Fuel Economy Tips

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Your vehicle's weight (especially in city driving) and frontal area (especially in highway driving) are the two largest contributing factors.
Your engine is a major contributing factor.
The most efficient mass-production engines are petrol engines under a litre displacement, turbo-diesels under 1.4 litres, standard diesels and electric hybrids. Out of these, turbo-diesels tend to be the most efficient in terms of power per unit displacement. However, if acceleration rates were not to concern you, a standard diesel engine is the most efficient per litre displacement.
Ensure the air pressure in your tyres is correct.
Avoid abrupt acceleration and deceleration; accelerate as gradually as possible (especially uphill), try to keep a stable speed, time your movement to minimize slowing (especially complete stops), and coast whenever possible.
If driving a car with a manual transmission use the highest reasonable gear; shift up early and shift down late. Temporarily shifting to neutral on a sufficiently lengthy downhill grade will dramatically increase mileage for carburetor cars, while cars with fuel injection - or carburetor cars with a fuel cut-off solenoid - will benefit more from the fuel cutoff when the car is left in gear.
Make sure your car's engine is well tuned.
Do not carry unnecessary loads in the car.
Driving at high speeds with the windows open creates a lot of aerodynamic drag, which lowers fuel efficiency. However, driving at low speeds with the air conditioner OFF and the windows open can improve fuel efficiency.
Do not let the engine idle unnecessarily. Unless in traffic, turn it off whenever it is unused for more than 10 seconds.
Use air conditioning sparingly and try setting the temperature control higher. It is estimated that the air conditioning running at "Max" setting can lower fuel efficiency by 5-25%. If travelling at high speeds, however, the drag due to an open window may consume more fuel than operating the AC sensibly.
Avoid driving at high speeds. Gasoline powered cars operate with maximum efficiency in the highest gear at the lowest speed in that highest gear without engine lugging. This effect is largely due to aerodynamic drag. In highway driving over 80-90 km/h (50-55 mph) (depending on the car's aerodynamics; low for small, aerodynamic cars and high for SUV, trucks), the aerodynamic drag will rise sharply and so rises the fuel consumption.

Want to know how much fuel your vehicle is using?
See the Fuel Economy Calculator.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Fuel efficiency".