Driving Style Tips for UK Motorists

I cannot stress enough the impact your driving style has on fuel economy. You must adjust your driving style to suit both, the vehicle you are driving, and the environment you are driving in. To get the best out of your car, you must first properly understand the fundamental driving techniques to use, but more importantly, WHY YOU SHOULD USE THEM! One obvious thing to mention at this point, is that although I will include tips for cars with an automatic gearbox, these articles are biased in favour of cars with a manual gearbox. There are many reasons for this, not least the obvious fuel penalty with a conventional autobox. If you can’t live without an automatic, there are CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) based automatics, which offer little, or no fuel penalty over a manual gearbox. Please note at this point, that I won’t be covering petrol cars that are fitted with a turbocharger, as you would probably own it for all the wrong reasons!

I’m going to hazard a guess here, and say that around 90% of petrol cars on UK roads in 2008, have Electronic Fuel Injection or EFI, older cars used carburettors before EFI became the norm. You need to be aware that some of the methods your ‘dad’ told you to use, do not work so well in modern petrol cars. Cars fitted with EFI have something your daddy’s car didn’t have, A FUEL RETURN PIPE! Yes, quite simply put, it’s a pipe that will return unused fuel to the tank. Q: When does that happen then? A: Every time you take your foot OFF the accelerator. This is where most people make a BIG mistake, they start thinking that if they coast along the road in neutral, and keep their foot off the pedal, they won’t be using any fuel, …WRONG!!!!!! Here’s why. You’re driving along and you come to the top of a big hill, and you start thinking to yourself, I’m gonna freewheel down this and save some fuel, so you stick it in neutral and coast down the hill on tickover, WRONG AGAIN!!!!! WHY? Because, when you were coasting down the hill in neutral, your engine was ticking over, so it was using fuel, and not returning it to the tank! Now, at this point, you might be thinking, ‘but I still saved fuel’ and I would say ‘Yes you did ‘grasshopper’, but what you should have done at the top of the hill is this. – At the top of the hill you should have taken your flipper off the go pedal, and left the car in gear, now you should use engine braking to go down the hill, stepping down a gear or two to slow yourself, and a little foot brake if needed, or if it’s a big open road ahead, you could just have left it in 5^th or 6^th and gather speed. Why use engine braking, I hear you ask?, it just doesn’t make sense? – well it’s quite simple really. When you go down the hill using my method, if the car is still in gear when you take your foot of the accelerator, the engine will not be using any fuel, I mean NONE WHATSOEVER!, it just returns it to the tank. If you let the revs drop below around 1000rpm, tickover will kick in to stop the engine from stalling, and you will be burning fuel. Whereas, if you take your foot off the pedal, but keep the engine revs above the point (approx 1000rpm) where tickover kicks in, your car will not be using any fuel. The point of that example is to get you to use engine braking whenever possible, simply because it cuts off the fuel supply to the engine. When approaching junctions or traffic lights, work your way back down to second gear when possible, to keep the fuel supply cut off for as long as possible, but never shift down into first while the vehicle is in motion, I know 99% of you will know this, it’s just for the 1% who don’t know. Just one more tip for this section, on the subject of cold starts in the morning. When you start your car in the mornings for the first time, some of you will sit there for 5 minutes to warm the engine up. The almost traditional engine warm up, is a blatant waste of fuel, it is totally uneccesary and will play havoc with your mpg figures, driving off immediately after starting your engine in a non turbo petrol car is much more fuel efficient.

Edit: I came across this video made by a Jeremy Clarkson wannabe in the UK, its a bit nerdy but he makes a few useful points. Anyway Clarkson can rest easy and his job is definately safe for a little while longer.