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CNN Sunday Morning

How Consumers can Cut Gasoline Consumption

Aired May 20, 2001 - 08:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: After paying record high electric bills, Californians, like the rest of the nation, also are paying high prices for gasoline. So how can motorists help themselves in cutting consumption of gas? For some insights, we turn to Garrett Townsend of AAA Auto Club right here in Atlanta. Thanks for joining us.

GARRETT TOWNSEND, AAA AUTO CLUB SOUTH: Hi. Good morning.

PHILLIPS: Good morning. I was reading some of your notes here on suggestions that we, things we can do right away when we get into our car. Let's talk about those.

TOWNSEND: That's right, there are a number of things that we can do to save fuel, whether we're going on vacation this summer or just driving locally. We want to make sure that our cars are serviced properly. And then as far as our air filters are concerned, that's something that a lot of us take for granted, but actually two times a year we change our air filters. Tires should be properly inflated. It's said that if they are under inflated, it could reduce your fuel, your miles per gallon up to two percent. So that's very important.

And then you want to check your owner's manual as far as the fuel requirements. Sometimes we could be putting a higher octane than what's required. We can save some pennies at the pump by putting the right amount of fuel in there. And then there's also jack rabbit starts. That's something we need to be careful on, those abrupt starts and trying to be the first one off the red light. That will eat up a lot of fuel.

And then finally, as hard as it may be to believe, we need to drive the speed limit. Driving 65 instead of 55 can really put a drain on our gas tanks. There's some very practical things that we can do.

PHILLIPS: Even warming up your car in the morning, I was reading, that's not even a good idea, right? I thought it was always good to warm up the engine for a little while before you go to work.

TOWNSEND: Right. That was always the thought, that we perhaps get in our car, warm it up for a few minutes and then go. But actually at that point, it burns a lot of fuel. Once we get on the road and we start going, those lubricants will go into where they need to be. So it's not necessary to do that two or three minute warm up like we used to. PHILLIPS: Now, Garrett, are cars being made in a more energy efficient way now, when the new cars are coming off the block?

TOWNSEND: They actually are. They're very fuel efficient at this point. So it's the -- of course, the SUVs, they're going to burn more fuel than your normal four door sedan. But they are. Over the past 20 years they've made many, a lot of strides to make them more fuel efficient.

PHILLIPS: Is there maybe an SUV that's a little more energy conscious than another one?

TOWNSEND: Not necessarily. There are the mini SUVs, as you hear a lot about, that have the smaller engines, the four cylinder engines. Of course, those are going to be the little bit more fuel efficient than the big eight cylinder SUV. But overall they do tend to burn more fuel than the other sedans.

PHILLIPS: Is there anything we can put in our tank or is that just a myth?

TOWNSEND: There are various things that they recommend that you can put in the tank. What's recommended really is just these very small practical steps that everybody can do rather than going out and spending more money and you're not necessarily going to get the return from that.

PHILLIPS: All right, what about purchasing a car. I was noticing you had some options that may impact fuel use when you're looking at a car.

TOWNSEND: Right. You'll notice that on the vehicles themselves there is an estimate of fuel usage. For instance, it's estimated over 15,000 miles what your average miles per gallon is going to be in the city and also on the highway. So what you want to do is you want to make absolutely sure that you're paying attention to that because that is going to be pretty close.

However, individual driving habits are going to affect that a notch or two, one or two the other way. But you want to make sure that you pay attention to that. Do your homework in advance. There are various publications that are listed. Even AAA has a publication that you can look at as far as average miles per gallon of the new vehicles.

PHILLIPS: All right, I've been a member a long time. I've always gotten great tips and great maps. When it comes down to it, though, are people really going to pay attention to these tips? I mean is it going to take gas being $5 a gallon before people really start paying attention or stop driving and maybe using mass transit?

TOWNSEND: Well, we hope that's not the case. We hope that people are paying attention now because actually whether the fuel is at the prices that we're paying now or whether it even goes down, these are very practical things that you can do. Everyone wants to save money. So whether you're paying $4 or $5 a gallon or whether you're paying $1 a gallon, you still want to save money. You want your vehicle to be maintained as best as possible.

PHILLIPS: So did you drive here today or did you take the MARTA?

TOWNSEND: I drove.

PHILLIPS: OK. All right, Garrett Townsend from AAA, thanks so much for the tips. Great insight.

TOWNSEND: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right.

And energy will stay top of the mind today. Energy Secretary Spence Abraham and EPA's Christie Whitman will take the tough questions later on CNN'S LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER. That's today, noon Eastern, nine Pacific. We won't talk about your new car and what a great gas guzzler that is, will we?

O'BRIEN: You mean the G.M. Zipca (ph), you mean?

PHILLIPS: Yeah, that's right.

O'BRIEN: Yeah, it's a small Third World nation.

PHILLIPS: Garrett's going to get onto you for that.

O'BRIEN: We ran into some neighbors last night.

PHILLIPS: Right?

O'BRIEN: They stopped our car to talk to us and the car went silent. And I said what's the matter with your car? He said it's a gas assist electric vehicle. Toyota makes it. He gets 45 miles to the gallon and it would fit in the back of the G.M. Zipca.

PHILLIPS: Is that a good idea, Garrett, those cars?

O'BRIEN: It was a very cool vehicle.

TOWNSEND: They're interesting.

PHILLIPS: OK, he says they're interesting. We'll get back to that.

O'BRIEN: He likes it. He swears by it.

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