Tips for Getting The Best Gas Mileage

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Granger Motors MPG Tips Des Moines Moms blog

Gas is expensive. As moms, it can feel like we’re living in our vehicles — transporting our little ones to school, soccer practice, and playdates — and the pump seems to suck our wallets dry. 

We’re all for mom hacks that save money, so here are our five tips for getting the best gas mileage out of your vehicle.

  1. Pump ’em up! Your tires are the only point of contact between your car and the road. Tires are responsible for keeping you on the road, so they should be soft and sticky, providing resistance as you drive. By pumping up your tires to the manufacturer’s maximum recommended pressure, you can lower that resistance and get a few more miles-per-gallon (MPG).
  2. Drop some weight. Don’t go throwing out your spare tire or anything, but you can grab quite a few MPG by shedding unnecessary weight from the car. Any boxes of junk that may be sitting in the trunk (aka: the Goodwill donation pile that you keep carting around), anything that has been in the car over a week, anything that can leave the car will make a difference. With less weight, your vehicle needs less fuel and power to get up to speed.
  3. Get a tune-up. An often overlooked part of MPG is the engine’s efficiency. If the engine isn’t burning cleanly, then you’re just doing all this work to get back to level. Take the car to a dealership that specializes in its make (or a shop that you like) and ask them to do a once over on the engine, cleaning out any gunk they find. A finely-tuned engine will run longer — and more efficiently — saving you money in the long run.
  4. Align your goals (and your tires). Tires are important, which is why we keep coming back to them, so make sure that they’re all pointing the same direction. A misaligned car can not only cost you in having to buy tires earlier, but it can cost you in MPG, too. Even a slight misalignment can cause enough drag to sap valuable MPG from your vehicle. If you can feel that your car is driving a bit funny, the problem may be even worse. Take your car to a dealership or alignment shop to get your car back on the straight and narrow.
  5. Drive happy. A light foot will make the most difference for you when you drive. By not driving aggressively, we can avoid unnecessary acceleration which wastes gas and braking, which wastes the speed we just built up. Using a light foot can yield amazing results, like in this test by BBC’s Top Gear, in which they pit a BMW against a Prius for fuel economy.

Take these tips into consideration when you step into your car, they may just save you a couple bucks next time you fill up.

#mominateGranger Motors is a family-owned business and part of the Iowa Auto Dealers Association. An Italian family started the business in 1918. Granger Motors has been located in Granger for close to 100 years. From its humble beginnings, it has grown to serve most of the Des Moines area as well as customers outside of the state of Iowa. Granger Motors does not ever want to become the biggest Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, or Ford dealership out there, but they would like to be known as the best. That is their goal and they hope you benefit from the Granger Motors Difference!

A team of professional, fun, and friendly employees is the secret to Granger Motor’s success. Their dealership is different in that their employees enjoy a long average tenure at the dealership and enjoy working in a family environment. The passion and dedication that each employee invests is a vital part of the overall dealership success and what keeps our loyal customers coming back.

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