What’s the fuss over fuel economy?

Dear Bob: I notice how much you stress checking gas mileage. I have never checked it, nor do I plan to do so.

Once you purchase a car, after researching all you can on it, you know within a certain range what mileage you are going to get, and nothing will change this!

This is assuming, of course, that drivers with the desire to diligently do the math at each fill-up already have the common sense about what hurts the gas-mileage potential of their vehicles, things such as tire pressure, tune-ups, towing and a gentle foot on the gas pedal. Then there’s the wind and uphill factors, which can’t be avoided.

After that, you’re only fussing over a few pennies that would hardly justify a person’s time. Am I right?

— Name withheld, Gettysburg, Pa.

A: You couldn’t be more wrong.

First off you say that, once you buy the vehicle, nothing can be done to change the range of fuel economy you will get. Then, in the next sentence, you go on to give a short litany of fuel-saving methods that you assume every driver knows and will practice. Boy, you sure don’t know American drivers, if you assume that they have common sense!

Then you list things that you say you can’t do anything about, such as wind and uphill driving. Surprise! There are indeed things you can do to offset the fuel-economy impact of both those factors.

It’s not uncommon for a driver schooled in the ways of good fuel economy to best by many miles per gallon the EPA’s estimates of in-city and on-highway fuel economy. You may feel that nothing can change this fuel-economy range, but I and many of my readers know better.

You can do much better than those EPA figures. Remember, they are only estimates — and you can beat those estimates each and every time you get into your car.

As for me, I like fussing. No, not over pennies saved, but over dollars saved each and every time I fill up.

Dear Bob: First, let me say that I am a faithful reader of your column.

A recent reader’s letter asked about the dash lights blinking on and off, and you mentioned that it could be a loose battery connection.

I think he has a loose main ground wire on the cluster-wire harness. The wire is attached to a mounting bolt above the driver’s left foot. I have fixed three or four of these on the Chevy S10, the vehicle the reader had a problem with.

I worked in the GM plant here in Janesville as an electrical repairman, and I found that we had more problems with bad grounds than with the loss of power.

— C.B., Janesville, Wis.

A: Thanks for the input. In this particular case it was indeed a loose battery terminal causing the problem, but it’s nice to know that there is another possible solution in case there are any more S10s out there with blinking dash lights and gone-wild gauges.

Dear Bob: I enjoy your column every week, and hope that you can solve my problem.

My 2004 Toyota Camry, with an automatic transmission, does not shift into third gear when I get on the highway on a cold morning. It takes a couple of miles before it will shift to third gear.

Is this normal for Toyotas? This is my fifth automatic-transmission vehicle, and I’ve never had this problem before.

Thank you.

— I.H., via e-mail

A: Having to travel for “a couple of miles” in second gear before the transmission shifts into third is definitely not normal.

Your Camry should shift seamlessly from the lowest gear the whole way up to the highest. Granted, it may be that on very cold mornings it could take a second or two longer for the transmission to shift from gear to gear. But a couple of miles? No way.

The vehicle should still be under warranty, so I suggest taking it back to the dealer to have this shift abnormality fixed.

AMERICAN DRIVERS FIGHT BACK

Here’s a tip that will help you get better gas mileage while fighting terrorism and cutting our nation’s dependence on Mideastern oil:

Awhile back Firestone conducted fuel-economy tests that convincingly demonstrated that radial tires improve gasoline mileage, compared to bias-ply or nonradial tires. Improvements in fuel economy ranged from 7 percent to 10 percent, depending on the speed of the test cars.

Translated into miles per gallon, this means that a car getting 15 mpg with conventional tires would improve to as much as 16.5 mpg simply by changing to radial tires. Projecting this further, if you drove the radials a full 40,000 miles, you would use 205 fewer gallons of gas. At $2 or so a gallon, that’s a savings of more than $400 in gasoline alone.

While most vehicles now come with radial tires as standard equipment, there are still plenty of bias and bias-belted conventional tires on the market. A switch to radials can be rewarding, especially if you do a significant amount of your driving on the highway, where radials really strut their stuff.