How to Choose a Fuel Efficiency Car - Vol.125
Choosing a fuel efficiency car is important to many of today's vehicle owners. With gas prices continuing to climb, and drastically varying from day to day, a fuel-efficient car is important to almost every driver on the road.
If you are in the market for a new car, and hoping to find one that is fuel efficient, it is important to know how to choose a fuel efficiency car before you make your purchase. If you keep the following in mind, you may be on the right track to find the best fuel efficiency car for you.
Engine Size
The first thing you will want to look at when choosing a fuel-efficient car is the size of the engine. Typically, the bigger the engine, the less fuel-efficient it is. Therefore, if you need a big truck to tow your boat, fuel efficiency is probably not your biggest concern. However, if you drive a long distance each day on your work commute and are hoping to have something that will get you back and forth safely while spending the least money on gasoline, you will want to look at some of the best fuel efficient vehicles available. In addition, a bigger engine takes more horsepower to make it run therefore being less efficient that a smaller engine. On average, a 6-cylinder engine costs approximately $2,000 less per year in gasoline than an 8-cylinder engine. Getting a more fuel efficiency car means that you may give up a little "get up and go" to spend less getting there.
Type of Fuel
The type of fuel that the car takes is another consideration when choosing a fuel efficiency vehicle. For instance, if fuel efficiency is your chief concern, you may want to consider a hybrid vehicle. A hybrid vehicle can provide you with an alternative to traditional gasoline. Allowing you to "charge" your car and switch to electric can give you better gas mileage and make your vehicle more fuel-efficient.
All-Wheel Drive vs. 2-Wheel Drive
This option is something that many drivers do not put much consideration into. However, the all-wheel drive option is meant for cars and vans to have the best traction in all road conditions, something that a 2-wheel drive vehicle does not have. However, the all-wheel drive option is not considered the most fuel-efficient. If you are truly searching for the most fuel-efficient vehicle, you will find that the 2-wheel drive option is the best.
Transmission
Though most automatic transmission vehicles have been redesigned to shift automatically to increase fuel-efficiency, manual transmission vehicles are still considered the best option for maximum fuel efficiency. Again, the driver makes a difference. If the driver of a manual transmission continually races the engines, overdrives the gears, or "kills" the car, then they are not likely maximizing their fuel efficiency with their manual transmission. However, if they are driving properly, they can compete with or exceed the fuel efficiency of most automatic transmission vehicles.
Amenities
Amenities such as air conditioning, power everything, and sunroofs take away from the fuel-efficiency of the car. Therefore, with each amenity that you utilize you decrease the vehicle's fuel efficiency. This means that if you are looking for a highly fuel-efficient vehicle, you will want to choose one that does not have a lot of extras and amenities. Even the color of your car can make a difference in fuel-efficient – for instance, darker color interiors take more air conditioning to cool them and leather upholstery takes more heat to warm them. Therefore, overall fuel efficiency is affected by just about every option on your car.