Cheapest Petrol & Diesel Discussion Area

wiseowl wrote: »

Hi, for all of you frugal drivers out there, dont forget to 'coast' down every hill you drive - it can save you a significant amount of fuel simply by putting your car into neutral whenever possible and rolling down the hill.....try it!

Coasting in neutral means you aren't in proper control of the car. If your vehicle has a direct fuel injection it will typically cut out when, for example, going down a hill in gear. When coasting in neutral, fuel is needed to keep the engine idling over.

wiseowl wrote: »

Hi, for all of you frugal drivers out there, dont forget to 'coast' down every hill you drive - it can save you a significant amount of fuel simply by putting your car into neutral whenever possible and rolling down the hill.....try it!

I have heard that when going down hill your car will use no fuel if you leave it in gear and do not coast. I know this sounds odd, but I do distinctly remember on Top Gear when Clarkson drove a diesel Jag from London to Edinburgh and back again on 1 tankful. He phoned Jaguar and told them what he was planning and they told him not to coast down hills but to leave it in gear as it will use no fuel (when going down hill).

From what I remember about reading how petrolprices.com compiles their data, they're buying in fuel card user data and compile them. The trouble is that in order to get up to date prices, you'll have to have one of the fuel card users visit your local station...

For several stations around me (most notably the one directly at the end of the road, which tends to be expensive), the data is way out of date.

See the lights starting to change, or are red up ahead or there's a queue?! Don't accelerate all the way up to them. There's no point in doing that as you use more petrol and wear out your brakes faster. Foot off gas, foot ready to brake. Also, if you try not to stop at the lights (by going slower on approach), if they happen to turn green while you are still in motion, you will probably use less petrol from not stopping and starting, and be on your way quicker (than the guy in the outside lane who raced to the lights as fast as he could then braked hard to stop). Same applies in jams, try to anticipate the traffic ahead and move slowly without stopping and starting.

allym7 wrote: »

Did anyone watch top gear when he drove from london to edinburgh and back again on 1 tank of fuel? He didn't use the cruise control because the electrics' power required for this to work reduced his MPGs by 5 or 6, in a similar way using the air conditioning does. Also, a cruise control may not select the highest gear possible for the speed you are travelling at. This may not be true for all cars, but I think it is worth taking into account.

i remember this well,but i also remember this being an incredibly tiring ,stressful,and totally exhausting way to drive.
constantly worrying about fuel consumtion.
i think top gear should have done the same route driving normally with the radio on,using a/c and putting the window down when ever you wanted.
this would have given a better indication as to how much fuel was really saved.
but it was only proving audi's promise of X amount of miles per tank.
also the a8 that was featured has a large fuel tank.
a/c does affect fuel consumtion and engine power,but the larger the engine the less power it will drain and less fuel it will use up compared to a smaller engined car,it will sap a lot of engine power and use more fuel.

the coasting part you mentioned i didnt fully understand. i always thought you had to be in nuetral to coast,didnt think you could do it in gear,and certainly not in an automatic.