Not a bad philosophy at all. I have an uncle that does the same. He says he doesn't even look at the price of gas either, or bother to even be interested. He says its fuel, you need it, not like you can go without it. Of course, he drives nothing but 2500 GMCs with the 6.0+ L V8s, so fuel isn't really a concern of his.

A/C tends to drain only 1 MPG from my gas mileage.

 

Yeah, I noticed a 1-2 mpg difference between using the A/C and just keeping the windows down. I actually averaged 14.2 with the windows down, and something like 12.9 with the windows up and A/C blowing.

 

When I turn on my A/C, I can watch the guage move . . . .

 

The windows down trick only helps MPGs better than A/C below or around in town speeds. I believe it was 45 MPH or a little higher is where the cut-off is. Above that, the excess drag caused by the windows being down is actually worse than the A/C.

Personally, I am willing to pay a few extra dollars at the pump for more comfort in my cab. However, that is just me, to each their own.

I hope you are kidding, otherwise I think you have your fuel line hooked up to the A/C compressor...

 

Tire size made a difference for me. I went to what I thought was a more Hi-way friendly AT tire 265/70/16 instead of the Offroad Mud tire 255/70/16 and I lost a couple of MPG.

I know it sounds crazy, but I went from getting 19-20 MPG to 17-18 MPG Freeway driving, but around town it stayed about the same 14-15 MPG.

For the record I use my A/C almost all the time except in the Winter.