It’s high time to experiment.
A couple years ago, I had a 2003 Honda Civic. Factory spec says it should get about 33-35 miles per gallon on the highway. When Hurricane Katrina blew in and made a mess, gas prices shot up to just shy of where they are now. So I tried a little experiment, and found that I could wring nearly 40 miles from a gallon of gas - in mostly city driving - by adjusting one thing:
The nut between the steering wheel and the seat.
My current vehicle is a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer ES, about 40,000 miles on the clock. I’ve established that under most common driving conditions it gets around 30 miles per gallon, give or take. During the last couple of months the amount of lead in my foot has varied, depending on where I had to be and by when; and it’s still gotten pretty close to 30MPG.
This week, I’m going to do the same thing I did with the Civic and see what happens. Take off gently, accelerate slowly, don’t go much above 45MPH, slow down either by engine compression or by putting the transmission in neutral and coasting, drive without air conditioning when possible (I’m in South Carolina, so that WILL matter!), things like that.