Pain at the Pump

So we just got a new (used) car.
The mileage for our new car as turned out to be 11kpl (kilometers per liter). I've heard that the price of gas will be going up to about 186yen per liter. Our old car had a diesel engine and got a little better than 12kpl. Our new car is going to cost us more to own, not to mention the cost of buying it.

Have you done anything to try and save money since the price of fuel has risen so much? We are driving less and trying to drive as economically as possible. By changing my driving habits I have increased the mileage of my work vehicle from 9kpl to over 12kpl. I usually put 40 liters of gas in the tank when I fill it up. That means that I can drive about 480km on a tank of gas. Before I could only drive about 360 km on a tank. That is a difference of 120km! It works out to about 600yen difference per tank of gas at current prices. I usually use 12 tanks of gas a year. So that would work out to about 7200yen a year in savings, not to mention the reduced CO2 emissions. That also means that I can travel 1440km more per year using the same amount of gas.

This has made me think that it should be required that everyone learn how to eco drive. Especially public employees who are using vehicles bought and maintained by public money. They should be required to learn how to drive economically and they should be required to drive that way, keeping logs of fuel economy with fuel economy targets for each vehicle. We are shutting the lights off and turning down the airconditioning and heating. Why not? There is a hybrid vehicle in the office fleet. I never drive it but I asked one guy what it's gas mileage was. He said 13 or 14kpl. ???? Only 13 or 14kpl!? My 1989 Mazda Familia is getting slightly better than 12kpl! Obviously the people driving it are not concerned with fuel economy.