Whether your vehicle use is for business or personal use, you might find our fuel saving tips below helpful. With our years of experience in vehicle maintenance and repair, we know a thing or two about this area. Here’s what we think are four fuel saving tips.
Fuel Saving Tips: Driving Economically
People often use their vehicles for short distance trips. This means a lot of stopping and starting, which can be bad news for fuel consumption. Driving economically is a good way to ensure that you are making your fuel last the distance. When you are doing trips around town, try to do the following:
- Accelerate smoothly and try to maintain a steady speed
- If you drive a manual, change up the gears as soon as it is practical (first and second gears are the worst for fuel consumption)
- If you drive an automatic, ease up on the accelerator once the car gets going
- Whenever possible, avoid heavy traffic. Consider starting work early or late to avoid peak hour
- Minimise the use of your car’s air conditioning. In hotter weather, consider opening car windows instead or better still use the car’s natural ventilation system.
- Use cruise control on freeways if your vehicle has it
- Slow down – travelling at 90 instead of 110 km/hour can use up to 25% less fuel!
Fuel Saving Tips: Servicing Your Car Regularly
Regularly servicing your car is important for two main reasons; it keeps your running costs down and helps you to improve your car’s fuel efficiency. When you book your car in for a service, make sure your mechanic does the following:
Fuel Saving Tips: Correctly tune the engine
Regularly changes the engine oil using the grade of oil recommended by the car manufacturer
Keeps filters in good condition
Fuel Saving Tips: Inflating Tyres Correctly
Checking tyre pressure is important, especially with sudden temperature changes (for every 10 degrees change in temperature, tyre air pressure changes roughly 7kpa). It’s also worth noting that air pressure drops faster in the warmer months. Refer to the vehicle owner’s manual for the correct air pressure for your car and check tyre pressure when the car is cold for an accurate reading. A good tip is to inflate the tyres slightly highly then recommended in the manual as this will help with fuel economy and safer handling.
Fuel Saving Tips: Checking Your Car Load
Whenever possible, reduce the amount of heavy equipment in your vehicle. Items such as toolboxes and golf clubs will make your car work harder and that means higher fuel costs. Another consideration is external attachments such as roof racks. They cause wind resistance and should be removed when not in use if possible.
Running a vehicle is costly, especially if you depend on it heavily for personal daily travel and/or business use. Following Northside Rentals’ fuel saving tips will take some pressure off the daily running costs of your vehicle. Contact us for all your vehicle hiring needs on 1300 677 227 or
email today.
