A BBC article on changing driving habits, with a few interesting statistics, that you folks might find interesting.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12664047
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I drive around an indicated 65mph (75 mph last year) on motorways most of the time - 10 mins on a 2 hour journey of 125 miles and mpg goes from 32 ish to 38 ish.
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I found following a lorry is best way to conserve fuel.
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"I found following a lorry is best way to conserve fuel."
I tried that but couldn't find anywhere to sleep in his depot.
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>> "I found following a lorry is best way to conserve fuel."
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>> I tried that but couldn't find anywhere to sleep in his depot.
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Hard shoulder. If questioned, just say "I'm with him", only in Croatian of course.
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Yes, tailgating is the best fuel-saver I know of.
Have you noticed how the BBC (and other greenies) are absolutely loving the high fuel prices, and the grief it causes to motorists (without really cottoning on to the damage it does to the economy, peoples lives and livelihoods)?
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I'm no mathematician, as I think has been adequately established, but I'm struggling with these two bits from the above quoted article. I'm amazed if the first is true and I can't grasp the second at all.
"I used to pull up at traffic lights and think they would go green in a little while, and leave my feet on the clutch and accelerator, but now I put it into neutral, the handbrake on and take my feet off the accelerator, which can save you about £10-20 a week."
and
# The average petrol car, according to official figures, does 31 miles per gallon, or 6.8 miles per litre
# Improving that mpg to 32 would save 11 miles in a gallon, or 1.6 miles in a litre
Last edited by: Crankcase on Wed 9 Mar 11 at 15:44
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"which can save you about £10-20 a week"
Cool.
I only spend £15 a week so if I can save £20 by using the handbrake, I'll be in profit.
Whoopee.
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It is simple really.
Both facts are wrong!
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....but not for the lorry driver!
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Explains why so many people on NSL 'A' roads dawdle at 40mph then...and try to keep the same speed up in the next 30mph limit village...and there was me thinking it was lack of awareness.
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Really want to aim for 56 mph through those 30 zones for real economy, 40 is just too slow ( and according to instant economy gauge on cars ive driven uses more fuel on undulating roads ).
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>> Really want to aim for 56 mph through those 30 zones for real economy, 40
>> is just too slow >>
Our local plods would just love that excuse, they had a speed trap set up in a 20 limit village this morning, plenty of customers too.
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I find riding in the back of the lorry is the best way to save fuel :).
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>> Really want to aim for 56 mph
It's like Stu's been dragged and dropped into a fast car?! ;-) :-P
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Well, the official police line is to go as fast as you judge safe and with my car being so good in the twisty stuff, I know at 56 mph I will be at the ideal speed to balance staying awake with excitement of avoiding school kids against economy - its the ideal world :-)
Of course, doing 56 past our local school would mean putting the suspension through the floor with speed humps and potholes, but its a nice theory :-)
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Maybe 40 everywhere is the answer?
If you can't beat them, join them. Might even give MLOCing a whirl and see if it's for me. Convoy driving might be fun after all.
Not likely to be held up at 40, empty roads in front when off the motorway network. Maybe there's something in the idea!
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I have been driving slower, but there is a snag. The Octavia doesn't really like being in 6th much below 50mph, so I find myself rowing along between 5th and top on single carriageways.
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>> I have been driving slower, but there is a snag. The Octavia doesn't really like
>> being in 6th much below 50mph, so I find myself rowing along between 5th and
>> top on single carriageways.
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That's a very interesting post. I'll bet that the automatic version of the Octavia is clever enough to swap between the gears as well as a human with manual transmission. (It's that clever DSG thingy, isn't it?). However, I'll bet that this cannot be said of all automatic transmissions, and I'll further guess that they err on the side of higher gearing.
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I drove one of our Skoda TDi RRVs today. According to the computer the average mpg was only 29mpg. Hmm.
