From Seattle to New York to Beijing, local governments are testing ways to get residents to keep their cars parked. In Seattle, the mayor has announced car-free Sundays, encouraging people to stay home or use public transportation on Sundays. In New York, an entire swath of Park Avenue will become a car-free zone on weekends in August. And thanks to the Olympics, the Chinese government has restricted the days drivers can take to the road so athletes can cross the finish line without sucking in a lungful of Beijing's "unique" air.

Simply put, a caroliday is a vacation from your car, and you can implement it in your own family. Even if it's only for two carefully selected days each month, plan and set aside days when no one will drive anywhere for any reason (short of an emergency). Take the opportunity to spend some quality time together, go for a walk, explore your neighborhood — just don't get in the car.

The more carolidays you take, the more pleased you’ll be each time you do drive and see the gas needle remaining surprisingly high.

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Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Watch Out for a Cheating Pump

Gas pumps can tally your bill incorrectly due to shoddy maintenance, defective parts or incompetence on the part of the station. Here are four screw-ups to look out for.

• Watch for the nozzle clicking off but the meter continuing to charge you money. It should only be a few pennies, but it happens with some frequency.
• If the meter says gas has been pumped before you even pull the handle, this is because of a worn interior part. When you hit the activate button, the pump draws in a bit of gas to prime itself, but this should not cost you anything.
• Occasionally, the pump will simply give you less gas than it's charging you for. This can happen for several reasons and there's not much you can do about it other than keep a watchful eye.
• Although this is less likely than the first three, sometimes gas station personnel will forget to change the road sign advertising their prices. As everyone knows, gas prices change daily, so simple human error can leave you holding a gas receipt that seems too high (or, if you're lucky, too low).

The easiest way to catch any or all of these miscalculations is to stop pumping gas when you reach 10 gallons. The price should 10 times the amount of one gallon, which means everything is honky-dory — or at least as honky-dory as things can be with gas in the $4 a gallon ballpark.

4 Ways Gas Pumps Screw You (The Consumerist)

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Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Await Innovation

As with a few previous posts, we will admit that today's moment will not have an immediate impact on how much you spend on gasoline. Automakers, however, are diligently working on numerous innovations that will increase mileage in years to come.

One of the most promising developments is a new thermoelectric material designed by researchers at Ohio State University and Caltech in Pasadena. These scientists noticed that while 25% of an engine's energy is used to move the car and run accessories like the power windows, the rest simply piddles out through the exhaust pipe.

With a new thermoelectric system in place, heat exhaust would be captured and converted to electricity, which could power a vehicle well beyond the gas in the tank. The technology has been around for a while, but with oil at $20 a barrel, the economics never worked in innovation's favor.

The larger point is that automakers are now racing to increase vehicle efficiency, so if you can just hold out a few years (perhaps five in the case of this thermoelectric system), the car you buy in 2013 could be considerably more efficient than the one you buy in 2009.

New Material Could Help Stretch a Gallon of Gas (Reuters)

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Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Find a Scooter

If you do a lot of city driving, buying a highly efficient scooter for warm-weather months makes a good deal of sense. Scooters can get upward of 90 mpg (sometimes well over 100), they're cheap to insure and are perfect for making short jaunts across town.

You can get your hands on a decent used model for around $1,500, and even the most expensive — which are more like small motorcycles — only cost around $6,000. Scooter sales are up 24% compared to this time last year, and the industry thinks that has to do mostly with high gas prices. This makes sense because sales of less fuel-efficient bikes, like those sold by Harley-Davidson, are down 23% this year after continuously hitting record sales year after year for two straight decades.

It's important to keep in mind that scooters usually top out around 45 mph and are ideal only for street-to-street, gridlocked city traffic. You also might find them severely lacking in safety features (the one they have is called a "helmet") and a very poor choice for winter. Still, for saving gas money on a short commute, it's hard to beat a scooter.

More Are Scooting to Save Gas (CNN)

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Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Check Out the Gas Station Car Wash

In a tight economy, luxuries always get scaled back. Let's face it: Unless you're professionally buffing cars for the showroom, you don't really need that weekly car wash.

In fact, car wash businesses across the country are particularly hurting as customers resort to other methods of cleaning (such as a garden hose, waiting for rain, ignoring how dirty the car is altogether). This, however, could be to your advantage.

If and when you finally decide to get that car wash, make sure to use one that’s attached to a gas station. These stations often (if not always) discount the price of gas when you also buy a car wash.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that you shouldn’t buy a car wash just to get your gas reduced by a few cents. The math won't add up in your favor. It only works if you wait to fill up and wash at the same time.

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Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: If it Sounds too Good to Be True

Look, we all want cheap gas, but there are no shortcuts.

We've already told you to beware of products that promise to increase your mileage and gas credit cards that promise big savings, but there are a couple of other snake-oil sales you should be aware of.

First of all, you know those internet pop-ups that offer you absurd deals, like "Fill out this questionnaire and get $50 of gas”? Well, even if you're well aware that those are all hogwash, be on the lookout for the non-cyber equivalent. In particular, a company called RadioGasDeals.com has radio spots that offer to lock in the price of gas at $2.49. The company has come under the scrutiny of the Better Business Bureau (not to mention the fact that its parent company FreeZone has eight different, progressively shadier names under which it does business).

Secondly, online auctions for gas coupons or rebates are a fantastically bad idea. They’re rife with counterfeits and coupons that have a lot of fine print attached. Just ask yourself, "Why would this person want to sell a $50 gas coupon for 10 bucks?"

Our advice is not particularly brilliant, but it's tried and true: If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

4 Gas-Saving Deals That Rarely Pay Off (SmartMoney)

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Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Lose Some Weight

Remember how we told you that added weight in the car could cost you mileage? Well, we're not just talking about the golf clubs in your trunk.

In 2006, studies by the University of Illinois and Virginia Commonwealth University determined that today’s drivers’ added weight is responsible for 938 million extra gallons of gas a year compared to their forebears in the ‘60s.

Since 1960, the average weight of an American has increased by 24 pounds. Each extra pound in the car, times all the cars on the road today, accounts for more than 39 million gallons of gas a year. Factor in the average 24-pound body-weight increase, and that’s nearly a billion extra gallons of gas based strictly on the additional body mass of the American populace.

Look, you've been meaning to get in shape anyway, right? What better time than now, when it will save you money at the pump?

Study: Weight Gain of U.S. Drivers has Increased Nation's Fuel Consumption (Green Car Congress)

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Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: Pay Cash

This gas-saving tip does not mean you should always pay cash, so pay attention.

Some gas stations are offering reduced gas prices for customers who pay in cash. This is because when you pay with a card, the credit-card company is skimming 12-15 cents a gallon off the top, which comes directly out of the retailer's pocket.

Therefore, it makes sense for them to offer a 7 to 10 cent discount to customers who pay cash. Again, this tip is only good for gas stations that offer the discount. If not, then you're just saving the station a few cents rather than yourself.

Therefore, go to the ATM before you fill up. Pay in cash and save yourself a few bucks whenever you can.

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