- Fill up during the week, often prices will rise at the weekends and will increase over bank holidays etc. Also during hot weather always fill late at night or early morning, cold fuel is denser, irrespective of whether it’s in liquid form or gas so you get more ‘bang for your buck’ when the fuel is cold.
- For every 7 stone in your car you’re losing around 2% in fuel economy, so get rid of unused heavy bags in the boot or annoying back seat drivers 😉
- Plan your trips so you don’t fill up for fuel at Motorway services
- Use and abuse discount/loyalty schemes but more importantly compare prices of fuel using sites like http://10ws.co/1KxVLmk to compare petrol/diesel prices
- Years ago it was common to say if you’re stopping for a couple of minutes it’s more economical to keep your engine running, these days most modern cars don’t surge tons of fuel when you start them up, so turning off whenever you’re going to be stationary for longer than 30 seconds will save you fuel & therefore money.
- Check your tyre pressures OFTEN (at least once per month) – it sounds boring and not related to fuel but it can cost you 2-5%. Buy a decent Air Compressor.
- Visit fuel stations that are busy and therefore have plenty of new fuel being delivered.
- Avoid ‘topping off’ – once the pump stops pumping because your car is ‘full’ DON’T press the pump again to add a bit more fuel, most of the time you will be left short as the pump doesn’t have enough time to actually pump that fuel, so you end up paying a lot for a bit of petrol & lots of air.
- Share your car with other people and remember long trips visiting multiple locations is far better than lots of short trips over several hours/days
- Use cruise control to maintain your speed and remember generally the slower you’re going the better MPG you get, avoid using your brakes as much as possible, plan your driving properly by looking as far in front as you possibly can. Predict when you’re going to have to stop so you don’t end up slamming on your brakes and losing valuable momentum
