The cost of petrol and diesel fuel is becoming more and more of an issue to us all. With the cost of oil rising and tax in the form of duty spiraling out of control, people and businesses are being hit in the pocket big style.
It's costing us close to £100 to fill up a family car now, and commercial vehicle costs are draining businesses at all levels. This is eating into our disposable income and business profits to the extent where we're having to make choices and adapt our habits.
I've written this short guide to give you some food for thought and hopefully help you to make savings wherever possible to reduce the impact of this external constraint.
Fuel Efficiency - how to get more miles out of the tank and reduce the trips to the pumping station.
Tyre Pressure
Check your tyre pressures at least once a month, preferably every two weeks. If one or more of your tyres is below presure (soft) it will cost you more in fuel.
Weight
The more weight, the more resistance between the tyres and the road. Check your boot, or the back seat for anything heavy that you don't need to be carrying around all the time (your husband/wife/middle child doesn't count!). I wonder if sticking helium balloons in the boot would make your car more efficient?!
Air resistance
You can't help the wind, unless you plan your journey according to the weather charts, so think about keeping your vehicle as streamlined as it can be. An open window or sunroof will cause a lot of extra drag and suck up the juice. Flags and scarves hanging out of windows also cause extra drag, so you may want to think about taking them down for motorway drives or even altogether. Dirt and dried, squashed flies on the front of the car can disrupt the airflow so keep your car clean. Take off any add-ons like trailers or roof racks when not using them.
You can't help the wind, unless you plan your journey according to the weather charts, so think about keeping your vehicle as streamlined as it can be. An open window or sunroof will cause a lot of extra drag and suck up the juice. Flags and scarves hanging out of windows also cause extra drag, so you may want to think about taking them down for motorway drives or even altogether. Dirt and dried, squashed flies on the front of the car can disrupt the airflow so keep your car clean. Take off any add-ons like trailers or roof racks when not using them.
Electrics
Anything electrical will reduce the fuel efficiency, particularly air conditioning or heating systems. Whilst some reports say that it's more efficient to use aircon than have a window open on the motorway, I'm not too sure...
Anything electrical will reduce the fuel efficiency, particularly air conditioning or heating systems. Whilst some reports say that it's more efficient to use aircon than have a window open on the motorway, I'm not too sure...
Driving tips
Braking - the more often and stronger you brake, the more fuel you will use on a journey. When you are approaching a junction, just back off the accelerator earlier than usual and let the car slow for the first few hundred metres and then brake when you need to. You'll have saved a bit by backing off sooner. Also, watch the road ahead for traffic, lights / junctions, etc. If you can see slow or stationary traffic, why zoom up to it to then have to stop harshly? Try to prevent coming to a complete stop (unless you have to for safety or legal reasons) as gettign the car moving from 0mph uses a lot of fuel.
Declines - a short decline is useful for gaining speed and/or overtaking with a touch on the accelerator (sounds obvious). This momentum can then be used when it levels out or goes into a climb.
Climbs - rather than pedal to the metal, or dead slow crawl, try to maintain a cruise speed for the climb, on open roads say 50mph which is the most efficient way to ascend a hill. Dropping down gear after gear may 'feel' like you're burning less fuel, but you will be climbing for longer and at slower speeds it's much less economical.
Gears - use as high a gear as you can without the car 'labouring'. What I mean by that is that shuddering feeling when at low revs and trying to maintain or gain speed. I tend not to use first gear any more unless I'm on a hillstart. Changing gears too often also burns more fuel, so if you can go from 2nd to 4th, or 3rd to 5th on a downslope, it will save you even more money.
Speed - sticking to the speed limit is not only the legal way to drive, but saves you a lot more than you may realise. 80mph burns 10-20% more fuel than 70mph having read around - that's a lot, about £10-20 per tank refuel! 50mph burns even less and is about the optimum speed for efficiency so if you don't need to get somewhere quick, why not?
Acceleration - a gradual acceleration may not 'look cool', but when you can buy that girl a drink on Saturday night instead of the boy racer who's skint - who's laughing? When in heavy motorway traffic, instead of stop-start-stop-start, why not trundle along at a gradual pace wherever possible? It's all these little things that make a difference to your pocket.
Overtaking - I used to have a Nissan 200SX 2.0L Turbo - it was damn fast! I would overtake everything I could, whenever I could. That was when I was younger and less sensible. Now, it's very rare I overtake anything on a single carriageway except for tractors or cyclists. When I do, I try to do it on a downslope, or hang back a bit and gain momentum slowly as I approach it so I'm going faster by the time I need to pull out. If you hog their bumper and then bury the accelerator, you;ll burn fuel like there's no tomorrow.
Fuelling up - let your tank go to the reserve before filling up half way if you want to save even more - a full tank is heavy and will be less efficient than a half tank. Supermarkets offer the best fuel prices and also loyalty rewards so use them. The more we move away from the major fuel providers, the better the bargaining power we have in terms of keeping their prices down.
Journey length - anything less than 5 minutes, and repeated over time, will burn twice the fuel that 5 mins during a longer journey does due to the cold engine. That 20p paper in the morning is costing you more than you think - and your fitness would benefit from a good walk too!
Next time you are doing 50-60mph, experiment with the throttle / accelerator. See how much difference to your speed there is when you take your foot off slightly? Not a lot, but see how much difference there is to fuel consumption? When you next fill up you will.
Mini Story:
I remember a long time ago, I had a Mercedes hire car and I was travelling back from a training course, about 200 miles. I didn't have my wallet with me and the fuel level was looking low. It said I had a range of 150 miles, so in theory I'd be 50 miles from home when I would run out and then be stuck. I didn't have to rush back for anything so I made it a mission to see if I could do it. I managed to get to the point where I was tickling the throttle just enough to get over the brow of each mini hill and then give just enough to keep the speed up whilst burning tiny amounts of fuel. I would pre-empt traffic pulling out and reduced the braking requirements and ease off before corners so I didn't have to brake to get round and so on. I made it, and got a trip MPG of over 60, which for a 2 litre automatic Mercedes was pretty good going. I did it when I HAD to, so why not do it all the time - to a reasonable point, and save bucket loads of cash?
There are many ways to save on fuel, I hope this has given you a few thoughts - none of it is rocket science and you probably know or understand it all anyway, but when you actually make the decision to DO some or all of these things, you will get more miles out of your tank and you will save money.
As a footnote - there are a few campaigns out there to try and get prices cut. I'm not here to wage war with governements or oil companies, I just despise the way they are doing this to us, especially when you look at what other countries pay for their fuel.
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