Fuel Saving Tips

Know Your Vehicle’s Optional Equipment, Configure Appropriately

Learn and understand your vehicle’s optional equipment as it pertains to fuel economy, and configure it appropriately. For example, my Audi Q5 has a factory electric auxiliary heater. It also has a gauge to show you the real-time fuel economy impact of defeatable devices, such as A/C, seat heaters, window defrosters, and the aux. heater. The aux heater has only 2 settings: OFF or AUTO. In auto mode, it comes on when I could do without it, and stays on well after the engine has heated up. It costs as much fuel as running your A/C! I leave if OFF to save fuel, turning it to AUTO only as needed. But don’t sacrifice safety for better MPG.