In reading many articles and listening to the auto experts on the morning news, it has become painfully apparent that the new trend in driving is driving in a manner that will save fuel.  This in itself is a great idea if you are doing things like keeping your tires properly inflated and replacing your fuel filter when it is necessary and just keeping your car in optimal condition with proper maintenance.

There are some other good tips that don’t have much to do with auto maintenance, like reducing the weight inside your car by cleaning out the trunk.  Just by taking out the golf clubs and two bowling balls will increase your fuel efficiency by up to 2%.  Smooth and easy acceleration from a stop light helps a little, too, as does reducing your air time, meaning don’t use the air conditioner if you can help it.

But some of the tips that are being given by these auto “experts” are downright dangerous.  Slow down, they tell us.  Slow down to what, exactly?  People are taking this tip to the extreme and driving 45 miles per hour on a highway with a 65 mile per hour speed limit.  This causes other drivers to become angry and aggressive, which could cause accidents.  And, what about the woman on her cell phone trying to buy new shoes with her credit card while applying mascara and driving at the legal speed limit?  If she happens upon that person doing 45 mph, she going to hit him.

Another one of those tips is using cruise control to improve fuel efficiency.  Sure, cruise control might help keep you from putting your credit card into the pump as often, but it is just as dangerous as going too slow, but in the opposite way.  You aren’t going to cause an accident because somebody else isn’t paying attention, you are going to cause the accident when you are using your credit card on the cell phone and you don’t see the stopped traffic ahead of you.  People are even using cruise control in the city!  Cruise control is not safe to use in heavy, stop and go traffic or even in heavy traffic on the freeway where the patterns change so often. 

The worst tip that is being given to improve fuel efficiency is to follow closely behind semi trucks to reduce the air resistance on your car.  Come on, are you serious?  65 mph, using cruise control, on the cell phone, with a credit card, behind a semi truck – can you see where this is going?  Neither could the person who no longer has to worry about fuel efficiency.