Reduce Car Fuel Costs - Part 2

Note: If you want to reduce car fuel costs, you have a number of options. Many of them involved only slight changes to the use of your car and they won't affect your lifestyle. But they will allow you to save hundreds of dollars a year.

Reduce Car Fuel Costs - Distance travelling

Plan your route before leaving to avoid driving unnecessary miles. If you’re one of these people who always thinks that you know where you’re going….until you’re halfway there, consider buying a map, or make sure that your next car has satellite navigation. And it goes without saying that when you are travelling a longer distance, it's important to use the most direct route.

Plan When To Refuel

If possible, try to refuel your car before you begin to run low (ie below quarter of a tank). Why? Because, if you're on the verge of running out of fuel, you'll be forced to refuel at the first station you see. And the price of their fuel might be the highest in the area.

On the other hand, when you have fuel in your tank it gives you choices. If you pass a garage and the price is too high, you don't have to stop. Instead, you can fill your car when the price is right.

Your Driving Style

Your general driving style can save substantial amounts of fuel. Drive smoothly, avoid unnecessarily hard acceleration (no drag racing from the lights then!), aim to use the highest gear possible without labouring the engine and then cruise at a steady speed.

Look ahead and anticipate the traffic to avoid having to break unnecessarily and lose the speed that you’ve built up. What is the point of racing up to a place where you know you’ll have to stop and then slamming on the brakes? So coast up to traffic lights, try to adjust your speed so that by the time you reach the end of the queue the traffic has started moving again. This will save fuel and is also a good anti-hijack technique, but that’s a different subject.

Watch your speed

Driving at 55 mph rather than 65 mph will save 10-15% on fuel. Travelling at 80-85 Mph rather than 70 Mph will cost 20% more.

Beware Of Fuel Wasters

This includes under-inflated tyres, because it increases the amount of rolling resistance on the road. So keep your tyres properly inflated and the next time you need to replace your tyres consider buying low resistance tyres. These tyres can reduce fuel consumption by between 5-10%.

Winter driving

Leaving your car running in order to de-ice the windows costs unnecessary fuel. Ten minutes for 50 mornings each winter will waste $20 in fuel.

A heated rear screen will increase fuel consumption by up to 3%, while demisting using your air-conditioning system will use 5% more fuel.

Previous: Cut Car Fuel Costs - Part 1

Next: Lower Car Fuel Costs - Part 3

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