Evening star., 1923-09-30
ECONOMY IN FUEL
NEEDOF CARQWNER
"Tip" Volunteered by Ma
tionaI Motorists Association
Addressed to Affiliated Clubs

''Now is the time for the car owner
to learn to economize on fuel" warns
the National Motorists Association in
a statement just sent to IT'S affiliated
clubs. numbering more than 800
throughout the country.
The gist of the National Motorists
Associations Tip" is that if, while
gas prices are low, motorists get into
the habit of being thrifty consump-
tion of fuel will not increase in direct
proportion to the increase in cars and
the law of supply and demand will
insure continuation of the down.
ward trend, or at least lessen the
Possibility of an increase in prices
THE natural tendency when prices
sag is to waste gas" says the Ma
tional Motorists Associations state
ment. The lower price of gas at
present, discounting certain local ir-
regularitieS created by unnatural and
temporary forces. is due to an excess
of production over consumption, and
it is quite evident that if consumption
is now radically increased through
waste the surplus will vanish and
prices will naturally go high again.
This is all the more probable, owing
to the fact that in addition to the
actual wastage of gas and the enor-
nous increase in the use of fuel oil
for heating purposes the refiners have
curtailed production of gasoline.
Motorists Doubtful.
Motorists. however, are not en-
tirely clear as TO how they can save
fuel. The average car owner thinks
he has gone his limit if he sees that
the carburetor is properly adjusted,
that there are no fuel line leaks and
that he does not let the engine idle
unnecessarily. He does not know
that the greatest fuel waste is the
sum total of the seemingly inconse-
quential forms of waste.
HE does not know that the faster
he travels the more it costs, nor that
there is a difference between twenty
and thirty miles per hour sufficient
to cost an additional dollar per thou
sand miles for car that does twenty
miles to the 20-cent gallon at ten
miles per hour.
Assuming that a million motorists
during the course of a year each drive
1000 miles a a speed of thirty when
twenty would be just as satisfactory.
it is evident that a million dollars
worth of gas is wasted on this one
count alone
Starting cold engine costs any
where from two to four times the
normal cost of gasoline per mile.
which in the case of car normally
doing ten miles per hour means fire.
from to cents per. mile for fuel
costing 20 cents gallon
THE gasoline engine requires ex
cess gas consumption in starting, but
the large variation is largely due to
the wide difference in carburetor ad-
justments, preheating arrangements,
adjustments of the choke and skill of
the driver in starting. The cost of
starting most cold motors could be
cut at least so per cent.
Every opportunity for starting the
motor without choking il, and every
chance to make one stop In parking
serve for two. means saving gas. A
machine that requires a gallon of gas
to twenty miles will consume a gal
Ion of gas in approximately fifty
startings. which add up very quickly
when a machine is careleSsly used
about town, particularly in cold
weather.
There has been entirely too much
talk about the cost of the idling en-
gine. OF course. this is a useless
process when idling is unnecessary.
but the wise driver will use little
judgment about this matter when he
is told that a car averaging twenty
miles per gallon will idle approx
mately three and one-haf hours on
gallon.
"One manufacturer recently showed
that with an easy clutch motorist
Coulu colhIoItdply coast one lhhu VI
the way on every trip. Coasting,
however, is not always practical nor
safe, and it frequently places too
much burden on the brakes; but the
average driver could coast much more
than he does without running into
any of the disadvantages"
Regardless of how the fuel situ-
alton works out, the foregoing sug-
gestions of the National Motorists
Association should prove of value to
motorists. The most logical time to
learn to save is when the price of
the particular commodity is low. 1t
eases the shock of any increase in
price.