Alternative Automotive

Check Your Tire Pressure Less air means more contact and friction between the tire and road, which wears the rubber faster, makes the engine work harder, and uses more gas, says Chris Johanson, author of Auto Diagnosis, Service and Repair. Just don't overinflate: The harder the tires, the less grip they'll have.

Rest Your Right Foot Cruise control applies the throttle more smoothly, reducing fuel consumption and increasing mileage. (And each 5 miles per hour above 60 is like paying 6 percent more per gallon of gas.) When you use it on long stretches of highway driving, rest your feet firmly on the floor to take pressure off your lower back.

Take Breaks One long drives, take at least one 10-minute break every two hours. The combination of tight hamstrings and the pumping of your foot can stretch your sciatic nerve and lead to chronic pain. Muscles are meant to stretchnerves aren't.

Lose the Junk Every 100 pounds you remove improves economy by 1 to 2 percent, so clear our your trunk and your backseat before you leave home. Both of them are preferable to a loaded-down roof rack, however, which can fuel economy by as much as 5 percent.

Don't drive too fast on your way home from work.

Fun Fact Friday! The average car has 30,000 parts.

Forget Your Schedule Trips usually take 10 to 15 percent longer than planned, says Leon James, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii and the author of Road Rage and Aggressive Driving. Accept this before you travel.

Get Some Support If your car doesn't have adjustable lumbar supports, buy your own backrestor simply roll up a towel and place it behind you to fill in the small curve between your waist and hips. The more you support your spine, the less your back will ache.

Be Careful in the Country Rural roads have a death rate 2.5 times higher than that of any other type of road. The reasons include dangerous, poorly marked curves, lack of streetlights, distance from medical care, and a higher percentage of alcohol-impaired drivers.

Empty Your Pockets The average guy spends 67 minutes each day behind the wheel. A thick wallet in your back pocket raises one hip above the other, twisting your spine and straining your lower back. Plus it can put pressure on your sciatic nerve, a common source of lower-back pain, says Stuart McGill, Ph.D., of the University of Waterloo, in Ontario.

Start Negotiating Your weapon: e-mail. Once you have quotes from multiple dealers, play them against each other. Don't set foot into a showroom until you know who's giving you the best deal. Remember: The dealer's first offeris always a bad deal. Tell him, "I need you to do better than that." See how low you can get the salesman to go before you give your opening offer.

Hit theNet Research your dream vehicle online and you'll spend 1 hour and 20 minutes less time at the dealership, according to a 2007 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research. Build the exact car you want at a site like Edmunds.com, and then use the site to request quotes from at least three dealers.

Roll em up! Nixing the AC lowers fuel consumption, but only if you're not driving on the highway. Otherwise, opening the windows uses more gas because of the drag you're putting on the car. Instead, run your AC in recirculation mode, which recycles some already-cooled air from inside the car, requiring less energy than completely cooling the air that comes in from outside.