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So high gas prices have finally driven me to do whatever I can! A little info:

98 Mazda 626 (4 cyl) with ~185k miles
Wife runs errands during the day, I deliver pizzas at night.

We spend approx $300 per month in gas.

Car averages about 20 city and 25 hwy.

I know it can do better.

Just got a SGII and it's been helping ..

Hi and welcome to the site.

You should be able to pick up more tips here to raise your FE even higher. I would think that you should be able to get your intown FE up into the 30's with some work.

Do you have a manual or automatic transmission in your car?

Welcome to the club. To start, have you pumped up those tires to max sidewall psi?

Welcome to the club! Patience and practice are the order of the day. And, asking tons of questions.

Do you have a manual or automatic transmission in your car?

Automatic, the dreaded CD4E transmission (which probably has nothing to do with FE, but is notorious for expensive failure)

Welcome to the club. To start, have you pumped up those tires to max sidewall psi?

Not yet.. I've got 2 new tires, 1 old tire, and 1 VERY OLD (i haven't checked depth but it's way overdue) tires.. I want to get at least the oldest tire replaced before futzing with pressures. Right now i'm set to spec for my car (32f/26r)

Hi and welcome to the site.

You should be able to pick up more tips here to raise your FE even higher. I would think that you should be able to get your intown FE up into the 30's with some work.

I did some reading around here, and adopted a couple things:

* Looking ahead farther and coasting (in neutral) more.
* Idling less in front of the store
* Exchanging the lead in my foot for some helium.
* Lots of cruise control.

... and had managed to go from 18 mpg to 23 mpg (according to top-off calculations, didn't have my SGII yet). Lately I've been averaging 20 while delivering though (according to SGII) .. Trying to find a happy mix between FE and being quick (since delivering is semi-competitive .. faster you get back to the store, more deliveries you take in a night)

There may be a few mechanical issues too .. Like the tires.. I may need an alignment (I don't think i've ever had one done since I've had the car in june '05) .. Front d/s wheel bearings are bad .. One of my cylinders misfires (only under heavy acceleration from a stop though .. but it may still be affecting things) .. Overdue for an oilchange (doubt that affects it much)

for your trips, if you do get in the market, a prius would do very good and if you can manage to keep it in ev mode as often as possible, that would net you the greatest gains.

as for your current car, getting used to the lights is good, moderate at a certain rpm, and check your routes to see which has fewer lights, instead of cruise control (cc) you could pulse and glide, that would help significantly, you could actually travel at a higher average speed and have lower fuel usage doing this.

I delivered to someone who had a Prius last night .. It's very tempting to try to save up (i'm on such a tight budget thouhg) and buy one .. I'd be afraid of running it into the ground very quickly.. I can EASILY put 60-100 miles on my car per night delivering 5-6 nights per week.

that car wiill last you some time, there is a record on here of someone going up to about 350k miles and had an accident which ended the life of the prius, so....they don't just fall apart.

Once you get your tires inflated to the max sidewall you'll probably see your numbers jump 2 or 3 mpg.

A Prius might not be a bad idea just because you can still put 50k on it and sell it for nearly the same price you paid for it. Also the way they work, since it's split up between the gas motor and the electric motor, the gas motor gets less wear and tear on it compared to 50k miles in a regular car. And the way the brakes work is that when you use your breaks, it just does regen, and only applies the actual break pads if it'd a really hard break. So that means even less wear and tear.