<h3>The Problem: You are stuck with a Gas Guzzler</h3> With gas prices near record highs, work-from-home orders fading away and travel restrictions a thing of the past, the monthly cost to fuel your car is reaching your pain threshold. You come to realize that your last car purchase was based on the premise that gas could never go beyond $3.50 per gallon. Well, it's time to adjust fire. You grudgingly decide to trade your gas guzzler in for a hybrid or, better yet, an electric car. Congratulations on your change of heart! Unfortunately, you will have to be patient for another 6 month or longer before your new ride shows up at the dealer. What can you do in the meantime? <h3>The Solution: Optimize your Highway speed</h3> One very effective way to reduce your fuel consumption is to adjust your highway speed to values close to your car's optimal traveling speed. For sedans, this value is somewhere around 50 mph. Trucks on the other hand, due to their poor drag coefficient, see their best mpg around 25 mph. The following graph will illustrate this relationship: [caption id="attachment_193" align="alignleft" width="1112"]<img class="wp-image-193 size-full" src="https://frugalfinesse.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/speed-vs-mpg-1.png" alt="speed vs mpg" width="1112" height="955" /> Fuel consumption versus speed of a typical truck and a sedan. You can find the Highway fuel consumption of your car <a href="https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/browseList.jsp?src=feg">here</a>.[/caption] <h3>Example: Truck vs Sedan</h3> Sedan owners benefit from a generally better fuel consumption across the board. Moreover, they can adjust their speed to values close to the optimum without hindering the flow of traffic significantly. A speed reduction from 75 down to 60 mph will yield <strong>25% in fuel savings</strong> - nothing to sneeze at! Driving your truck at 25 mph on a highway is only an option when the flow of traffic allows for it. Still, due to trucks' abysmal overall fuel consumption, owners of such vehicles benefit the most from a reduction in highway speed. For instance, a Ford F-150 will gain 7 mpg when slowing down from 75 to 60 mph. This is equivalent to approximately <strong>35% in fuel savings</strong>! <h3>What about Traveling Time?</h3> Yes, you will arrive a bit later. But not by much. Going with the example from above, a speed reduction from 75 to 60 mph for 10 miles of highway driving will have you get off the highway 2 minutes later. If that has you arrive late for work, just leave 2 minutes earlier. And yes, consequently, this will have you get up 2 min earlier as well. But consider the following <em><strong>Extra bonus:</strong></em> Your chances of getting a speeding ticket or involved into an accident have gone down as well! <h3>Summary</h3> In return for leaving a couple of minutes earlier on your commute, you will <ul> <li>save 25-35% fuel cost on your highway driving,</li> <li>get fewer or no speeding tickets,</li> <li>be less likely to have an accident.</li> </ul>
