Old Husband's Tales

So something I believed for years has been debunked. I had always heard that to conserve gas, you should keep your car windows closed (it creates aerodynamic drag), and to try not to run the air conditioning too much.

Well evidently Consumer Reports and Edmonds actually put those myths to the test. They found that running the air conditioning actually resulted in savings, but only about 1 mile per gallon. That's it. And they found that having the windows down didn't have a measurable effect on the fuel economy, even at highway speeds.

They also debunked the old myth about how restarting your engine uses more gas than letting it run (I actually never put that one to use). Well it turns out that with the modern engine, you actually save gas.

Last week I saw a news story about a guy who gets about 59 mpg just by turning off his engine regularly while driving. Of course, he also gets the finger a lot for coasting at such low speeds.