Advice on driving frugally?

wet-paint

Hey folks,
So money's tight this year, and I'm looking for tips on how to maximise efficiency when driving, and how to minimise wear and tear on the car. Apart from shifting up early, and keeping the tires inflated, I'm fairly clueless.

Has anyone decent ideas on how to keep the costs down, apart from learning how to do it all yourself, as I'm a bit too busy to be tryign to fart around with that.


Cheers,
WP.

colm_mcm

Don't make unnecessary journies.

12barblues

keep the revs as low as you can, try not to come to a full stop in traffic if you can help it.

Days 298

Boardsies will love me!

Drive 80km/h in 100km/h, dont slow down through villages/towns as you'll have to accelerate back up to 80km/h afterwords wasting fuel.....

Really my advice is get to the highest gear quick as possible.

colm_mcm

12barblues wrote: »

keep the revs as low as you can, try not to come to a full stop in traffic if you can help it.

Revs as low as possible isn't gonna always get you better economy. Even at cruising speeds my old car was more economical in 4th than 5th. Same in my current car. 6th is only more economical than 5th over 100kmph,

Celly Smunt

You could always park on the top of a hill and roll to where you're going..

12barblues

colm_mcm wrote: »

Revs as low as possible isn't gonna always get you better economy. Even at cruising speeds my old car was more economical in 4th than 5th. Same in my current car. 6th is only more economical than 5th over 100kmph,

it will if you're in the right gear

colm_mcm

12barblues wrote: »

it will if you're in the right gear

So you're saying "be in the right gear" rather then "keep the revs as low as you can" ??

12barblues

both. don't open the throttle too much really.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

Celly Smunt wrote: »

You could always park on the top of a hill and roll to where you're going..

getting up the hill will hurt though,

seriously, its a car, of course its going to cost money,

good luck when it breaks down or needs a new tyre and nct and all.

Renegade Mechanic

Give our car a proper clean, polish and wax. Something to make your finger nearly float along the surface. Thatll help a little bit on the wind resistance side of things. Make sure the boot is empty too and dont be afraid to put a little extra pressure in the tyres. On that subject, 225 wide tyres will be harder on tyres than 195 so just bear that in mind. All little things but they all add up. Drive between 2 and 3 k revs. Petrol cars are generally more efficient accelerating between 2 and 3 than under 2k rpm. Diesels you can change gear at 2.5k rpm.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Getting into top gear as quick as possible is not economical. Drive the car normally, do not accelerate hard and only change up to the next gear when you feel the speed and revs are sufficient to do so. Driving along at 40 or 50km in 5th gear will generally use more fuel than being in 4th.

Do not go down hills in neutral, leave it in fear. It will not use any fuel while in gear while it will use some while in neutral.

Make sure the car is regularly serviced and that none of your Brake calipers are binding. Pump your Tyres up 5 or 6psi above the recommended pressure.

Don't fill your tank to the top. If you only use 20 liters a week then fill it with 25 or 30 liters max. There's no point in carrying around extra weight.

Jan T.

Taking a chill pill saves MPG.

Not wanting to race away boy racer style from every single light and junction, and then wasting all that fuel and energy again by breaking hard and late at lights / junctions saves juice.

Something like Bob Marley on the stereo as opposed to something like ACDC saves about 5 mpg and lets you arrive destressed instead of pumped.

Let the other fuel wasting stressed out clowns fly by.

derry

If a lot of your driving is to go shopping consider to buy online and save fuel .I know difficult to do its the getting out that has most of doing therapeutic shopping LOL


If your annual mileage is small consider to sell car and take out contract with TAXI company it often can be cheaper than the price for new car with deprecation road tax insurance fuel repairs etc

Lots of variables the age make of car and how many kilometers on the clock has it got 4 ,5 or 6 gears the distance you drive every day and what types of roads you drive on and is the car petrol LPG or diesel .

fast acceleration eats fuel and so city town driving where it hard to be slow coach and accelerate slowly there inst a lot you can do accept whenever you can reduce the acceleration.When you see the lights 300 meters ahead are red or going red lift foot of the accelerator and coast up to the lights. If you arrive to red light moving slowly and apply brakes there is less wear to car than racing up to red lights and jamming on the brakes .Better still is if you can time it to arrive when the lights are changing to green then you don't waste so much fuel as taking off from a stopped position which uses the most fuel going through first and second gears

