We have compiled an extensive list of proven fuel saving practices that actually work. Help yourself and the planet by following these 15 tips:
1. Inflate your tires
Apart from the fact that you can save fuel that way, you will also increase the safety of your vehicle as under-inflated tires wear much faster and can make it more difficult to handle the car. You should also check their alignment once in a while.
2. Drive smoothly
Hard braking and acceleration eats up your fuel, no surprise there, you can increase your fuel consumption by more than 30% if you don’t drive smoothly. Show off those Ken Block skills to your girlfriend only once – you don’t have to do that twice a week.
3. Turn the A/C off
While some time ago there were some doubts about whether this is true or not now we have hundreds of tests that prove that the engine has to work harder when the A/C is on hence it consumes more fuel. You know you can live without it for a while – so do that.
4. Avoid high speeds
Apart from the fact that breaching the speed limits is dangerous and against the law it’s also against what your financial advisor would suggest. Driving at 90 km/h for most cars is 20% more economical than driving at 110 km/h. Remember to keep the RPM between 2 to 3 thousand.
5. Be careful with magic potions
Nowadays we see more and more additives, fluids etc. that promise to lower your fuel consumption. Be careful, if it sounds too good to be true it most likely isn’t, in fact, unknown fluids may actually harm the engine.
6. Combine trips
Instead of taking 5 separate trips – combine them, in that way you will not have to warm up the engine 5 times and it will run efficiently for a longer time period thereby saving you those precious bucks.
7. Empty the trunk
We all know that one person that has a trunk loaded with stuff that he or she doesn’t need there (a box of bricks, for instance), and that, of course, costs every time the engine gets started. Little by little you can add up the costs and hence not get that new iPhone you wanted. Empty the trunk – get an iPhone (or an Android phone, if you’re an Android person).
8. Take the car rack off
If you don’t use it you don’t need it. Car racks impair the vehicle’s aerodynamics and add unnecessary weight (if they are not used), also, if you can fit the thing in your trunk, better put it there.
9. Stop the engine
Again, this is nothing new, but if you have to stop for more than a minute – kill the engine. Idling costs you and isn’t ecological, even though diesel engines are more efficient for this matter, in the long run you are still better off with the engine off when it’s needed.
10. Fix what’s broken
Yes, you might be saving for that trip to Hawaii, and thereby postponing the car repair, but if you see that because of a technical issue your fuel consumption is up – fix it as it can only get worse, you’ll see that it becomes easier to save up money when you are spending less on fuel.
11. Gear up
Literally, in this case. Lower gears have more power and hence are used to accelerate, when you are driving at steady speeds – shift the gear up and keep it there.
12. Analyse your driving behaviour
Some tools, like Mapon, might come in handy at this point. Analysing previous driving behaviour and chosen routes can help you avoid traffic, aggressive driving, and other expense factors. In addition to that GPS tracking will help in case of a theft.
13. Try carpooling
Every day we see hundreds of cars with only 1 driver in them, imagine how much fuel at the global level we would save if everyone would be carpooling. If your colleagues or friends live near you and go in the same direction you can drive with each other saving a lot of money and helping the planet Earth.
14. Shift it into neutral
If there’s a red light ahead – you can decrease the RPM by switching the gear to neutral as otherwise the vehicle is trying to maintain a decent deceleration. You should remember not to accelerate while in neutral.
15. Know your co-drivers
You might not be the only person driving your car, even if you follow the abovementioned suggestions, your average fuel consumption level could still be higher than optimal if someone else is secretly driving like crazy. Do you know how the people you share your car with behave behind the wheel? Again, solutions like Mapon can assist you for this matter, GPS tracking can let you know when someone is the breaking speed limits, taking inefficient routes etc.
Follow these tips and watch the monthly expenses on fuel plummet, if they don’t it might be time to simply buy a new car or drive a bike more often.