Petrol prices have increased and it is not known how far they will go. Therefore it is necessary that each automobile owner tries to take steps to maximize the efforts to save on petrol.
To achieve this, you need to follow the following recommendations:
- Keep the vehicle in perfectly good condition servicing the vehicles as per the vehicle maintenance manual.
- Visit the service centre often and have periodic reviews of the general state of the vehicle.
- At the start it is not necessary to rev the engine of the car too much. When not moving, idling causes wastage of petrol and premature wear of the engine.
- Accelerate gradually, gently pressing the accelerator pedal. Sudden acceleration produces up to four times more consumption than when done in moderation.
- When selecting the most appropriate cruise speed of your route, remember to keep it constant, the majority of vehicles offer optimum performance between 80/110 km/hr.
- If your car has manual transmission change up a gear when the motor allows at the relevant speeds. Low speeds are designed to achieve a high thrust and quick acceleration. In fourth or fifth gears you save on fuel.
- Choose the service stations before you buy petrol. Prices vary greatly between stations on Wednesdays and Fridays.
- Buy petrol in the morning, when temperatures are low, when the petrol will be denser. In the morning, the amount you buy will not be lower in density. As the day goes by and the petrol becomes less dense because the fumes start to vaporize, you get lesser quantity for the same amount of money. If you fill the tank at mid-day, afternoon or evening, a litre of fuel is not exactly one litre.
- Use credit cards at fuel stations. Some offer a discount between 5% and 10%, also don't forget fuel points and discounts by supermarket giants like Woolsworth.
- Turn the nozzle of the pump to low to finish filing. When you fill gas slowly you can add up to 120 ml to your tank.
- It is not good to fill the tank quickly by squeezing the handle of the pump fully. There will be three options in the handle, slow, medium or fast. When you fill fast, fumes are formed which turns into steam and returns through the hose to the filling station tank. So always choose 'slow'. When you fill slowly, lesser fumes are created and you save on the quantity that you pay for.
- Fill your petrol tank before the level drops to below half. While there is more fuel in the tank, there is less air in it. The fuel evaporates faster than you think. Large gas stations have floating roofs on the inside of the underground tanks, for keeping the air separated from the fuel, to keep evaporation to a minimum.
- Do not fill your petrol tank when gas tankers are filling the station tanks or immediately thereafter. If you enter the service station and see a tanker truck is refilling the underground tanks avoid filling at the station at that time. When the gas station tanks are being filled, the sediments at the bottom of the underground tanks get disturbed and when you fill petrol at that time, you are more likely to have those sediments entering your tank and causing trouble later.
- When using the air conditioning, fuel consumption increases from 10% to 20%. To reduce consumption, open the windows of the vehicle to allow the hot air to go out and close them before starting the air conditioning. It is also important to periodically check the sealing of the doors and take your car to a service workshop for maintenance of the air conditioning unit.
- Keep track of your expenses to control fuel consumption. This will help to detect abnormalities in the performance of the vehicle. Consider that a car that requires tuning can consume 20% more fuel.
