There are few things that gobble up our money quite like a car does. Of course properties cost us an awful lot of money, and when we are renting that money is lost. However that said, at least with a property you can get some of this money back if you’re fortunate enough to be on the property ladder. With a car unless you’re diving a classic this isn’t an investment and you aren’t going to get much of the cost of the vehicle back – let alone the running costs.
Thus it’s important to do everything you can to make driving cheaper and more affordable if possible. To this end it’s a good idea to make sure that you make running the car at least as cheap as possible. And one of the best ways to do this is by being as fuel efficient as possible – which will also have the happy advantage of being kind to the environment. Here then we will look at how to go about driving as fuel efficiently as possible.
Topping Up
First of all, when you top up your car with fuel there are a couple of things you need to consider. The first of these is that you get as much fuel in the tank as possible after you’ve paid for it. This means making sure to properly shake the nozzle after you’ve used it in order to get every last drop of it in.
At the same time you may not have realized that you actually get more fuel for your money if you top up early in the morning or late at night. The reason for this is that the fuel will slightly compress when it’s cold, meaning that you can get more in for a cheaper price before it expands in the heat.
Your Car
You also need to think about the car itself if you are going to save money. To this end you need to make sure that you buy a car that is going to be as fuel efficient as possible, and even more that it is going to be fuel efficient for the kind of use you have in mind. If you use your car mostly for school runs and commutes then you need a city runner that will be good at handling the traffic in a big city and this can help you to ensure you use less fuel. The best cars of course will be things like hybrids which can switch to electric power in order to save on fuel – but these are quite expensive in terms of the original investment.
Meanwhile you should also look into the condition of the car when you drive. This means making sure that your tires are fully inflated for instance which will ensure that they create less friction against the tarmac of the road. Simultaneously you need to ensure that you aren’t driving around with too much in the boot of your vehicle which will weigh it down and once again cost you more to drive.
Finally you should make sure that your windows are closed when driving to promote aerodynamics and you shouldn’t have too much running in terms of CD players and air conditioning unless necessary.
Your Driving
Finally consider the way you are driving. Basically the aim when driving is to use the gas as little as possible which means relying on momentum and being in the right gear. At the same time it means not stopping unless necessary which means starting to slow down early so that you can just take your foot off the gas and rely on the weight of the car to bring you to a halt. This means keeping an eye on the road ahead and it means driving defensively so that you are avoiding any kind of problem as much as possible.
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