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>> According to the computer the average mpg was only 29mpg
Was it brand new? I think it's common when new, tank range flashes up as 250 miles or something. They sort themselves out over ~2 tanks of fuel.
Or were you just testing out the "rapid" qualification? :-) I'm jealous.
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Well, my driving habits have changed dramatically due to the increasing price of petrol. OK, so I'm still off work sick so I'm not commuting 50 miles a day, but I hardly ever use my car now. I'm lucky, in that I work for Stagecoach so I get a staff pass that I can use on my local operator's buses so I travel everywhere (unless I've got something heavy or bulky to transport) by bus. I reckon I've driven less than 15 miles in the past week.
I have to say, though, that if I didn't have my staff pass it would probably be cheaper for me to carry on driving.
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I save fuel by pushing my car to the end of the road, phone up the breakdown truck and tell them where I want it dropped off. At the end of the day I do the same and get towed home.
Methinks they are starting to get suspicious though...
;-)
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>> I have to say, though, that if I didn't have my staff pass it would
>> probably be cheaper for me to carry on driving.
>>
My geriatrics bus pass gives me free travel on all busses throughout Scotland, worth more than its weight in gold!
I still prefer and use my car for most journeys though, but the day will come......
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Fess up time
I have changed my driving habits. Cruising on the Mway is now 65 not 75. Short (1-2 miles) journeys have been dumped in favour of walking. Probably shaved 70 miles off my monthly total by a bit of planning and the walking.
That will see me on par with my previous spend till petrol gets to 1.40. Plus I shaved 16 quid a month off my paper bill by taking I in place of The Times.
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I've not changed my driving style as I'm still basking in the 50+mpg of my current car compared with just over 30pmg on the previous one. However a major motivator in the move we are starting out on just now is to get near the girls school cut out the 1200mls a month ferrying them there plus be in a place where we can cycle to the local shop/pub/doctors/dentist.
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There are several plans afoot locally to either build a Tesco or Sainsburys on a business park just outside our lil town. Im fully for it because there is no petrol station in our town other than a hugely expensive backstreet one and our supermarket isnt really that super, so not good enough for weekly shop.
If they build one, it will save me about 80 miles a month out of my 800 odd that I do. Seems worthwhile.
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>>Was it brand new? I think it's common when new, tank range flashes up as 250 miles or >>something. They sort themselves out over ~2 tanks of fuel.
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>>Or were you just testing out the "rapid" qualification? :-) I'm jealous.
Nope, I think it was a 59 plate with 40-odd thousand miles on. I wouldn't have thought anyone would reset the average mpg-o-meter so I'm guessing the average of 29 would be over quite a distance....
As I'm not a para I don't get to drive a RRV in the 'Rapid' sense, I was just taking it from A to B. Now, the big Mercedes ambulances on the other hand - they can shift when pushed considering the size...
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>> Well, the official police line is to go as fast as you judge safe and
>> with my car being so good in the twisty stuff, I know at 56 mph
>> I will be at the ideal speed to balance staying awake with excitement of avoiding
>> school kids against economy - its the ideal world :-)
You do talk some carp.
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Lighten up grumpy. You said break the limit, use your own judgement rather than stick to the limit. Im making an independant interpretation of it :-)
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My car does 20 mpg so it makes no odds anyway. Never was one for driving down to nearby shops. I shop on t'internet. Would only drive there if I had to take the car out for another reason anyway. Most journeys if I need something or multiple things are done in one go so you don't do separate trips. Wouldn't waste time trying to do any of them by PT as it would take all day to go to 2 or 3 different places but with a car you can usually get it all done in an hour or two.
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The only time I've ever modified my driving style to conserve fuel was during the fuel tanker drivers strike in approximately 1985.
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Even mimsing it along the motorway my 120d is only achieving 45mpg. It's going back into the dealer next week to be checked over.
I do the hyper-miling stuff better than James May, and even my best techniques have come nowhere close to the quoted figures for the Beemer. I don't mind low mpg if I thrash it somewhere, but I expect it to do reasonably well if I make the effort.
