Purchasing the most cost-effective gasoline or diesel might be the easiest way to cut down the fuel costs, but might not be the best for your car’s mechanism, especially its engine according to Top Line Performance, an auto repair shop in Huntington Beach Ca. Besides the fact that fossil fuel is awful for the environment, it reigns havoc on your pocket too!
Fuel prices are not getting any lower, in fact, they are just getting higher. The fuel costs are responsible for the daily running car expenses. In fact, they make up about 40 to 45% of your overall vehicle costs. If you drive an automatic car, you are probably spending slightly more than manual car drivers, since automatic cars are less fuel-efficient. Again, if you drive an automatic car, you probably feel you can’t do much about saving fuel costs, but the way you drive, the techniques you use can stretch out your fuel way further.
An Auto Repair Shop in Huntington Beach Ca Shares How To Save Fuel In Cars
No matter who you are, you want to save money. So, lowering your day-to-day fuel costs is a good start to budgeting your expenses. Here are a few ways of bringing down your transportation costs.
Unclutter Your Car
If you are one of those people who think your vehicle is just a supplementary place to dump your belongings, think again. Do whatever you can to declutter your car. Most hardcore hoarders are probably wondering why and feeling a lot of resentment. Well, it’s more beneficial for you to unload because the lighter your motor vehicle is, the less energy it requires to get moving. Consequently, the less heavy your automobile is, the less fuel it’s going to burn. Therefore, anything that is making the car heavier, remove them immediately. This goes for anything outside of your car too.
For instance, bike racks, or storage boxes should be taken off if you aren’t using them. Keep the inside and outside of your automobile as minimalistic as possible to avoid high fuel costs. Eliminating just 100 pounds of excess weight can improve your fuel economy by about 2%. In fact, fuel economy is another reason why many car models, including Toyota, are making their vehicles lighter. On top of that, if you use your car for short trips, don’t get in the habit of filling your gas tank all the way. The reason being is that fuel itself is heavy, so it goes without saying that if you are trying to keep your car light, keep your gas tank levels as low as possible.
Drive Carefully And Sensibly
If you drive like a Formula One race car driver, you are going to burn fuel like one. The only difference is they probably have the cash to burn and you don’t. If you drive erratically, you are undoubtedly letting your car consume 60% more fuel than it has to. So, do yourself and the bank manager a favor and drop a few numbers on your speedometer. According to the Automobile Association, by just stepping down your speed from 80 mph to 70 mph, you could save up to 25% on your fuel. If you are just driving on town roads, slowing down from 70 mph to 60 mph can save you another 10%.
The best speed to drive your car according to auto repair shops in Huntington Beach Ca is a consistent speed of 50 mph. When the traffic light turns green, drive away smoothly, don’t overtake if you don’t have to, and avoid sudden braking. If you drive slow and steady, you can win the fuel cost race.
Keep Your Tires Properly Inflated
Your vehicles are constantly touching the road, so it makes sense to keep the objects that let your car stay on the street up to par. Your car’s tires have a huge impact on the way you drive and how much fuel you spend. If you are cruising around with underinflated tires, your car is going to begin to drag. Besides the fact that your car has to work against itself, it will burn more fuel doing so, increases stopping distances, and is usually not as safe to drive.
Don’t Use The Air-Conditioning Unless It’s Really Hot
Operating the car’s air-conditioning system, especially when you have a lot of passengers in the car at the time, and depending on how hot it is outside, could increase your fuel cost up to 5%. In general, this depends on your automobile’s AC compressor.
However, if it’s a sweltering hot day, you shouldn’t feel inclined to switch off your AC to save that 5%. The extreme heat can cause health problems and make it very difficult to concentrate on driving. Also, make it a point to turn your AC on when driving on the highway in hot weather. Although, if you see that the air conditioning is consuming the fuel very quickly or even worse, overheating the engine, turn it off immediately. This usually happens when the fuel levels in the oil tank are alarmingly low.
When At The Traffic Lights, Switch Off The Engine
Everybody does it, but it doesn’t make it right. That’s sitting at the traffic lights, or even in traffic, with their car’s engine running. Unbelievably, this burns a lot of fuel and all you have to do to stop this from happening is to turn off or push the ignition key off. You really can save a lot of fuel this way.
Keep Your Foot Off The Brake
If you have a habit of keeping your foot on the brake pedal, even if you do so very lightly, this will apply a lot of drag to your vehicle. As a result, this will increase your fuel costs. Not only will this put a lot of stress on your engine and transmission to work harder according to auto repair shops, but you’ll also find that you’ll wear out your brakes very quickly.
So, whether you drive a manual or automatic car, you should find the auto repair tips above very useful when you want to save money on your daily fuel costs. In the long run, you could be putting the money you save on fuel on something else. Perhaps, you could use that extra cash to test drive one of the many cars in Huntington Beach and the rest of Orange County.
