Reduce fuel costs and start saving money today

Motor Dealer group Swansway Group encourages drivers to reconsider their driving habits to reduce their fuel costs and start saving money with their fuel saving tips.

It may come as a surprise to many motorists, but even the latest and most efficient engines only convert about 30% of the energy in a gallon of fuel into useful power. The rest is lost in heat, vibration, overcoming the air resistance and the drag of the tyres.

Driving more efficiently

• Nothing drinks fuel faster than accelerating, so do less of it by looking and planning ahead.

• Change to a higher gear at lower revs – don’t hold onto the lower gears for so long before changing up to the next one.
• Try to keep rolling in slow traffic if possible, rather than stopping and starting – there’s no point in losing speed needlessly, only to then burn fuel regaining it.
• Watch your speeds – an average hatchback burns about 9% more fuel at 70mph than at 60mph and up to 15% more than at 50. 

There are some easy and obvious things you can do to the car itself to save fuel too

• Keep the tyres at the right pressure.
• Remove any unnecessary weight –lugging around extra weight means the engine has to work harder to pull it when accelerating or going uphill.
• Keep the engine regularly serviced – a healthy engine is an efficient engine so regular maintenance and booking a car service will pay dividends.
• Avoid letting the car warm up before driving – this isn’t necessary for modern engines, so having the car idling outside your house on a frosty morning does nothing but waste fuel.

Swansway Group, said: “For every three gallons of fuel purchased, two of them are effectively being wasted. With just a few simple steps, a highly experienced driver could see a gain of at least ten per cent just by following these tips. The less efficient driver will see an even bigger benefit!” 

So, the question is…  How much will you save?

For further driving tips and advice, check out the Swansway blog for ‘Simple Fuel Saving Tips ‘ or if you are looking to upgrade your current vehicle, why not take a look at some of the cars for sale at your local Swansway Group Dealership.