Non gas guzzling want a be new be here

[wnsbuckley]

Hello,

I have lived most of my life in VT and in 2 weeks I pack up my family in two cars and a moving company and move to NC. Money as you can imagine is tight since we are moving because of my wifes job and I had to quit my job and I will have to find something down there when we get there. I have a house up here and with the economy it is not selling. We own a 2008 Saturn Aura automatic 4 cylinder and a 2007 Saturn Vue automatic 4 cylinder. We will be packed to the hill and my wife will have one child and I will have the other. Is there anything I can do for my trip to save money?

[Project84]

tires at max sidewall psi, drive when there is the least amount of traffic to get in your way, draft when possible and do it safely, 60mph or less on highways, have the Aura follow the Vue.


<---- saturn owner myself!

[theholycow]

You definitely want to increase your tire pressure, not just for fuel economy, but for the extra weight you're carrying. If you're afraid to, click the tire pressure link in my sig and read about it.

You should definitely be able to do some drafting. There's a thread titled something like "To draft or to slow down?" which does a very good analyzation of safe and effective drafting practices. To sum it up, draft clean heavy long trucks at a 2 to 3 second distance. Any closer reduces your gain as well as being dangerous.

Do your Saturns have tiptronic, paddle shifters, or other comfortable ways to control shifting? Try to keep in the highest practical gear.

Plan your route efficiently so you don't drive any more miles than necessary and stay on low-traffic highways as much as possible. Use websites such as gaspricewatch.com to find out where your next gas stop will be.

Remove FM antennas and anything else that's sticking up (that's assuming that you'll be able to fit all your stuff inside). You may find that you get decent FM reception without the antenna, or you may find it easy to relocate the antenna under the hood / in the trunk.

You've got two weeks, if you have some time to hang around here, keep reading what's posted.