7 ways to save on fuel

Although we’re seeing fuel prices slowly climbing back down, many of us are still searching for ways to save on fuel. It’s a great practice to adopt in your day-to-day life, no matter the cost of fuel.

From tips on how to improve your fuel efficiency driving to small changes that make a big difference, here we’ll discuss seven ways you can implement fuel saving tactics to get the most from your tank.

• 1. Drive smoothly

  This is something we all aim for but are guilty of not doing more often than we’d care to admit! Anything from a sudden increase in speed or slamming on the brakes increases fuel consumption, as well as driving in low gears at high revs.

  As a general rule, try to shift up before your rev counter hits 2,500rpm or when your car’s built-in system tells you to.

  Whilst sometimes it’s unavoidable, these are simple steps we can take to think ahead and ensure our driving is much more consistent, reducing fuel consumption. Plus, it will make for a more comfortable journey!

• 2. Maintain a constant speed

  This goes hand in hand with smooth driving. By maintaining a constant speed where possible. Cruise control can help with this, but if you don’t have this feature on your vehicle then consider travelling between 55mph and 65mph (where limits allow), as this provides the best fuel economy. Any higher and you’ll see a sharp decrease in your fuel efficiency.

  As an example, driving at 85mph uses a whopping 40% more fuel than travelling at 70mph!

• 3. Avoid using AC

  Air conditioning could be guzzling more fuel than you expect – up to 10% of your fuel consumption, in fact.

  In fact, it’s one of the top non-driving activities that consumes the most fuel. But don’t reach for that window button just yet – winding your window down could also have a negative effect, creating drag and making the engine work harder to maintain the same speed.

  At lower speeds, feel free to open the windows. But when you’re getting above 50mph, it’s best to use your AC on the automatic function if you can’t avoid using it altogether.

• 4. Use the engine to brake

  The foot brake is often the fastest way to slow down – but it’s also the most fuel-consuming method, too. Ease up on the pedal and consider engine braking instead.

  If you’re not familiar with this practice, all you have to do is anticipate when you need to stop or slow down earlier. This way, you can ease off the accelerator and allow the car to naturally slow as much as possible before pressing the brake pedal.

  Maintaining safe stopping distances is vital here, so ensure you are adhering to the 2-second (or 4-second if it’s wet!) rule and you can make full use of this method.

• 5. Check tyre pressure

  You may be surprised just how much incorrectly inflated tyres can affect your fuel efficiency driving. Not only is having correctly inflated tyres key to maintaining proper car safety (40% of car accidents are reportedly caused by underinflated tyres!), it can also make a huge impact on fuel savings – in fact, underinflated tyres can account for an increase of 5% in fuel costs.

  You should check your tyre pressure at least once a month and before any long journeys.

  As well, you should ensure you check the vehicle manufacturers guidance on tyre pressures when you have a full load of passengers or are carrying heavy items like luggage.

• 6. Lighten the load

  Sometimes we need to carry heavy loads of luggage or lots of passengers. But where you can avoid this, you should for the sake of your fuel savings.

  Even making small changes like taking out unnecessary items from your boot can make a difference to your fuel economy in the long run.

  So, if you’ve got a boot load of items destined for the charity shop don’t put off dropping them off – it could be costing you!

• 7. Combine all your journeys at once (where possible)

  We’ve all done it – pulled up outside our homes and suddenly remembered we forgot to pick up the milk! Sometimes making multiple trips is unavoidable, but where possible you should try to combine all your journeys into one trip.

  Better yet, if you can plan your route to take place outside of busy commuting periods you can avoid costly traffic jams and ensure you’re driving as efficiently as possible.

• There you have it

  Here are our seven ways you can implement fuel efficient driving into your day-to-day life!

  As we’ve seen, you don’t have to make big changes to have a huge impact on your fuel savings in the long run.

  Drive safe and save well.