Fuel Economy Reporting Thread

davtom

I've never saved money using one of these "miracle additives" that people claim can improve your MPG. I'm not saying they never work, but they don't seem to work for me.

Using a lighter driving technique, I tend to average around 40 mpg in my Corolla 1.6 as opposed to around 37 mpg.

Thoughts: maybe filling up to half a tank rather than a full tank will save you money, but you'll have to fill up more often which subsequently involves more trips to the fuel station, and I believe the difference will be swallowed up by the extra trips. Let's say a typical car has a mass of 1000kg and a 50l tank. Petrol has a specific gravity of around 0.74, so the mass of a full tank would be 37kg; the mass of half a tank would be 18.5kg. The reduction in mass is less than 2% of the total mass, so you can expect to see maybe 0.1mpg more efficiency; not really all that much.

It's also worth taking into consideration the distance to the fuel station in terms of its deviation from the normal route and comparing that with the number of miles you get out of an average tankful.

housebuyer_3

anewman wrote: »

Housebuyer's thing sounds somewhat like the mothball scam to me that's been doing the rounds.

Please elaborate on the scam it sounds like!?

This is why I don't post on open forums due to negativity from Joe public that doesn't wish to add value or anything positive to any posts. The MSE equivalent for the property world is called singingpig.co.uk - don't worry, if it was meant constructively, no offence taken.

This was a suggestion to Martin - I wasn't offering you free mothballs :rolleyes:

110frankie

petrol car owners should consider having LPG fitted.
I'm paying 36p a litre at the moment.
Driving gently does make a difference as well, as does anticipation, as someone said above, stopping at traffic lights can up the consumption, so I try to gauge my speed to lights so that I do not have to stop.
Not as difficult as it appears once you really start to practice it.

tinah29

the web site(http://www.petrolprices.com/ )that you told us about Martin i have been used for about a year now it me a email two time a week to tell me the best place to buy my fuel from every penny help's thank's tina

malcolmw_3

I carried out a personal driving experiment with a comparison of the cheapest unleaded fuel and Shell V-Power ( my car can use this octane although it manages on anything from 92-99). The cheapest fuel was 4% cheaper than the V-Power but delivered 10% fewer miles per gallon, it does not take Hercule Poirot to work out that this is another economy that is counter-productive. I spoke with friends who are cheap petrol junkies and they had similar experiences.

klint

Why does the use of cruise control save you money? I would have thought the opposite. If you maintain a constant speed yourself, then all the power goes towards maintaining the constant speed. On the other hand, if you use cruise control to maintain constant speed, a small amount of the engine's output goes towards powering the electronics/mechanical apparatus of the cruise control system. So can anyone explain the assertion that it saves petrol?

colin79666

klint wrote: »

Why does the use of cruise control save you money? I would have thought the opposite. If you maintain a constant speed yourself, then all the power goes towards maintaining the constant speed. On the other hand, if you use cruise control to maintain constant speed, a small amount of the engine's output goes towards powering the electronics/mechanical apparatus of the cruise control system. So can anyone explain the assertion that it saves petrol?

Because on an open road (imagine straight American roads that are flat for hundreds of miles) the cars cruise control is much more smooth than your right foot. A driver will slightly over accelerate, back off, accelerate over and over again wasting petrol. Cruise control will provide just the right acceleration to maintain a constant speed - saving petrol.

Brent

housebuyer wrote: »

Hi Martin,

I understand that you can't post commercial links on this site and you do not wish to be contacted directly.

I drive a lot of miles every year as do a lot of people I know.

In an effort to keep costs down we keep an eye on low fuel prices and came across an American product which is a pill that you add to your petrol tank.

We will be advertising this product nationally in the next few weeks. On June 16th 2007, we have invited the US owners/creators to London and will have an official UK launch.

The fuel capsule has been fully tested by the EPA and been featured on news reports in the USA. It is environmentally friendly - increases efficiency, performance and improves mileage. And it also reduces your emissions and overall running costs.

I would like to mention the benefits of this item to your readers/subscribers but can't due to your T&C's.

Please feel free to let me know if you would like me to send some samples for you to try out and some further info.
My recommendation would be to give it a try and when you see the results, decide if it is worth recommending on here.

If you are interested, we can also arrange tickets for you to come to the launch and meet the engineers/creators behind the product.

Regards,
Bobby

Moth Balls is it? Naptha, tin, potassium, RedEx, all been used in the past. Snakeoil.

PJD

pianeet wrote: »

there is an article in this weeks autoexpress magazine that if you floor the excelereator and change gear at 2000 rpm you actually achieve 16% increase in fuel economy,they tried it in several different cars and all showed increased fuel economy

Interesting.......... do you remember the reasoning behind this????

plane_boy2000

Myron wrote: »

Okay... I know I'm cheating by owning a Toyota Prius but recently, and with the optimal style driving I manage to get well over 20 minutes of over 100mpg. For my commute to the office and back 20 minutes is about 12 miles.

If I mostly use cruise control then I can't achieve over 100mpg for such a long duration because cruise maintains a set speed and in a urban environment this is not always a desired action.

For any vehicle a predictive style of diving needs to be adopted and not a reactive and/or lazy style of driving.

100MPG is the instantanious figure not the true average. I can make my partners MPV read over 100 MPG with ease, but the average is still only around 45.