Driving a Prius to Teach You How to Save Gas

Gas prices are over $4.00 in Hawaii now! We're planning a road trip in a couple of months to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and shudder to think what our gas bills will be since we'll be renting a van to hold six people, a wheelchair and assorted grandchild paraphernalia.

We'll have to use all the techniques we've learned with our Prius to save on fuel.

Our town here on Oahu has a LOT of hills so we get only about 50 miles tops per gallon. Usually it's about 45. If we're in Honolulu, it'll be more like 54 miles per gallon.


Here's some stuff we've learned because Art is forever checking our mileage to see how many miles we're getting per gallon.

1. No jack rabbit starts or abrupt stops.
2. No speeding! The Prius shows us when we're using gas instead of battery and we KNOW going fast uses LOTS of fuel.
3. Don't top your tank because the added weight makes your car use more fuel to haul it. In fact, try not to keep heavy stuff in your car because it hurts your gas mileage.
4. Coast down the hill and go up slowly. We have to make sure nobody is behind us going up a hill or we'd drive them crazy. Art doesn't love it when I coast TOO fast down the hill to build momentum to go up the next one.
5. I saw some place where they said to make sure your gas cap is tightly closed because you lose a lot by evaporation.
6. Combine trips! We avoid going out for just one thing.
7. Experts advise you to use cruise control. We don't use it much in Hawaii since we don't drive very far.
8. Art avoids hills. If he can find another way to get someplace that's flatter, that's what he'll do.
9. From KathyG: "Use your air conditioner instead of leaving the windows open. It seemed counterintuitive the first time I heard it, but keeping the windows closed makes the car aerodynamic."
10. From Cousin Walt: "You should check your tire pressure and keep them topped up."

Do you have any other tips? Other than walking, I mean...