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car so 10 minutes of idling will cost you the same equivalent of driving for 15 minutes. By reducing the idling of your vehicle you will on average save 10-15% of the gasoline consumed.

- Air Conditioning. It's nice to drive in a cool vehicle during the summer heat but you can achieve the same effect by rolling down your window and let the hot air escape the vehicle. I had seen motorists crank up the air conditioning to the max while driving with open windows. Big mistake.

Vehicle running the air conditioning will rob your engine on average of 5-10% of its horsepower. This will cause your vehicle to burn more gasoline. Therefore wherever necessary minimize the use of air conditioning.

- Other items that will increase fuel consumption. Many of us use our trunks as a storageplace. We drive around with all kinds of unnecessary items stored in our trunks or inside our vehicles. More weight you add to your vehicle more gasoline will your vehicle consume to drive you around. Remove items you do not need to be in your vehicle. Your vehicle's fuel consumption increases by about 1% per every 100 LBS of weight so while you may be thinking few items stored in your trunk make no major difference in how much your vehicle will burn of fuel, over the course of the year this will add up.

2) Keeping Your Car in Shape

Keeping your car in shape will not only extend the lifetime of your car by preventing major and expensive mechanical breakdowns but it will also greatly improve the fuel mileage of your vehicle.

-Air Filter. Average cost of an air filter is about $15 to $20 or less. Dirty air filter may increase fuel consumption of your vehicle by up to 10%. While some newer studies show that the fuel consumption is not dirrectly affected by the state of your air filter they do confirm that the dirty air filter will increase the acceleration time of your vehicle. And since the fuel consumption increases drastically while your vehicle is accelerating, it all leads to same. Clean fuel filter will improve the fuel economy of your vehicle either directly or indirectly.

You should change your air filter every time you change your oil or at least at minimum once every 12 000 miles.

-Fuel filter. A bit more tricky to change many people do not change them often enough or change them never. Fuel filters are meant to stop micro debris and impurities floating inside the fuel tank (rust, debris, etc.) from reaching the combustion chambers of your vehicle. They should be changed at least once every

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