fuel, cost cutting

stikkiniki

best tip i was ever given on exiting the Big Green Gathering 2 years ago was if you think you are going to idle your car for over 20 seconds, switch your engine OFF, as it burns more fuel/money. So save your environment & £££s by turning off next time you are really stuck in traffic or know the lights take more than 20secs to change.

i also changed from petrol to biodiesel this year, & doubled my savings.

i always try n plan my routes to combine trips in my car, i.e. on way home from work I do shopping, & work out best circular routes where poss. it saves time in the end too.

& wot about driving at 50-60mph, it really does make a difference, i drove everywhere i legally could @ these speeds during the fuel action a few years ago & was amazed at the savings i made, i did :j n't get any where much later & was more relaxed as well.

rdwarr

Driving style makes an amazing difference!
I have a Jaguar XJS (for occasional use) with a computer that tells you your average mpg since you last reset it. Driving badly (foot to the floor, hard on the brakes etc.) a particular journey would return 8mpg. But driven carefully it will do nearly 20mpg.
Now imagine those figures multiplied by 2 or 3 for a normal small/medium saloon.

balsingh

stikkiniki wrote:

best tip i was ever given on exiting the Big Green Gathering 2 years ago was if you think you are going to idle your car for over 20 seconds, switch your engine OFF, as it burns more fuel/money. So save your environment & £££s by turning off next time you are really stuck in traffic or know the lights take more than 20secs to change.

Apparently, when a car is idling for 3 minutes, on average it uses the same amoutn of fuel as driving 1 mile. So 20 seconds wouldn't really make much difference. It also takes more fuel to start the car as well as wear & tear on the starter motor. From an environmental view, you are probably right though.

Murphy_The_Cat

rdwarr wrote:

Driving style makes an amazing difference!
I have a Jaguar XJS (for occasional use) with a computer that tells you your average mpg since you last reset it. Driving badly (foot to the floor, hard on the brakes etc.) a particular journey would return 8mpg. But driven carefully it will do nearly 20mpg.
Now imagine those figures multiplied by 2 or 3 for a normal small/medium saloon.

I'll back up what rdwarr says here.

all of my recent cars have had trip computers in them that works out your m.p.g.

It really does have a positive effect on your right foot when you can see how much it is going to cost you.


MTC

*!*HIBS*!*

stikkiniki wrote:

if you think you are going to idle your car for over 20 seconds, switch your engine OFF, as it burns more fuel/money. So save your environment & £££s by turning off next time you are really stuck in traffic or know the lights take more than 20secs to change.

Whilst I would agree to this for major pile ups/big traffic jams that are not moving, as balsing said

It also takes more fuel to start the car as well as wear & tear on the starter motor.

Plus if its an older car it might be harder to start (in some cases it might not unless you jump started it) and another thing is if its bad weather it will use more battery up as you will need the lights, wipers and heating on etc...

We can only contribute to help save the environment, but there are other countries which are more polluters than us! As George Bush has not agreed to the Kyoto Treaty a few States in USA have decided to cut down on the emissions to help cut carbon emissions!:T