I used to be able to get 72mpg from my Passat by following a big and wide HGV. I believe Mythbusters showed that you don't need to tailgate them, and the normal 2-second gap is about 85% as good at reducing drag as gluing yourself to the rear bumper.
With practice, you can feel the slight buffet as you pull into their slipstream and then the fuel economy sky-rockets. There are two major drawbacks to this.
1) You have to find a lorry with a generous speed limiter, and stick to him (or her) like glue. This is a potential problem if he decides to take a different route to you.
2) Driving at 56mph is REALLLLY boring, and I usually go back to the GPS 77mph after a couple of hours of this.
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Quoted economy figures are nonsense. The urban figure gives you a rough idea what you expect to get under normal driving conditions. Not any of the others. If you don't get the urban figure in mixed driving then I'd complain. Plus diesels often don't get anywhere near their quoted figures until they've been properly run in which can mean 15k + mileage.
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Hypermiling is a great way to save fuel. Driving right up the rear end of an HGV, you get minimum wind resistance. You can put the money you save towards getting a front end sprayjob, as it'll end up looking like it's been on a shooting range
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Strange but these past few weeks there seem to be fewer & fewer people I have to flash out of my way in lane 3.
tic
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>> Strange but these past few weeks there seem to be fewer & fewer people I
>> have to flash out of my way in lane 3.
>> tic
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When people flash me I flash my brake lights while slowing down to drop into a gap a few cars back in lane two. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 13 Mar 11 at 21:58
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As I mentioned before, I am trying to cut out unnecessary journeys like trips to the supermarket to buy milk and bread.
Haven't been able to get on my bike yet this year due to a cold and cough that just won't shift but when it does, I will be biking to work 3 or so times a week.
I am also trying to avoid the full rush hour journey so either working from home for first hour, or just commuting to one of our shops and working from there in the first hour until the traffic clears.
I am also ditching brand loyalty - usually use Tesco due to their proximity to my house and clubcard points - now I am filling up as and when I see favourable prices.
(Skoda - have you noticed the garage at the bottom of Merry St always seems to be a couple of pence cheaper than everywhere else - when its open!)
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Hadn't noticed bobby, the traffic guys, never panda cars always traffic, frequently sit in the car park for the high rises opposite, just at the lockups facing towards the garage. I have no idea why but it's fairly frequent, must be a reason.
Wrong bit of Motherwell for talent spotting. (is there a right bit?)
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>>Wrong bit of Motherwell for talent spotting. (is there a right bit?)
em ... nope!
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I admit my speeds have decreased since returning to the UK and being subject to our outrageous diesel prices.
I find, where appropriate, that cruise control helps and in our 1.9tdi Alhambra, our average over the last few thousand miles (according, I must add, to the vehicle computer)
is +- 46mpg.
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Have slowed down, the Octavia was saying 69mpg when i got to work this morning instead of the 59 it used to tell me. Miles since filling was 499.9 and the miles to go on tank were 320!
Calculated economy (the computer is very optimistic0 has gone up from 56ish to 64ish.If
I am saving 15% of my annual spend (2.5k plus) I will be pleased.
Still amazed by howm many still drive around well over the limit, with roofbars/top boxes or large/heavy vehicles . . . Until that stops the Govt have an excuse for continuing the rise.
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Still amazed by howm many still drive around well over the limit, with roofbars/top boxes or large/heavy vehicles . . . Until that stops the Govt have an excuse for continuing the rise.
Wrong.
Once everyone has modified their cars/driving to be more efficient the govt will need to increase the tax rates to maintain their looting and pillaging.
Long live the gas guzzlers.
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>> Even mimsing it along the motorway my 120d is only achieving 45mpg.
Something wrong there. In mimse mode I can beat that in my 530d automatic.
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Fuel prices and driving habits - Falkirk Bairn
