With gasoline prices up about 38 percent since February, fuel costs are clearly taking their toll on American motorists. How have gas prices impacted your household? How are you changing your spending and driving habits in reaction? How will it influence the timing for your next vehicle purchase and the model choice?

Also, please share your tips for  dealing with  increase fuel and related costs. We're interested in  reading your stories.

Jeff Bartlett
Deput Editor Autos, Online
Consumer Reports

So far I have chosen to drive less or visit places closer to home. I drive a 2007 Acura MDX that gets around 19 MPG in mixed driving. If prices stay high, I may consider switching to an Accord or Altima. So far the math doesn't work out that well for taking a hit on the SUV to get a sedan.

My wife and I drive our Acura TSX more often now than the SUV thanks to the gas mileage.

To lower has costs we use coupons from Cub Foods here to save $$ on each gallon (up to 30 cents). The American Express Blue Cash card also offers 5% cash back after minimums are met, a very nice automatic savings.

I know that this isn't actually about a car, but I just thought I would say that I am very surprised that MotoFino scooters are not on here. With gas prices soaring through the roof, MotoFinos are perfect for getting where you want to be. Of course with any product there will be occasional glitches, but from my experience the MotoFino staff has helped with any problem that I have had.  If I ever need any parts, all I have to do is call up the Motofino warehouse in Augusta,GA and they have all the parts in stock, if they aren't in stock at the time they are usually on that way.  While the scooters are Chinese, they are not your typical Chinese scooter. I recommend these scooters 1000%.

I bought a Saturn ION back in 2005 so I'm OK. Getting about 28 MPG with my lead foot

The single most $$$ saving step i have taken individualy has been to slow down.  After doing some tests of my own and having some friends try some as well, by simply driving at the posted speed limit i have been able to jump my mileage back and forth to work (~70/30 highway/city) from 21.5 MPG to 27.5 MPG in my 2001 Pontiac Montana van (V6)

here is what i did:

1. stopped my typical jack rabbit starts/stops

2. started locking my cruise control at the posted speed limit (most of my drive is 55MPH)

By merely doing these two things, i was able to get another almost 28% out of my mileage.  it is difficult at first to watch cars zip by in the left lane, but after a day or two i found the drive more enjoyable, stress free and of my 22 mile trip one way all i added was 2 minutes to my comute.  i used to drive 5-10 MPH over the limit with other traffic in the left lane on the highway.  i tested my new tequnique with a co-worker who typically drives 10-15 over.  we met at a starting point about 20 miles from work and i drove the limit and he drove his typical speed and i pulled into work 1 minute and 40 seconds after him.  Two things impact this

1-over short distances speeding buys you very very little time (time = distance/velocity  do the math yourself 20 miles at 55mph = .36 hours = 21.8 minutes whereas 20 miles at 65 mph = .31 hours = 18.5 minutes)

2 - if you have even just a few stop lights, your drive time will be greatly impacted by them.  on my 22 mile trip i have 4 lights that i may hit.  one thing i remember when i used to speed was that i would pass people on the highway only to have them catch up to me on the offramp stoplight - who looks foolish then? 

As a Mechanical Engineer i need to see the math behind this sort of thing and it is easily explained in the aerodynamic drag equation

Drag = .5 * Coefficient of drag * density of air * Velocity^2 * Area of shape breaking the wind. 

you don't need to know a lot about math or algebra to understand that the velocity term in the equation is squared meaning that the faster you go the more drag you have to fight exponentialy!  this is why freefalling objects reach a terminal velocity, the drag force equals the gravity force and their acceleration stops and they maintain the same freefall speed.  the same thing happens in your car, the faster you go the more and more power your engine has to provide to over come this drag force.  it doesn't take much power to keep your wheels spinning to keep you at say 55mph, especially on flat ground, most of your power goes into breaking the wind resistance, aka drag.

try it for yourself!  my friend did a little experiment driving 60 miles at 65mph on the highway after a fillup and filled up after the 60 mile and got 47mpg out of his new civic coupe (no AC, no extra stuff in his car, windows up!)

 

Since both my wife and I each live within 5 miles from our work, the gas prices have not impacted us much. Add to this the vehicles we own. She has a Honda CRV, I have a Toyota Corolla.

She averages 26 mpg. in the CRV and I average 32 mpg. in the Corolla. Also, I've been using my motorcycle (2007 Honda V-Star 650) that gets 50 mpg. Since we both like to travel frequently we have in fact ordered a new 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid. I figure this vehicle may not get the mileage that a Prius does, but when we travel I want to be comfortable and the Camry accomplishes this in spades. It should also be noted that Toyota builds both the Corolla and Camry Hybrid right here in the United States.

I honestly think gas could go even higher than what it is now and we would not be impacted directly at all. Indirectly however we are paying much higher prices for food and other goods, as it costs more to ship them.  This cost has not deterred us from eating out, however we didn't eat out frequently before.

We were thinking about flying to Mexico for vacation, but we don't want to deal with the "nightmare airlines" so we plan on taking our new Hybrid on vacation with us and will drive to a U.S. destination. At this point, I'd rather our money be spent at home anyway.

On a side note I think higher oil prices may in fact have a silver lining, as it's causing the majority of Americans to use less fuel. The sooner we start this process the better off we will be in the future. Just my opinion.

I have been in and around the Automotive industry all my life. I am 3rd generation in the "used car business" and have recently found something that really has worked for me.

Currently I drive a 2001 PT Cruiser with a 2.4l 4cyl equipped with an automatic. When I purchased the vehicle 18 months ago I did not realize that they came in 2 flavors (17mpg and 20mpg). I was averaging 17mpg and as I drive 60,000+ miles a year every mpg counts. I have tried every "wonder product" that has come down the pike. As I grew up in the business I have seen loads of them come and go. I found one that has worked for me. I have a client that owns a Limo service and he told me about it. I tested it for 10,000 miles and found that I went from 17mpg to 20 mpg. I also have really been working on my lead foot also. I get on some of these country roads and the locals pass me when I am doing 80! So I have been using cruise and the FuelMiser that I bought and tested and I now am getting 23mpg. That has made a huge difference in my monthly fuel bills (for a while it looked like I owned stock in Exxon the way I was going through gas).

I have since put a FuelMiser on all my personal vehicle as well as my families and office staff. They all are also listening to me preach about speed and driving habits (combining runs to the store/soccer practice/dry cleaners ECT). So far they too have seen increases of 10-18% in their fuel savings also. For those interested I had to dig like crazy to find a website that sold the FuelMiser (  the mfg is using Dealerships to distribute their product) and I finally found www.o2ez.com it looks a little hokey, however they had the product to me in less that an week and it took my mechanic 15 minutes to install. The corp site is www.fuelmiser.net.

I am not here to endorse or promote anyone’s product! I have never done a reply like this; however this whiz gig has worked fantastic for me and so far has saved me over $600 since I had it installed in Feb. You might check with your local car dealer to see if they have it in their service dept.

Best of luck my friends, we are all in this together and REMEMBER the pedal on the right is not intended to stay on the floor!

Create-A-Great-Day,

Tom Hampton

Good Day !

In our city, the various local TV stations have been "raving" about this new, wonderful "E85" cheaper gasoline, without any of the needed cautions or added comments regarding the technical facts associated.

This Must be used strictly in a "Flex Fuel" designated vehicle or, there will be permanent harm done, far in excess of the savings per gallon!

Additionally, our local lawn care companies + some individuals have had their equipment ruined this season by the usage of the same E85 .... leave this "nonsense" alone other than in specifically intended, usually all-new vehicles only.