Gas mileage tool

Everywhere I go it seems like THE hot topic is the gas efficiency. It's not too surprising -- at $4 a gallon and no end in sight, it costs a crazy amount to fill up a tank.

And of course the Internet is reacting to this as well. There's a new Web site available called GasEdge ( http://www.gasedge.com/ ) that looks like it'll come in handy in conjunction with (relatively) Cheap Gas Tuesday and Thursday. You enter the distance to your local gas station and its distance and price, and the cheap gas station and its distance and price. Enter your car's MPG and tank capacity, and GasEdge will tell you if it's worth it to go to the cheap gas station, and if it is, how much you'll save.

Speaking of mileage, I've been hearing the term "hypermiling" a lot lately. Hypermiling is the practice of using certain driving and car maintenance techniques to get the absolutely best gas mileage possible (This is somewhat controversial, as some of the techniques used can be considered safety risks.) You can read more about it at Wikipedia's hypermiler entry. There's also CleanMPG and and this article from Edmunds.

Some of these ideas -- like making sure you don't have a bunch of heavy stuff in your trunk -- are interesting. But I think I'll skip driving with the AC off and the windows rolled up. I won't be able to enjoy my enhanced MPG if I've melted.