For Immediate Release
Car Care Canada Tips Can Help Save Money at Pump
June 7, 2010, Ottawa – Consumers’ chronic pain at the pump is returning with gas prices hovering near a dollar per litre and may even head higher with summer driving coming up. In fact, some regions are already much higher (Vancouver’s gas price has been $1.15 per litre for a couple of months already). Car Care Canada offers some simple and inexpensive vehicle maintenance tips for Canadians across the country to help alleviate the pain at the pump.
“You can’t control the price of gas, but you can control how much gas you burn by performing proper maintenance and how you drive. Performing simple and inexpensive maintenance can save as much as $1,200 per year in gas costs,” said racecar driver and Car Care Canada spokesperson Kelly Williams.
Car Care Canada offers these gas-saving maintenance tips:
- Keep your car properly tuned to improve mileage by an average of four per cent.
- Keep tires properly inflated and improve mileage by three per cent.
- Replace dirty or worn spark plugs as they causes misfiring, which wastes fuel and increases output of harmful emissions. Dirty and worn spark plugs can reduce mileage by .85 kilometres per litre.
- Change oil regularly and gain another .45 kilometres per litre.
Driving behavior also impacts fuel consumption.
Car Care Canada offers these gas saving driving tips:
- Observe the speed limit. Gas mileage decreases rapidly above 100 km/h.
- Avoid excessive idling. Idling gets zero km/h. Warming up the vehicle for one or two minutes is sufficient.
- Avoid quick starts and stops. Aggressive driving can lower mileage by 33 per cent on the highway and five per cent in the city.
- Consolidate trips. Several short trips taken from a cold start can use twice as much gas as one longer multi-purpose trip.
- Don’t haul unneeded items in the trunk. An extra 45 kilograms in the trunk reduces fuel consumption by one-to-two per cent.
About Be Car Care Aware and Car Care Canada
Be Car Care Aware is a campaign to inform Canadian drivers about the benefits of regular, vehicle care, maintenance and repair. The campaign's purpose is to empower drivers to make sensible decisions about their vehicles and avoid costly repairs due to neglect. Be Car Care Aware is spearheaded by Car Care Canada and built around three key themes: safety, environmental protection and maximizing value for money spent on vehicle maintenance and repairs.
Car Care Canada is a non-profit advocacy group that offers research, consumer education and information about the Canadian automotive aftermarket industry. For more than 15 years, Car Care Canada has been working to advance the motoring public's understanding of the vital importance of regular vehicle maintenance and how, by taking a preventative approach to vehicle care and driving habits, motorists can lower their maintenance costs and improve safety.
For more information or to arrange an interview:
Terance Brouse Senior Consultant, Xposure PR