On motor ways and good wide national roads keeping speed steady saves fuel so use of steady foot or cruise control saves fuel at all speeds . Slowest speeds often saves fuel so for example 45MPH will use lot less fuel than 70mph but there isnt a whole lot of saving between speeds of 45mph or 55MPH as the air Resistance starts to kick in and eat more fuel when speeds exceed 55mph

Example my car Susiki swift 1998 1000cc
motor way driving (most tests done late at night )
45MPH ~55MPG
55MPH ~ 50MPG
70MPH ~40 MPG

Driving at 45 mph saves some ~30% of the fuel compared to 70MPH
Driving at 55MPH saves some ~25% of the fuel compared to 70MPH
The difference between 45 MPH and 55 MPH isn't that large some ~5% extra fuel use to get a more better usable speed


My Fiat Bravo SX 1998 1400cc
45MPH ~45 MPG
55MPH ~38MPG
70MPH ~28MPG

Regular good servicing of the car also help MPG as bad spark plug badly tuned engine and so forth hammer MPG .

The jury is out on weather fuel additives or fuel saving gizmos really work to save MPG

Derry

dr.fuzzenstein

Days 298 wrote: »

Boardsies will love me!

Drive 80km/h in 100km/h, dont slow down through villages/towns as you'll have to accelerate back up to 80km/h afterwords wasting fuel.....

Really my advice is get to the highest gear quick as possible.

80 through towns and villages? Great advise, sure we have to many people anyway, time to get rid of a few. get the golden steering wheel for 100 taken out.

Dord

colm_mcm wrote: »

Revs as low as possible isn't gonna always get you better economy. Even at cruising speeds my old car was more economical in 4th than 5th. Same in my current car. 6th is only more economical than 5th over 100kmph,

Yeah, of course it depends on the car. I bought and fitted a Scangauge II recently. With that I'm able to see the instant MPG/Km/100L, Revs and other info. It helps to understand the consumption of the car based on different driving conditions. Has certainly helped me keep the Km/100L down.

biko

Leave an open coke can on the dash, if it falls off you're not doing it right
Remove all excess things from the car boot that may add weight.

SB6

leave 5 mins early on a half hour trip, take a chill pill and go 45-50mph (if there is excess traffic then don't go painfully slow or you may cause unnecessary annoyance and an accident), roll up to junctions (in gear), if there are cars in front speeding up and slowing down constantly then keep a constant average speed of it all.

Ive done this and apart from times to clean the engine out and anger(and feeling so tired/bored that i had to drive faster just to stay awake) I get around 60mpg between towns and 45-50 overall (including clean outs).

+1 to proper tyre inflation, aerodynamics is a real killer so the less ground clearance and bits sticking out the better.

For me excess weight isnt that big of a killer because I keep a constant speed through my trip and my tyres are at the right pressure so all I have to worry about is cutting through the air(slower the better), but if there is stop starts from city or rural driving where you're forced to use your brakes a lot then in my opinion its a lost battle. Unless you have a hybrid of something like that to reuse breaking energy.

Just my opinion on it

Sinbad_NI

Depends how far you want to go with the efficiency... See link.


http://www.hypermiler.co.uk/hypermiling/hypermiling-techniques

dr.fuzzenstein

Save fuel? Easy!
All you need is a hammer and some patience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKxEkT2H8pI

Mr Mike

Hi,

I acheive on average 51MPG from a '95 1.3 Corolla by following this advice from one of my favourite blogs

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/07/26/hypermiling-expert-driving-to-save-25-50-on-gas/

keithclancy

Don't leave stuff in the boot unless you are bringing it from one place to another.

Find cheap petrol stations

Keep the windows closed

Don't accelerate hard

Try avoid accelerating into situations where you have to use the brakes, time it so your engine braking is enough to slow you down when you see a car braking in front of you.

Keep a big distance between you and the car in front, this will give you more space to not have to use the brakes.

Car pool with people going the same way, work out a per kilometer cost and get them to contribute

Don't coast (this actually uses more fuel than engine braking)

Keep your tyres at the correct pressure.

Go at a time when there is less traffic.

Can't think of anymore.

