I’ve written before about money saving tips for drivers – how to save money while using your car just as much and for the same purposes.
It’s much easier than you think and basically comes down to a few simple driving techniques and a bit of common sense. Carmony.co.uk recently published a free guide for drivers to help them save money – here are their top 6 tips:
- “Saving” money by not servicing your car is a false economy. Servicing your car regularly makes sure the engine runs efficiently.
- Travel light! Avoid carrying any unnecessary weight in the car, such as boxes or golf clubs, and remove roof boxes if you are not using them. The aerodynamic resistance caused by an empty roof box adds 10% to fuel consumption.
- Plan ahead, especially at the weekend. Think about making one long journey instead of two or three short ones.
- Drive smoothly, accelerate gently and maintain a steady speed.
- Change gear early. Keeping below 2,500 rpm for petrol engine and 2,000 rpm for diesel engine will help maximise your fuel efficiency.
- Watch your speed. At 80 mph you could be using 25% more fuel than if driving at the 70 mph speed limit. And at 70 mph you are likely to be using nearly 10% more fuel than when driving at 60 mph.
These are all good tips that will reduce your fuel consumption – as an experiment recently I used a tank of fuel with a heavy right foot then refilled the tank, followed the tips above and cut my fuel consumption by 10% – just like that.
Why not give it a try? The reality is that fuel prices aren’t going to fall much and VAT will probably go up in two weeks time when the government announces its emergency budget. Saving money on fuel could really help – why burn it for nothing?
