Fuel economy
Driving wisely and choosing the right car are the keys to fuel economy.
It's relatively easy to get an extra 50 km of driving out of your tank: adopt some simple driving habits, carry out basic checks on your car and choose the most fuel efficient car for your needs.
Test your car's fuel economy
If you want to measure just how much of an improvement you're making to your car's fuel economy, you need to have a starting point.
Follow these easy steps.
- Wait until the fuel gauge needle is on an easily visible mark just before you're due to fill up (this could be at the top of the ‘E' or the next mark above if you're worried about running out of gas). Make sure you take the reading on a flat piece of road.
- When you fill up, keep track of how many litres you bought. The easiest way to do this is just to keep the docket in a safe place in your car. You don't have to fill the tank completely, but if you do, make sure you don't over fill it – just until the pump clicks off the first time.
- Reset the trip meter before you drive off. Drive around as you normally would. When the fuel gauge reaches the same point as in the first step, write down the distance you have travelled from the trip meter.
- Now you have all the information you need to calculate your fuel economy. Simply divide the number of litres you used by the distance you travelled. Now multiply this by 100. The result is your fuel economy in litres per 100km.
Calculate your fuel economy
This simple equation will tell you your car's fuel economy:
- write the litres of fuel you filled your car with:_______litres (a)
- write the total kilometres travelled:_______kilometres (b)
- divide litres (a) by kilometres (b):_______litres per km (c)
- multiply (c) by 100, this is your fuel economy in litres per 100 km_______
For example, if it takes 47 litres to fill your car and you have traveled 685km, that comes to 6.86 litres per 100 km.
If you want to monitor your fuel economy more precisely, continue to do the measurement and take averages every now and then. This will let you see if you have improved your fuel economy or slipped into more fuel consuming ways.