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Robert Cahill/Mechanic Bristol Arnold puts the finishing touches on a repair job at his shop in the Allisons Gap community of Saltville.

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Mechanic shares gas-saving strategies

Writers Note: We talked with a few folks this week to get a general idea of the effect increasing gas prices are having on area residents and to garner suggestions for a few ways readers can save money on their driving every day as well as while on vacation.

By ROBERT CAHILL/Correspondent

Jeremy Ferguson is a nice guy. The Meadowview native is self-employed. He, along with a couple of helpers, operates Lawn Specialists, a business providing full-service lawn care to residential and commercial customers. According to Ferguson, he has customers from “Chilhowie to Kingsport (Tenn.).” He said he tries to keep his prices reasonable, enough to make a living and still be affordable for his customers. Asked how many yards he mows a week, he smiled, wiped the sweat off his face and said, “In weather like this it seems like about a million.” Like for most people, the rising cost of fuel is impacting Ferguson.
His problem, Ferguson said, is that he has to quote prices at the beginning of the season and then live with them all year. “These (rising) gas prices are hurting everybody. How much has it hurt us? It all depends. On a (residential) yard like this some, not too much, but some. But you get one of the big commercial lots and it’s more,” Ferguson said. “That mower (a large commercial-type) has a 22-gallon gas tank on it. We have to fill it up at least twice a day, every day. And that’s just one mower. (He uses two large mowers, along with a number of regular mowers, string trimmers and grass blowers, all using gas.) So yeah, with gas going up, it’s hurting us, there is no doubt.”
Joey Sword is a Saltville native who, along with her family, now lives in Abingdon. After years of education, training and hard work, she finally landed her dream job. She is the head of human resources for Radford University. The job comes with a drive of 92 miles one way, yet she believes it is worth it to make the 184-mile long journey each day.
Asked about the rising cost of gas, she readily acknowledged the problem. “Oh yes, it definitely hurts. I’m lucky, my car gets about 38 miles per gallon (on the highway) and it is interstate almost all the way to my office. But since I started there (a couple of years ago), the cost of gas has more than doubled. When you figure that we state employees (Radford is a state university) never get more than a 2 or 3 percent raise every year, yes, the cost of gas is definitely cutting into my income.”
Michael “Bristol” Arnold has loved working on cars since a he was a young boy. A few years ago, the mechanic gave up a job as a crew leader in the Norfolk Shipyards to return home to Saltville. He eventually opened his own business, Bristol’s Garage in the Allisons Gap community of Saltville, which he and his son Chris, also a mechanic, operate.
“Yeah, these gas prices are hurting everybody,” Arnold said. “But it’s not as bad for us as it is a lot of people. I could walk to work if I had too (his home is less than a mile from his shop, and his wife Karen works within a couple of miles as well), but it’s causing the price of everything else to go up, so it definitely hurts everybody.”
Bristol, as he is best known, took a few minutes from a busy afternoon to brainstorm on a few ways for the average person to save money by getting the best gas mileage possible when driving.
“Well, the first thing I’d recommend is to drive like there was an egg between your foot and the gas pedal,” Bristol said. “Keep a light touch and only use enough pressure to maintain driving speed. And use the brakes sparingly. Let up on the gas far enough ahead to ease through a curve, instead of waiting until the last second and jamming on the brakes. Then ease back up to speed.”
“That’s right,” Bristol’s son, Chris, added. “And, like they say, don’t jackrabbit. That’s blasting away from a stop with the gas floored.
“Use your cruise control as much as possible,” Bristol said. “It helps your mileage a lot. And drive the speed limit. Keeping a consistent speed, within the limit, gets you your best gas mileage.”
“Another thing is keep your tires at the proper inflation. Look in your owner’s manual or inside the driver’s door frame and have the tires inflated at whatever pressure the factory recommends. You’d be surprised how much that helps gas mileage,” Bristol said. “Another easy thing to do is keep clean air and fuel filters. Your engine needs clean filters to run right and running right gets you better mileage.”
“Something else I’d recommend is keeping your engine tuned up,” Bristol continued. “I know they say cars today don’t need a tune-up until they hit 100,000 miles, but I don’t agree. I tune my own at about 70,000 and I’d recommend that for anyone else too. I’m talking complete tune-up, sparkplugs, filters, everything. And that’s something else, be sure and use the proper weight oil, whatever weight the factory calls for. Using the right oil helps your engine run right.”
“Keep your car serviced at whatever intervals the owner’s manual says.  If it says change the transmission fluid and filter at 25,000 miles, then change it then,” Bristol said. “You’d be surprised how many times we get somebody coming in here with 102,000 miles (or more) on their car, transmission is slipping and they want us to change the fluid and filter for the first time. It’s too late then. Do it when the manual says. In the long run, you’ll save money on repairs and your car will run better which means better gas mileage which saves you more money.”
“Another thing, if you’re going on vacation, pack everything inside the car, those car-top carriers cause a lot of wind drag, which kills your gas mileage,” Bristol said. “And one last tip, you see people driving around with their windows open because they think they are saving money by not using their air conditioner. Well, they’re not. Air-conditioners now use very little power to work and besides, the drag on the car created by air coming inside and hitting the rear window hurts your mileage a lot more than running the air. So go ahead and use the air, you’ll feel better and get better mileage too.”