Allison Dinner/Getty Images Any time gas gets expensive, you're guaranteed to see a flood of articles promising a long list of ways to save money on gas. Actually click on them, though, and a lot of it is the same recycled advice that's about as basic as advice gets. Did you know that if you drive really fast on the highway, you'll get bad gas mileage? Or that if you combine trips, you'll drive fewer miles and burn less gas? Shocking, I know. I'm sure every now and then, a few readers find some advice they hadn't heard before, but I can't imagine many do. Which is, of course, where Jalopnik should come in. We're the best scrappy little car blog that G/O Media ever sold to another giant media company, and people looking for the kind of advice they won't find anywhere else should be able to find it here. We have a huge community full of some of the sharpest minds in the auto industry, so surely, we can come up a list that's less cliche than what you normally find on the internet. The people need new ways to spend less at the pump. Now, that doesn't mean your suggestion has to be practical, ethical, or cost-effective. I never even said it had to be something you'd try yourself. For example, on Friday, a U.S. appeals court declared the 158-year-old ban on home distillation unconstitutional, upholding an earlier ruling from 2024. Which means it's no longer illegal to make your own liquor at home. And you know what spirits do when you expose them to a flame source? They burn, just like gasoline. We'll strike gold if it's your will Bettmann/Getty Images In fact, there's already ethanol in the gasoline you buy at the pump, and with a few mechanical changes, you could have your ready to run on nothing but pure white lightning. That may sound expensive, but just do all the work yourself, and you'll save thousands. Also, thanks to the magic of the internet, you can get stills online for about $100. Then all you have to do is buy a crap-ton of corn and some yeast, and as long as you have a clean water source, you're basically good to go. Is it possible you'll spend more converting your car to run on E100 and making your own moonshine biofuel than you ever will on gas? Sure. But will any of that money be spent on gasoline? Exactly. Check and mate, Big Oil. In fact, it's such a good idea that user "TestE Cull" suggested something similar when we asked how expensive gas would have to get before you'd buy an EV. But since I've taken it for this question, you won't have to deal with any additional outlaw country references in the AOTD. If you're lucky. But what about you? What's your unconventional, perhaps off-the-wall suggestion for saving money at the pump? The people are tired of all the same old answers and have already checked their tires to ensure they're properly inflated. They need alternative advice, and we need you to give it to them. So whatcha got?
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