Add Your Want to save on Petrol?
We’ve all seen the movies when the drivers rev their engine and then drag race at the lights once they turn green. Not only is this unsafe, it’s also costing them money. The amount of fuel we use is a hot topic as fuel seems to always be at a high, gone are the days when we paid 60c a litre. It’s understandable that petrol consumption is on our mind, so we’ve got a few tips to help you save fuel and in the long run, maybe even a bit of money.
Our top tips to save fuel, and money
Have you heard someone describe a car as aerodynamic? That’s for good reason, the shape of our vehicles has been designed that way from years of testing to reduce the wind drag and make your car move with ease. By closing the windows, or removing any roof racks or storage bins, you’ll find you could save petrol by reducing the drag, this also goes for excess stuff in your boot adding unnecessary weight to your car.
Did you know? A car traveling at 110km uses 25% more fuel than it would travelling at 90km
No one wants to be stuck in traffic, if you leave a bit earlier of a morning or later at night to miss most of the traffic you can save petrol eliminating the stop and start of your engine. Whether you have a manual or automatic car, when you stop, your engine goes into 1st gear, and sucks a lot of petrol to get going again.
Going out with the family? Choose the smaller of your vehicles, as small cars are more fuel efficient
When a car first starts, the engine is cold and uses more fuel to warm up the engine, if you have lots of little errands to make throughout the day, try and do them all at once in one trip so the engine will stay warm and waste less fuel.
Accelerate slowly and smoothly, not only will it make for a more comfortable drive, it can save your pocket as you won’t need that excess petrol to flood your engine to get you off the mark. If you have a manual car, change up through your gears as required when your car is at its comfortable speed, by driving in a lower than necessary gear or staying in high gear when your car is labouring, excess strain is added on your engine and is an instant fuel waster. If you have an automatic car, use cruise control on long trips where you need to maintain the same speed limit.
Take care of your car
By keeping your car in good condition, you can reduce your petrol bill. Studies by the Environmental Protection Authority have found that having a well-tuned car can improve petrol usage by up to 4%, properly inflating your tyres can help as much as 3% and using the correct oil for your vehicle, up to 2%.
Ensure you have the engine oil at the correct level and check your tyre pressure, low tyre pressure means you’ll need more petrol to fuel your car. Ensure your brakes aren’t rubbing by having your wheels aligned regularly. By having your car well-tuned, regularly maintained, and serviced at the intervals specified in the manufacturer’s handbook, you can increase your cars fuel performance. Here at Express Lube, you can get your car serviced by one of our highly trained professionals, we offer no booking, just come on in to any of our five locations across the Central Coast and Newcastle.
