Car ownership comes with a lot of up-front costs and a lot of hidden costs, like the price of refueling. If you want to cut down on your fuel expenses, check out these tips.
Keep up with routine maintenance
When it comes to lessening the cost of fuel, it’s essential that you keep your car well maintained to help it remain as efficient as possible. Things like low tire pressure and old oil make your car engine work harder, but if you make sure your car is always in good condition you’ll notice you’re spending less on gas.
Prepare for long journeys
If you were planning on making a quick house sale, you wouldn’t neglect to do your research, plan your methods, and above all prepare the house for viewings. In the same way that you’d prepare your home for viewings, you should ensure your car is ready for the longer journeys it has to make.
If your car is full of unnecessary rubbish, you could be using more fuel than is necessary. It might not seem like much, but if the car has to carry more weight, then the engine has to work harder, which results in the usage of fuel going up. Simply by only taking what you need with you on those longer journeys and traveling lightly could save you some money. As well as this, if you have any unnecessary car accessories currently attached such as bike racks, get rid of them unless you need them! The less excess weight, the better.
However, it’s not all about what’s in the car, but also how far the car has to travel. It might seem that it’s going to cost you in petrol regardless of what you do because of the mere distance you’re traveling, but you can help that too. Before you set off, be sure to plan your route. By researching and planning your route, you can effectively choose the way that uses the least petrol. For example, long stretches of motorway driving are actually a lot more fuel-efficient than stopping and starting in built-up areas, therefore if you can it’s more economical to take the motorway route. If you plan your routes carefully, you’re also a lot less likely to get lost and therefore be driving around aimlessly.
Change the way you drive
Last, but certainly not least, have you ever considered that the way you’re actually driving could be causing you to use more petrol than you need to? If you’ve been driving for a long period of time, it’s very easy to pick up bad habits and techniques that equate to your fuel consumption going up. These can include slamming on the breaks, being heavy-footed on the accelerator, and going fast unnecessarily. Even slowing down my a simple 5-10 mph can make a difference. If you can, traveling in a higher gear will also use less fuel. These small changes could leave you with a little more cash in your pocket, so it’s well worth it.
This is a collaborative article.
