I realize this may not be an option for many of you, but if it is you might want to seriously consider moving closer to your workplace or changing jobs to work closer to home. If you can work from home, even for only several days a week, the savings could be worth any potential pay cuts. Many employers now offer the option of telecommuting your work projects via the Internet.

When you also consider the time savings of a shorter commute this option may be your biggest savings of all.

You don’t need a big gas hogging 8 cylinder car to have fun at the track.

Check out these two top picks from Garage 419

Both cars are turbo charged four cylinders and under $25,000.

Great for the road or the track.

Sure it looks Cool…

It even sounds Cool…

But…

What kind of gas mileage does it get?

We all want to save money fuel. Especially with today’s high gasoline prices and heavy carbon footprint.

Using Cruise control whenever possible will save you more than just a speeding ticket.

Proper Tire Inflation

One thing that people often forget is that the tires on their car are vital to the safety of the driver and their passengers.

In fact, most people only consider their tires when they have to get through an MOT – and all that matters then is being road legal.

But there’s a lot more to tires than keeping the occupants of the car safe.  Having properly inflated tires will decrease your car’s rolling resistance and make the fuel efficiency of the car far better than if your tires don’t have enough pressure in them.

This rule applies to the hybrid car as much as the conventional car. The only difference with a hybrid is that you’ll be increasing your fuel efficiency on two fronts as the mere fact of driving a hybrid is that as it’s got a dual electric-petrol power source, you use less fuel in the first place.

Some people find the prospect of checking their tires such a chore that they just push it to the back of their mind and don’t do it; but once you have done it a few times and established a routine, it should only take a few minutes.

Plan to do the tire check once a month, and combine it with a trip to fill up with fuel as pretty much every fuel station has an air pump available for public use. Consult your owner’s manual to check what PSI you should have, and then just top up each tire to the requisite amount. Whatever brand car you have, whether it’s a Honda, Ford or VW, they all include this information in the driver’s manual. However, if you’ve had the car a while and already changed the tires, or bought it second hand, your car may have different tires than the manufacturer equipped it with. Double check this. Don’t rely on the PSI stamp on the sidewall of the tire itself, as this indicates the maximum pressure the tire will stand – which is higher than the PSI recommended for safe driving.

Remember, when you take the tire pressures, the tires should be cold as warm tires will register with a higher PSI. This figure will be inaccurate when the tires cool down. So do the check before, rather than after, a long journey.

As well as checking the tire pressure, you should also check that the tire tread is greater than the legal minimum. In the UK this is 3mm, but in the US, this varies from state to state, so check with your local garage.

Checking your tires needn’t be a chore, and doing it regularly will offer you a double reward of protection and better fuel economy.

Related articles

• Ways to Make the Car you Drive more Green (gogogreencars.com)
• Best Sites for Buying Tires (verybestsites.com)
• Choosing the right tire type
• Touring Tires
• Proper Tire Inflation

Although mass production and use of solar cars is still a long way off.  It’s nice to see that Toyota has taken the first steps toward the use of solar energy to replace fuel consumption on it’s eco-friendly Prius.

The solar panel roof option will be available this Spring, and will power a cooling system without power from the engine.  The solar panel will provide energy to a ventilation fan that will help keep the car cool on hot sunny days.

I’m of the philosophy of “every little bit helps”.

Whatever we can do to make even a small step in preserving the environment and lowering our carbon footprint is worth at least a few minutes of our time. Going green is about taking multiple steps in the right direction.

If you don’t have the money to go out and buy the latest hybrid but still want to “Go Green”, there are a few things you can do today to help lower the fuel consumption of your car.

And then of course there is always recycling used car parts… a great way to save money and the environment.

Ethanol has become all the rage here in the United States and some people believe it is the answer to dependence on foreign oil, however is corn based ethanol really good for America. There is no question it burns cleaner and is far better for the environment than gasoline, but is it worth the cost to the economy and food supply?

Are there better ways of helping the planet? Things like recycling plastic, paper and used car parts.

Here’s a quick and fun look at Corn-based Ethanol

Dang, if only I hadn’t spent my last $750,000, I could buy myself a really cool solar car. Who knew that with a bit of cash I might have been able to drive almost 2000 miles at 75 miles an hour with using any gas. I guess I’ll have to wait until I get another $750,000 to try out this beauty.