Fox News' eco driving tips
Wow, this is strange. The video is a Fox News radio PSA with tips on changing your habits to help combat climate change. Well... not climate change exactly. The PSA actually says even if you disagree with the concept of global warming you can still be more thoughtful and change those wasteful ways. Fox knows its audience.
The PSA, at about 1 minute and 45 seconds into the video, actually has tips for green driving. A tune up can save you 4 percent. Air filter 10 percent. Inflated tires help. They even talk about UPS trucks avoiding left turns. It's all apart of something called Cool Change but I can't seem to find too much (link is to pdf) about it. [Editor's note: try here]
Along with car tips, the PSAs also suggests buying Silent Spring and Gore's book. Water saving tips like rain barrels... all from a network that has consistently denied global warming. Rupert Murdoch is actually very green. News Corp is carbon neutral.
[Source: Youtube]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bolhuijo 1:41PM (8/14/2007)
Don't worry about your air filter unless it's actually clogged. That air filter advice is from the days of carburetors. Every modern engine measures the airflow that comes through the air filter and injects the appropriate amount of fuel to achieve optimal combustion. Cruising efficiency is not affected at all by a half-clogged air filter. Full-throttle power is definitely hampered by a clogged filter though, so keep a clean one if you need every last HP.
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steven 2:00PM (8/14/2007)
Shameless plug for someone else's book...
I saw this book on MotoroWeek last week and it has a lot of REAL good tips too, like the left turn thing, and keeping your foot off the brakes (though this might be an negative issue with hybrids???) There is a lot more that tune up, air in tires... Stuff you may not ahve thought about, like backing into your parking space, making the furthest stop on your list of errands first. If you don't have a hybrid, but do have a trip computer that shows MPG, you can REALLY see how much gas your car burns when it is cold. (NO don't idle it up to temp first, that gets ZERO MPG)
http://365waystosavegas.com
Of course if you are a doubter, you're not allowed to do anything to try to save fuel and therefore $$$, because if you do, we know you're just tying to save money for something the rest of "us" would find a way to pooh-pooh and otherwise criticize you efforts as self-promoting..
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Lascelles 3:16PM (8/14/2007)
Steven, I saw that segment. I just posted a video of Motorweek on Ford Escape hybrid too. Love the show. I have the book. I am going to review it soon. I will bump it up for you. I was actually going to review Car Free City first. The book is just one page tips so I was a little worried how much I could list and it would not be that interesting an article.
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Chris M 12:47AM (8/15/2007)
To clarify an issue: Avoid unnecessary braking. That applies to hybrids as well, as regenerative braking is not 100% efficient, some energy is lost. Of course, regeneration is much better than throwing away ALL the energy of momentum via non-regenerative braking!
Although regenerative braking is one way to recharge the hybrid battery, you don't have to brake to recharge the battery, as hybrids also have generators to recharge batteries. The driver doesn't have to worry about it, the hybrid controls takes care of it, automatically.
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bill 2:51PM (8/15/2007)
How about we mandate manual transmissions only for all motor vehicles? A skillfully driven manual transmission equipped car is going to be considerably more economical than an automatic transmission connected to the same engine. Example - I averaged 37 mpg with a 1994 Honda Civic Coupe with a 5 speed manual transmission. The same engine with an automatic transmission in a Honda Civic 4 door sedan has averaged 32 mpg under the same driving conditions.
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