Cutting Petrol Consumption

Therefore it is important to know how to drive your car economically and efficiently.

One of the easiest ways is to adjust and possibly improve your driving technique.

Don’t copy boy racers and drive as though you are racing against an imaginary clock.

They are not concerned with cutting petrol consumption only getting from 'A' to 'B' in nano seconds. In other words try to allow sufficient time for your journey without making a futile, mad dash.

Driving in the highest gear possible without labouring the engine is a fuel-efficient way of driving and decreases petrol consumption.

Make good use of your Rev. Counter. You should change up a gear in a petrol car when you reach 2,500 revs per minute, and 2,000 rpm in a diesel car, to be most fuel-efficient.

Also, reducing your speed on motorways from 85mph (illegal in UK) to 70mph saves an astounding litre of petrol every 20 miles. According to Government statistics 19% of cars on motorways travel faster than 80mph.

Custom Search

Just allow a little more time for your journey and remember it is better to be three minutes late arriving at your intended destination than be three minutes too early at your ‘eventual destination’.

The following tips will also help your fuel efficiency.

1. Look after your car and service it regularly. This will pay dividends.

2. Keep the tyres correctly inflated. Your Owner’s Manual or any reputable garage can will have this information.

3. Don’t carry excess baggage. Remove the roof rack when not in use. Clear the boot of unnecessary garbage. Remove ‘supporters’ flags and use a bumper sticker instead.

4. Drive smoothly using a light touch on the throttle and avoid sharp, heavy braking. This reduces fuel consumption and wear-and-tear. Anticipate events such as traffic lights, traffic queues and roll gently wherever possible. Sudden braking, swerving, sudden acceleration and speeding all help to use up your fuel more quickly. Every gear change uses additional fuel.

5. When making a cold start, don’t leave the engine idling, move off as soon as possible. Stay light on the accelerator and allow the engine to warm up.

This is confirmed by Honest John of The Daily Telegraph. Modern cars engines always over-fuel from a cold start and the surplus oil can wash the oil from the cylinder bores. Therefore, load your car up with what luggage/personal items you need for your trip, start the car and then drive off.

If you start your engine, switch off while you load the car, then try to restart this will frequently cause problems due to the over-fuelling feature. It can be up to ten minutes before the car will re-start. You have been warned!

6. When filling with fuel, don’t fill to the brim and make sure the filler cap is screwed on tightly – petrol quickly evaporates.

In other words – treat and drive your car with respect and care and your pocket will benefit.

Some statistics for you:

£2.2bn This is the amount of money that could be saved nationally on petrol and diesel bills just by driving more gently. This would also prevent 5 million tons of C02 from seeping into the atmosphere each year

£1,930 Annual petrol bill for a typical working person in Britain in 2008 - a £385 increase on last year (source: U switch ) based on petrol at 109.8p a litre.

£61 Average cost of filling up a car's petrol tank (source: U switch )

There is the added bonus that if you are driving with more care you stand a better chance of not being caught for speeding. More money saved!