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Hi, I'm new to the hypermile thing (just read about it yesterday) and I want to correct my driving habits, which are horrible. I drive a Jeep Cherokee and a Buick Century, and I was wondering if you can give me some basic tips or tell me where I can learn about the basic concepts.
Thanks for your time.

Welcome to CleanMPG!

One of the first things that will come up is getting www.scangage.com (http://www.scangage.com), so you can see what your car is doing. Then you will know how long it takes for your engine to warm up, and experiment on the most fuel efficient way to get to 60mph...

Hi JunkMan,

Start with this basic how-to article: http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/articles/t-beating-the-epa-the-whys-and-how-to-hypermile-1510.html
Feel free to ask questions. Many people here have improved their mileage and driving habits, with cars similar to yours. But adding a scangage will make the learning process a lot easier.

Welcome to CleanMPG JunkMan! I have a '92 Gran Prix which is kind of similar to your Century. We let my mom drive it most of the time but I do know that it has some pretty good potential. I drove it for a tank or two last summer and I got just over 27 mpg going to work and running errands. That was even before Xcel(Wayne) got me straightened out with my driving habbits.:D

Good to see you. I also drive a car that likes to consume fuel. I enjoy the challenge of getting the most out of a gallon.

The references in the earlier posts will probably tell you more than what I can - but I've rarely shyed away from opening my yap, so here goes...

ScanGauge is supported by OBD II which went into production in '94-'95 if I remember correctly. So it's a good thing but not for older cars. I don't know your cars' years.

If you have macho knobby tires on the Jeep (or on the Buick!) consider changing over to more of a "highway" tread. And I'm sure you'll soon discover, if you didn't already, that more tire pressure is a good thing, within the limits of what the tire can take. More air pressue = less flexing of the rubber = less work the engine has to do.

Thinner engine oil, also within the limits of what the engine specs recommend. For my local climate my car can use 10-30 or 15-40, so I use 10-30. Thinner, so less work for the oil pump and also less resistance for all the moving mechanical parts. You can read about oil and viscosity at bobistheoilguy.com.

And of course your foot is your biggest fuel economy asset. I can climb a freeway hill at 50 or at 70. At 50 I know I'm getting a lot more distance per bit of fuel. I chuckle at the overpowered SUVs getting 10 mpg and probably less than that on hil climbs.