Petrol Saving Tips

Saving Petrol in New Zealand

If the price of petrol or diesel is really starting to eat a hole in your pants and not just your wallet, you’re not alone. This article discusses how to save petrol with your car, and alternatives to driving which will help your wallet.

• Car Pooling
• Business Automotive
• Vehicle and Transport Safety

The media has been fixated on the $2 petrol pricing figure for some time and their ominous warnings have finally become a reality. The high cost of transportation is here to stay, and until or unless someone comes up with an affordable and practical alternative to oil, we either have to budget harder to cope with it, or revise how we’re getting around.

Since riding a horse to work is probably not going to be a viable option for many people, you could either look to public transport, bicycles, or pounding the pavement with your feet as ways to get from place to place and cutting your petrol costs. If you live within 45 minutes or less walking distance to your place of work, and work during daylight hours, you could safely get a regular cardio workout, while also saving yourself some real cash. What would you do with at least $30 per week extra? Over a year that works out to $1560.

The above suggestions might not be ideal or realistic possibilities for some people, who work odd hours or live more than 45 minutes walking distance away from work. So some small, yet helpful tips on cutting the cost of your petrol consumption can still pay off.

Dealing with a thirsty car

• How big is that car you’re driving? What is its primary function and is it possible to downsize it to something with an 1800 cc rating or preferably less? The bigger the engine, the hungrier it is.
• When did your car last have a tune up and an oil change? Optimising the performance of your vehicle has been proven to cut down on petrol consumption. A noisy vehicle most likely equals an inefficient one since friction causes stress and requires more energy to propel the mechanisms inside.
• When driving your car, avoid rapid acceleration unless absolutely necessary. Jamming your foot on the accelerator simply burns more petrol.
• If you really want to be conservative and you have to drive long distances on highways where open road speed limits are observed, travelling at 90 km per hour instead of doing the maximum allowable 100 km per hour can actually save you too. The higher the RPMs, the faster the petrol gauge drops.
• If you own a car with a manual transmission, any time you travel at over 80 kph and your car tolerates it well, drive it in fifth gear.

Public transport
Have you got access to reliable public transport? Sit down and work out the math. Compare the price of return fares on a bus or a train to taking your car to work and back, the wear and tear on the vehicle that also requires maintenance, and the parking that you may or may not be obligated to pay for.

Rollerblade/inline skate
If you’re able-bodied and are confident on wheels, riding a pair of rollerblades to work looks like a heck of a lot of fun (noting you might need the all-terrain kind). It’s quicker than walking and you still get the exercise.

Scooter
Investing in a 50cc scooter, which will cost you about $2000, may work out cheaper than the bus on a week to week basis, excluding the purchase price. A scooter will normally have a 5 litre tank and should get you around 70-90kms to each tank. For most people living 5-10 kilometres outside of the central city, one tank will last you more than an entire working week.

Car pool
If you work odd hours, talk to work colleagues about car pooling and splitting the running costs. If you’re wondering how to find a car pooling buddy from your work, try pinning a message on the noticeboard or if you work at a computer, send out an inter-office email. These are lean times and with all essentials going up in price, car pooling would not only be a viable way to save on running costs, it would also reduce the cars on our increasingly congested roads and actually get us to our destinations a bit quicker. You can also make it your silent protest against those big oil conglomerates who adjust their prices immediately after the barrel price goes up.

The magic word: Option
If you’re able to, consider only purchasing petrol for trips of pleasure, ie; weekend or shopping only. Or choose your own car-less days. Take public transport on certain days and take the car on alternate days. If you regularly drive your children to school but are not required to work, then you’ve possibly got time to walk them to school instead.

If you must…
If you absolutely have to drive and have no other way around it for safety or practical reasons, seriously consider what size car you’re driving. Investing in the right kind of vehicle for your lifestyle is a need. New diesel cars are just as fuel efficient, if not more so than Hybrid cars, and they are not just trucks anymore, smaller 2-seat cars often now have diesel options. Put the bigger vehicle away and save it for shopping and put the savings in petrol away for things you actually want to spend your money on!

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Motoring images from Flickr: Police Staff Car, Traffic Lights and Motorway.