Easy Ways You Can Slash Fuel Costs While Driving

Owning a car is expensive, but the ability to be able to get around easily generally makes it worth the cost. However, even if you’ve found a fantastic deal on a car and shopped around for the cheapest car insurance, you still have fuel costs to consider. You might think the money you spend on fuel is avoidable, but actually, there are things you can do to reduce what you’re paying dramatically. Here are a few ways to go about it. 

Ditch The Unnecessary Weight

Maybe you have a big selection of tools in the trunk which you use for work? Once you’re done for the day, removing them rather than leaving them in the car or van and driving round will save you money on fuel. If you have a roof box or roof rack, take this down when you’re not using it. Not only will it contribute weight, but the wind resistance will also slow the car forcing it to work harder and use more fuel.

Avoid Rush Hour

Sitting in traffic with the engine running is bad for your health, bad for the environment and bad for your wallet too. For some people, it might be unavoidable, but if you can, try and stay off the roads during the busiest times. Perhaps you could walk to a coffee shop after work and spend an hour answering emails and tackling general ‘life admin’ before driving home. Your journey will be much faster, smoother and you’ll save money.

Stay Topped Up

Thousands of cars break down every day simply because they have run out of fuel. Stopping off at the gas station can be an annoying inconvenience, but you will save yourself a lot of hassle. Thankfully there are companies out there such as New Era Fuels who will deliver emergency and out of hours fuel if you get stuck, but prevention is better than cure. You’ll save yourself the cost of calling someone out in the first place if you plan your journeys and don’t let fuel drop below a certain amount. A quarter of a tank is a good baseline.

Combine Shorter Trips Into One

Once your car has been parked for a while, and the engine has gone cold, it will use more fuel than usual while it warms back up again. You can avoid this from happening by running your errands in one go rather than spreading them out through the day. Lots of shorter journeys are actually worse for fuel consumption, so if you need to pop out, you could even consider walking shorter trips. Great for extra exercise and you’ll cut down fuel bills too.

Drive Economically

Finally, the way you drive can impact the amount of fuel you’re using on the average journey. Accelerate and brake smoothly, don’t rev the car or hold it on the clutch when you’re stopped. Stopping with the brake is far more economical. Sometimes overtaking and speeding up is unavoidable, but doing so to overtake one car or get one place ahead is pointless and will cost you additional fuel.