Beat The Summer Driving Heat - Should you let your car idle and more.

Half the country is currently in the grips of a major heat waves, with triple digit temperatures and heat indexes all across the nation.

We have to crank our air conditioners just to make driving bearable!

Most of us know that using the car air conditioner robs us of gas mileage. According to federal sources who study this kind of thing, cooling your hot car interior at MAX air conditioner will reduce your mileage by 5-25%. That could be as much as $16 or more per tank, wasted - not small change.

But what can you do? It's not like you can drive around in this heat wave with no AC.  The solution is to take other measures to help offset this loss of mileage.  Bell has done some previous blogs on this topic, but the advice bears repeating.

• Smooth acceleration and smooth stops can improve mileage by 5% around town and a whopping 33% (!) on the highway

• Excessive idling wastes gas. If you know you're going to be idling for more than 45 seconds, cut your engine off. 45-60 seconds is the point where it burns more fuel to start your engine than it does to keep it on and idle.

• Proper tire pressure - saves you gas and extends your tire life.

• Using Mix-I-Go saves up to 12% or more in fuel economy.