Victor Meldrew

1. Don't tailgate, so you can avoid braking unnecessarily.
2. 100 is a lot more economical than 120.

3. (and this is a bit "zen") Drive the car like you would ride a bike when you don't want to get sweaty... Conserve momentum, look ahead, be gentle..

conzy

There is also a certain "range" that the car will fall into and theres not much you can do about it

e.g in the 325 I grannied it everywhere for a week, 110kmh on the motorway, minimal breaking etc etc and got 36MPG.. It was painful..

Then you can drive it like its supposed to be driven, cruise at 140kmh etc etc and it will do 26MPG

So over a whole tank the saving is not huge, its also less fun and takes longer to get everywhere

fjon

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is to use the cruise control if possible to accelerate rather that your foot.

hawkwind23

biggest saving by far was swapping petrol for a straight diesel.
from 30mpg to 70mpg
granted mostly motorway journeys but 1st thing id suggest , change to a car that suits your driving

dr.fuzzenstein

Do not knock it out of gear to save fuel, but coast in gear. It's the biggest misconception out there when it comes to fuel saving.

numorouno

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Do not knock it out of gear to save fuel, but coast in gear. It's the biggest misconception out there when it comes to fuel saving.

Could you explain this to me. I can't get me head around this concept

colm_mcm

fjon wrote: »

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is to use the cruise control if possible to accelerate rather that your foot.

Why?

mad muffin

Get friends and family to drive you around in their own cars as much as possible. Also, if they ask you to contribute to the cost of fuel, pretend that you forgot your wallet.

Jesus.

I don't think rolling up to junctions or going down hill in gear helps.

Its neutral all the way as far as I'm concerned.

dr.fuzzenstein

numorouno wrote: »

Could you explain this to me. I can't get me head around this concept

Modern engines use no fuel when the car is slowing down in gear and the engine is doing the braking. If you do knock it out of gear, however, and coast in neutral with the engine idling, the engine will burn a small amount of fuel to keep running.
I know the neutral zealots will jump all over me for saying this, but knocking the car out of gear is idiotic and self defeating. It might work for Jesus:D, since he can work miracles and make the engine run on pure air without fuel when idling, but otherwise you're actually using more fuel.
Plus you will use more brakes, adding to the cost of this silly practice.
Some could argue to put it in neutral and turn the engine off, but that would just be nuts.

numorouno

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Modern engines use no fuel when the car is slowing down in gear and the engine is doing the braking. If you do knock it out of gear, however, and coast in neutral with the engine idling, the engine will burn a small amount of fuel to keep running.
I know the neutral zealots will jump all over me for saying this, but knocking the car out of gear is idiotic and self defeating. It might work for Jesus:D, since he can work miracles and make the engine run on pure air without fuel when idling, but otherwise you're actually using more fuel.
Plus you will use more brakes, adding to the cost of this silly practice.
Some could argue to put it in neutral and turn the engine off, but that would just be nuts.

That does make some sense shortcut alright thanks

HandsomeDan

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Modern engines use no fuel when the car is slowing down in gear and the engine is doing the braking. If you do knock it out of gear, however, and coast in neutral with the engine idling, the engine will burn a small amount of fuel to keep running.
I know the neutral zealots will jump all over me for saying this, but knocking the car out of gear is idiotic and self defeating. It might work for Jesus:D, since he can work miracles and make the engine run on pure air without fuel when idling, but otherwise you're actually using more fuel.
Plus you will use more brakes, adding to the cost of this silly practice.
Some could argue to put it in neutral and turn the engine off, but that would just be nuts.

Straight from top-gear, eh? I used to think that myself and then I read about porche's coasting system which knocks the car out of gear when coasting... to save fuel.

Hmmm...

numorouno

HandsomeDan wrote: »

Straight from top-gear, eh? I used to think that myself and then I read about porche's coasting system which knocks the car out of gear when coasting... to save fuel.

Hmmm...

it's not exactly a porche I'm driving!! What applies to a 00 Toyota corolla porche

dr.fuzzenstein

HandsomeDan wrote: »

Straight from top-gear, eh? I used to think that myself and then I read about porche's coasting system which knocks the car out of gear when coasting... to save fuel.

Hmmm...

Popular Mechanics:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/alternative-fuel/news/coasting-in-neutral-fuel-economy

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy-efficient_driving#Coasting_or_gliding

But maybe we need Mythbusters on this one...

Vegeta

A combination of coasting and engine braking I find is best. Obviously when engine braking the car is using zero fuel but the car is slowing more quickly than in neutral. In neutral the car will use fuel but roll further.

