Lower Car Fuel Costs - Part 3

Note: Lower car fuel costs is something that nearly everyone wants, but how far should you drive in the search for cheaper fuel? It's a simple calculation. All you need to know is the difference between the high and low cost fuel and the fuel efficiency of your car.

Cheap Fuel

Supermarket fuel is very competitively priced. This, along with the chance to collect/use bonus loyalty points and the fact that you don’t need to make a special trip to fill up, can save another 1-2% on your fuel costs.

But don’t travel miles just to buy ‘cheap’ fuel. Buy your petrol at the cheapest station by all means, but don’t make a special trip to do so. As a general rule if your tank is half empty by the time you return home you can safely assume that you’re going too far. But for the more scientific among you, try using this formula to work out how far it’s worth going to buy cheaper fuel.

Take the cost of a full tank at the higher price and deduct the cost of a full tank at the lower price to find out the potential saving per tank. Our imaginary car has a 12 gallon fuel tank. If the expensive fuel costs $1.50 per gallon and the cheaper fuel costs $1.25 per gallon, the potential saving per tank is (12 x $1.50) – (12 x $1.25) = $3.00

Next, take the price of a gallon of the high price fuel and divide it by the miles per gallon that your car would achieve during the trip to buy the low price fuel. $1.50 (150 cents) divided by 30 miles per gallon = 5 cents per mile.

Finally take the first answer and divide it by the second answer to find out the maximum number of miles (round trip) that it would be economical to travel to buy the low price fuel. $3.00 (300 cents) divided by 5 = 60 miles. You’d save money travelling to buy the cheaper fuel if the trip was less than 60 miles there and back. Although for such a small saving, given the time it would take you and the wear and tear to your car, you may decide that it would only be worth doing if the station was considerably nearer.

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