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Save Money on Your Car Fuel
I did a lot of research on the topic of how a car driver could save money on their car fuel bills. There are a lot of tips and techniques which are spelt out on the pages in this section. None of them cost you any money because the aim was to find simple no-cost techniques which would mean less fill-ups and there are several things which have come to light which everybody should adopt.
I've looked at alternative fuels to Petrol (Gasoline to our American cousins) and tried to summarise their various pros and cons and there are seperate pages devoted to this.
Why is fuel so expensive?
However before we start any "Tips and Techniques" let's try to answer the question: Why is fuel so expensive? If petrol were a nice round number like 90p per litre then that sum would be split like this:
| Bulk supplier | 23.2p |
| Retailer and delivery | 6.3p |
| VAT | 13.4p |
| Duty | 47.1p |
| Total | 90.0p |
So the answers pretty easy - the exchequer gets two thirds of that 90pence!!
Unfortunately we have no way of knowing how much is ploughed back into transport and infrastructure, it vanishes into the black hole of government finances.
Get your own back - use let fuel.
Which brings me neatly to one of the the points of this website; use less fuel, get your own back on the chancellor and keep some of those pennies in your own pocket.
Introduction
Let's be clear about what I'm going to show you: no gadgets or gimmicks, no "buy a newer car", no "put this in your tank" and no fuel-saving modifications. The ideas that follow are just plain, simple, common-sense ways of using less fuel in your car. I've also got to add that when I'm talking fuel, I'm talking Diesel as well as Petrol (or Gas to our US friends). I'm talking vans and trucks as well as the family run-about or the salesman's office-on-wheels. You might well laugh at some of the suggestions and say I'm crazy, you might think that you already drive so well that there can't be anything I can tell you which would improve matters. Perhaps you will think to yourself: "I know that, you are wasting my time" but please read through to the end and I am certain there are some tricks and techniques, which you will be able to use. In fact what I'm going to ask you to develop is a:
"State of Mind"
This state of mind is something that is always with you:
- When you are driving
- When you fill up
- Before you go out
- And when you get back
That state of mind is like a comfortable pair of shoes or a favourite sweater that you put on instinctively when you go out the door. When you start thinking about, and trying to put into practice, that you are going to read in the next few minutes it might seem "just too much bother" However persevere with the program. Maybe by adding in an action point every week it will become second nature before long.
The Basics
Let's imagine you are cruising down the road. The road is completely flat and straight; there is no wind and no traffic. You are cruising along at a steady speed with a trailing throttle - no acceleration and no braking and no gear changing. You are using just enough throttle to keep that steady speed.
What happens if you take your foot off the accelerator?
You slow down. Why?
You are slowing because the car is encountering resistance.
- Resistance from the road.
- Resistance from the bearings and the running gear in the car.
- Resistance from the engine that, with little fuel coming into the combustion chambers, is trying to slow down. In other words the resistance caused by the effort required in compression and the general drag and friction in the engine is greater than the force created by the explosion as the engine fires.
- Resistance from the air
To combat this slowing you press down on the accelerator, allowing more fuel to the engine, until you have regained your previous steady speed.
What happens if you approach a hill? To keep to the same speed you have to step on the accelerator, not much but just enough to overcome the extra resistance presented by the climb. You have to use some fuel energy to overcome that resistance. Your fuel consumption rises for a while. Going down that same hill, when you do the same journey in the other direction, gravity is giving you a helping hand and you can ease off the throttle a bit.
Have you ever seen a large lorry labouring up a long, steady hill? Clouds of blue smoke perhaps, because he's got his foot hard down trying to overcome not only the rolling resistance of his vehicle and the air resistance of his large square profile but also the extra effort to drag the weight upwards against the pull of gravity.
The first group of fuel-saving tricks are all related to the basics I've described here. So click here to go to the first page of tips.
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