Putting the tiger in your tank on a diet

June 11, 2008 at 1:19 am in Driving

BOTTOMFEEDERS GUIDE TO LA: Easing the Pain at the Pump

Newhall Pass by respres

Of course, we know that bottomfeeders truly worth their salt take the bus or ride their bikes. But for those of us who spend a good portion of each day tooling around in not-so-smart cars, it’s hard to be a bottomfeeder at $4.50 a gallon. To help us out, Wired has some hypermiling hints as does ecomodder.com. Of course, in reading these lists, one wonders which is more dangerous in LA–drafting behind big trucks, a maneuver that I am told is also a winning strategy for “Mario Kart,” or driving the speed limit and coasting to stops. Take ecomodder’s advice, “drive like you ride a bike” at your own risk, people. And when you do have to fill up, there are a host of websites that can help you find the best spot at which to do so. MSN has a handy map with the cheapest and most expensive gas proximate to your zip noted (HT: Bargain Hunter), and Gas Buddy is like a bottomfeederwiki for gas (HT JavaJunkee).

If only stocks would perform like gas prices, huh?

7 Comments »

http://frazgomeanders.blogspot.com frazgo

That is an interesting post. A few of the practices are outright illegal and dangerous. Coasting neutral with engine off is a biggy, as you lose your power steering and brakes.

A lot of it is just common sense and I have to laugh when it has to be put in print somewhere. Speaks volumes about the average intelligence, n’est-ce pas?

For the most part it reads like a Great Depression survivors guide and rehashing of the stuff back in the 70′s when we experienced our first run up with doubling and tripling of gas prices. We survived then and we’ll survive this one.

Common sense is what it takes folks. I think this is time to quote the immortal Jason Burns “LA is a world class city and deserves a world class transit system”.
heatseeker

Yeah, I can run out of gas driving around looking for the cheapest station. Just this monday I sat at a light, and watched in disgust, as a
gas station attendant changed the prices on the spot, from $4.45gl to
$4.49gl. Holy Crap.
heatseeker

BTW, look for $6.00gl by the end of summer. Don’t be shocked.
robb

I just drove from the Bay Area back home to LA on I-5. And I gained about 2 mpg in my Honda CRV simply by setting the cruise control to 77 instead of driving at 85-90 like I usually do.
take2la

NO DOUBT. COMMON SENSE.

Twice in the last week, at traffic “hour” I’ve experienced the most selfish, self centered LA motorists. Once, two west-side BIMBOS parked in the left lane on Wilshire Blvd, discussing who scratched whose Mercedes, stopping traffic to a crawl from Westwood to Santa Monica.
Then yesterday, some nitwit stalled & sitting there in the right lane of Wilshire at Sepulveda. JUST SITTING THERE. It took longer to get from 26th ST to Sepulveda than it took to get from Sepulveda to VERMONT. These people should be fined, plus reimburse all the rest of us for our WASTED GAS. Next time you see this, demand their credit card #. Right There On The Spot. Pay-at-the point-of-annoyance.
thurmanoliver

i’ve gotten on board with some of the hypermiling stuff recently, going 55 on the freeway, neutral down big hills and off-ramps, etc. i have drafted a couple of times but that works a lot better on highways where the truck isn’t gonna jam on his brakes…you gotta be on your shit if you wanna try it out here…
thurmanoliver

oh, and i’m probably up 4-5 mpg which works for me…

Putting the tiger in your tank on a diet

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