Posted by Brian Carr

Have you ever been told that you drive like a grandma? If so, good for you! If not, after reading this, you might want to change your ways. At first glance this should seem like an insult, however, I fully believe it should be taken as a compliment. What “you drive like a grandma” really means is that you’re a cautious driver that gets the most out of your vehicle’s gas mileage.

However, for those of you who drive like speed demons, here are the top five reasons why your grandma gets better gas mileage than you:

1. She goes from 0 to 60 in 12 seconds . While it’s certainly annoying to gets stuck behind a little old lady that takes a while to get up to the speed limit, it’s probably a heck of a lot better for your gas mileage than the way you usually drive. Using moderate acceleration, as opposed to simply flooring it or accelerating so slowly that you bog down the engine, is a great way to maintain peak gas mileage.
2. She obeys the speed limit . According to FuelEconomy.gov, for every 5 mph you drive over 60 mph, you’re essentially reducing your car’s gas mileage by 8%. While in most instances you’re probably not going to drive right at the speed limit, the slower you drive the better your gas mileage tends to be.
3. She never leaves the right hand lane . According to Edmunds.com, weaving in and out of traffic does not significantly reduce your travel time, so not only does this mean that she’s not driving at Mach 4 zig-zagging through traffic (and subsequently saving gas), it also means that her drive is probably a lot less stressful.
4. She keeps the inside of her car immaculately clean. She doesn’t carry around golf clubs in the trunk of her car, there aren’t three or four CD books lying around, any of that extra stuff that needlessly adds weight to her car.
5. She doesn’t drive a truck or an SUV. As I’m sure you’re well aware, SUVs and trucks, due to being less aerodynamic and heavier than “regular” cars tend to get relatively bad gas mileage. Because your grandma never felt the need to be cool and get a Hummer H2, she’s probably getting much better gas mileage than those of us who went ahead and purchased a gas guzzling vehicle.

I guess the phrase “you drive like a grandma” isn’t so bad after all, especially when it means you’re improving your car’s gas mileage between 5% and 15%.