So if my junction, exit or whatever is a few hundred meters away I'll coast in neutral. With the tyres well inflated the car will not lose too much speed. Then at the point when I feel I need to begin slowing I'll put it back into gear and use engine braking as much as possible trying to avoid using the actual brakes.

There are scenarios where both are suitable so I wouldn't rule either out completely.

In my last car I did knock the engine off while coasting so got the best of both, zero fuel and no engine braking. That's risky though and not practical in the new car.

NickDunne

Jan T. wrote: »

Something like Bob Marley on the stereo as opposed to something like ACDC saves about 5 mpg and lets you arrive destressed instead of pumped

This! Thought this was absolute BS so I said Id try it for the laugh. Newstalk on instead of the usual loud music, drives in the morning are so much more relaxed!

Apparently the louder/fast music ups your heart rate and affects how you drive. I'm convinced.

Ronnie Beck

Imagine there is a raw egg on your accelerator. This gives the most significant mpg increases from a driving technique point of view. It's fair boring though.

A well running and regularly serviced car is essential.

Good choice of route allowing for the time of day and knowledge of short cuts to avoid traffic also help alot.

Ferris

Get a bike.

Don't use air con.

Older cars with cruise control use more fuel when using it.

Don't get lost

Practice not using brakes, bringing the car to a standstill costs money. If you are approaching lights brake lightly early in case the lights go green.

Learn to service your own car. It's easy.

Buy tyres and oils online, I use camskill.

Get spares from breakers.

Don't buy an rx8 (or do and ignore all the above because it won't make a blind bit of difference)

serious3

get a life OP and sell the car then use public transport. you don't buy a car to save money, it costs you money even when its parked up with the engine off ffs!!

dr.fuzzenstein

serious3 wrote: »

get a life OP and sell the car then use public transport. you don't buy a car to save money, it costs you money even when its parked up with the engine off ffs!!

Some people live in the sticks and have no choice.
As for anything else on public transport, check out a thread on the same name on R&R.:pac:

serious3

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Some people live in the sticks and have no choice.
As for anything else on public transport, check out a thread on the same name on R&R.:pac:

i live in clifden so you cant get much more in the sticks than that! yet we have 2 bus companies serving us with buses regularly leaving for galway and westport

wet-paint

Clifden's the biggst town in the West. Stop talking ****e. Thanks for your advice, but shove it up your arse.

Owryan

Has anyone suggested "borrow someone elses car" yet ?

dr.fuzzenstein

Owryan wrote: »

Has anyone suggested "borrow someone elses car" yet ?

Then fill it up and drive off without paying!:cool:

serious3

wet-paint wrote: »

Clifden's the biggst town in the West. Stop talking ****e. Thanks for your advice, but shove it up your arse.

been trying for the last half hour, i seem to be having some difficultly, as you seem to be an expert on these things perhaps you could advise me on it?

Dord

Just on the in-gear or neutral coasting. I checked that recently on my own car, an '02 Merc A140, and it uses more fuel in neutral coasting. Significantly more fuel. In-gear coasting can return around 3-4L/100Km and neutral was 12+. YMMV.

Jesus.

Dord wrote: »

Just on the in-gear or neutral coasting. I checked that recently on my own car, an '02 Merc A140, and it uses more fuel in neutral coasting. Significantly more fuel. In-gear coasting can return around 3-4L/100Km and neutral was 12+. YMMV.

That is interesting. The thing is, I find that I can coast for ages in my car but when I slap it into gear, she slows down very quickly. For example, I once managed to free-wheel down Collins' Avenue (Dub) from the first set of lights past the Whitehall Church junction, all the way down to the Malahide Road!!

The fifth gear coasting is obviously good when you're coming up to red lights. I'm gonna try it with my trip computer and see if it comes up trumps!

(P.S. Did you say neutral was using 12+L/100km?)

colm_mcm

Dord wrote: »

Just on the in-gear or neutral coasting. I checked that recently on my own car, an '02 Merc A140, and it uses more fuel in neutral coasting. Significantly more fuel. In-gear coasting can return around 3-4L/100Km and neutral was 12+. YMMV.

There's no way that's correct though. In this case the mpg readout is just wrong.

Andrewf20

Be conscious of when you can use bus lanes. Ive seen it a good few times with people sitting in jams on Sunday when theres an empty bus lane to use beside them. Group think mentality.