May 2008:  Pump Prices, Your Money - Do the Math

Care for your car. Regular maintenance and tune-ups, changing the oil and checking tire inflation can improve gas mileage, extend your car's life and increase its resale value. It also reduces traffic congestion due to preventable breakdowns and it could reduce your car's emissions by more than half.

Avoid excessive idling. It gets you zero miles per gallon.  Learn more about idling.

Put out the light. If your car’s Check Engine light keeps coming on, it’s trying to tell you something. When a vehicle's "check engine" light is on, it usually is an indication of significant problems with the emissions control system and/or other systems detected by the vehicle's onboard computer. Visit your local service center and “put out the light.”

Don't top off the tank. It releases gas fumes into the air and cancels the benefits of the pump's anti-pollution devices. So stopping short of a full tank is safer and reduces air pollution.

Motivation: Motivation to change how we have always done things comes at different times and in different forms. As consumers, we are all price sensitive with differing levels of tolerance of the “pain” when price for a particular commodity increases. Historically, money is a big motivator. And you know “It doesn’t grow on trees”.

Gasoline is one such commodity. As price increases, alternatives to low-mileage vehicles become increasingly appealing to consumers. Automobile manufacturers, as have consumers, have taken note and are responding accordingly.

All motivation, however, is not always simply about cost. Care and concern of our health and environment (i.e., air pollution) is an important social issue for many. According to one source, for every gallon of gasoline that is consumed, approximately 24 pounds of global warming pollutants are released into our air.

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