http://evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1715

“America’s Irrational Petroleum Dependence”

“The electricity used to refine oil alone would power cars further than what’s in the rest of the barrel”

The only rational choice for a new car is electric.

The cruise control suggestion is not correct. Cruise control lets the car slow down, then slams on the gas, and repeats this over and over. This is the worst possible driving technique for improving gas mileage. I don’t know why this suggestions keeps appearing in these lists on how to save gas, because it is a myth.

For starters:

In the vast majority of vehicles we’ve tested, highway mileage is notably higher with cruise control OFF … but it takes an attentive driver to maintain this edge in efficiency.

The windows up/windows down, A/C on/off question depends on the specific vehicle. Some vehicles cut through the air at 65 MPH without a huge hit on aerodynamics …

A typical car wash lasting 10 minutes uses approximately 100 gallons of water. What if we could conserve hundreds of gallons of water in one week. Go to a local car wash that uses recycled water or use an eco-friendly waterless car wash.

It takes only 15 minutes, is effective and uses no wate

You missed a few points and were wrong on others.

When on the highway use your AC instead of opening the windows – open windows increase drag with a greater fuel impact than running the AC.

Keep your car clean — including the radiator and AC heat-exchanger and vents, dirt increases drag. Wax 2-3 times a year for even less drag (more abrades the paint.)

When approaching a stop, e.g., a traffic light, tailback, etc. try to slow down early and avoid coming to a complete stop, see if you can roll up to the light timing it to go green — this is because starting from stationary increases fuel consumption. Similarly in many cities the traffic lights are timed for a speed on major streets, like say 25mph — if you do that speed you will see mostly green lights and run at a smoother speed, reducing fuel consumption.

Jack-rabbit starts are pointless in most situations (maybe merging onto a fast highway is an exception) and they drink gas. Accelerate smoothly to your target speed.

In many cars, especially automatics, shifting to neutral while stopped at traffic lights rather than holding the car with the brake will lower your fuel consumption while reducing wear on brakes and gearbox — this is because you avoid making the brakes and engine/gearbox “fight” each other.

Buy a tire/tyre gauge and know how to use it — most gas station air-lines have wildly inaccurate gauges.

Learn how to inspect and change your own air-filter. It takes 2 minutes, but has a huge impact on gas consumption, especially in older cars. They can get very dirty between services, especially in high pollen seasons and summer — do it 3-4 times a year.

Practice calm driving — tests again and again have shown that frequent lane changing does not get you to your destination appreciably sooner.

Buy a really good sat-nav with live traffic updates and use it to avoid traffic jams.