How to Maximize Your Fuel Efficiency in a Non-Hybrid Honda

The sharp rise in gas prices over the last decade has made improving fuel efficiency more important than ever.  Though hybrid models offer the best fuel efficiency overall, not everyone can afford a new car or the premium price that has to be paid for a hybrid.  Fortunately, there are some little things that you can do in your own non-hybrid Honda that will decrease fuel consumption and keep more money in your pocket.

Stay On Top of Maintenance
Every vehicle requires regular maintenance to maintain optimal performance levels.  The schedule for maintenance varies from model to model, but there are some general guidelines that you need to follow.

• Change the oil every 3,000 to 5,000 miles – When the engine is well lubricated, the parts move freely, and less energy is wasted getting them to move.  Over time the oil breaks down or becomes full of tiny particles that inhibit the lubrication of engine parts, and the only way to restore efficiency is with an oil change.
• Change fuel filters – Like your oil filter, which is changed when you change your oil, your fuel filter needs to be changed on schedule.  A clogged filter causes the O2 sensor to incorrectly read the fuel mixture as lean, and the car’s computer will compensate by dumping more fuel into the system.  This excess fuel is wasted and drains your gas mileage.
• Check tire pressure – Tires with low pressure create additional friction between the rubber and the road, which means the engine has to work much harder to spin the wheels.  The sidewalls will have a recommended pounds per square inch (PSI) level for your tires, and you need to check them every time you put gas in your car.  The Federal government estimates that a drop of a single PSI per tire can result in a 0.3 percent loss of efficiency, up to a total of 3 percent overall.

Drive Slower
Consumer Reports did an extensive test to discover the correlation between speed and fuel efficiency and proved that exceeding the federally recommended highway speed of 55 miles per hour greatly decreases your fuel efficiency, with little benefit to drive time.  The government’s fuel efficiency website gives a complete breakdown of the costs by make and model.  For instance, a 2014 Honda Civic can save up to $2.21 per 100 miles traveled just by slowing from 75 miles per hour to 60.

Stop Idling
A final small change that you can make is to stop idling your vehicle.  Estimates vary, depending on the size of the engine, but most vehicles will waste about half a gallon of gas every hour spent idling.  The numbers climb even higher when air conditioner use is taken into account, such that the 3 minutes you spend idling in a McDonald’s drive-thru lane will cost you about $0.15 in gas.  Though this number seems small, when you consider how many minutes a day you spend idling, waiting for your kids outside of school or for your spouse to run in and out of the store, the cost per day is significant.  Over the course of a full year, you could be wasting hundreds of dollars on fuel and destroying your car’s fuel efficiency.

Maximizing fuel efficiency can be done with a little bit of effort on your part, but you may find that your 30-year-old car still doesn’t get adequate mileage.  When that’s the case, Norm Reeves Honda in Cerritos has one of the biggest selections of hybrid and non-hybrid Hondas in Los Angeles.