How to save money at the pump

If fuel prices are making you splenetic, the driving techniques designed to make that fuel go further might restore a degree of calm.

Driving with economy in mind is all about smoothness, anticipation, being aware of your surroundings and not rushing things. Serial congestion means that, more often than not, an easy going journey is only fractionally slower than one where you’ve gone hell for leather.

So, here are some driving techniques that will help keep down the petrol bills:

Leave time to brake

Harsh acceleration and braking will dent your car’s efficiency. Looking ahead and around you, so that you’re anticipating things that might bring you to a sudden stop will result in it working less hard, which will improve your MPG. This means that you’re more likely to have begun gently lifting off the accelerator as cars in front of you bang on their brakes. It will help you drive smoothly, which also puts less strain on your car.

If you’re some distance from a green traffic light resist the temptation to fling yourself at it. If it changes, lift off the accelerator pedal and trickle towards it in the hope that it will change before you have to stop. Stopping, idling when stationary and setting off again saps fuel.

Light touch on the accelerator

Corporate thrusters in hellishly powerful company cars will feel the pinch at the pump. Progressive acceleration and lifting off will be kinder to your car and make it go further between re-fuelling. On uncluttered A-roads and motorways not mashing the accelerator into the carpet and keeping the engine turning over at a relaxed, consistent speed will also aid economy.

Check your speed

If you’ve ever shot past a truck or lumbering motorhome only to have it catch up with you the next time you stop, you will know the cruel truth that trying to go quickly on Britain’s roads is futile. They’re just too crowded. There’s no point being antisocially slow, but go gently. If your car has a manual gearbox change up as soon as you can so the engine isn’t working hard. Automatics often have different power options: select the ‘economy’ (or, heaven help us, ‘eco’) mode.

It’s a fix

Cars that have been properly serviced tend to have healthier mechanical bits, and will go further on a gallon of fuel as a result. A quartet of properly inflated tyres can make a surprising difference to MPG figures too. Also consider fitting ‘low rolling resistance’ tyres (the tyre can roll for longer before the resistance eventually makes it come to a stop, so saps less energy).

Your car is probably designed to cleave the air efficiently, so roof bars and open windows will make it less slippery and use more fuel, particularly on faster roads.

Empty your boot

It’s easy to fill your car with domestic detritus, but this household ephemera can add to its weight, and spending days dragging round unused folding pushchairs and tins for the food bank will burn more fuel.

Rethink the 4x4

Large so called ‘sports utilities’ usually aren’t sporting, and the utility of some of the plusher ones is suspect. Being bluff and heavy means they often use more fuel than corresponding conventional hatchbacks, saloons and estates. Drive a smaller car that doesn’t have the profile of a large shed, and your running costs will be less.

Electric dreams

Most of the above strictures will aid an electric car’s efficiency, but there are a few unique points. If you have a home charger, replenish its battery when electricity is at its cheapest.

Many electric cars have an economy mode, so try to remember to select it. When you lift off the accelerator, coast and brake, the electric motor becomes a generator and puts power back into the battery, so when going downhill try to lift the accelerator and coast. You can sometimes add two or three miles to the car’s range using this technique.

Mileage can be inched upwards by trickling up to junctions and coasting down smaller hills without going obscenely slowly. Watching the range increase can become slightly addictive.

Motorways, where you’re constantly using the power, will eat away at the battery’s energy. Hard driving will quickly do this. I recently drove an electric Vauxhall Mokka on the A21 in Kent, overtaking a couple of trucks on an uphill stretch. This took less than a minute and ate three miles worth of juice.

The cars that save you money

Since the VW emissions scandal, diesels have been seen by many as the acme of evil when it comes to nasty gasses and particulates, but new ones all meet Euro 6 emissions standards, and produce less CO2 overall than petrol cars.

For long range economy driving, diesel still has the edge.

Just about the most economical new internal combustion engined car in Britain is diesel powered. It’s the Peugeot 208 in 1.5 BlueHDi manual form. This has a claimed figure of 73.6mpg, about 3mpg ahead of the Vauxhall Corsa 1.5 Turbo D SE manual, which is basically the same car under the skin, as is the more cossetting Citroen C3 1.5 BlueHDi manual, which matches its Vauxhall cousin to the last inch mpg-wise.

Lower mileage drivers will probably be better off with a petrol powered city car. The Kia Picanto 1.0 MPi 1 manual is just about the most economical tiddler on the market, returning a claimed consumption of just under 59mpg. This upright little five door comes with a seven year warranty, goes well and is surprisingly roomy. The bigger Toyota Yaris petrol/hybrid is an automatic, so if you hanker after changing your own gears, tough. The latest one returns an official 68.9mpg. This is some way ahead of the 62.8mpg claimed for the hybrid-only Honda Jazz, which is frumpy on the outside, but enormous within.

Both these cars use a combination of electric and petrol power, employing the former to trundle along in traffic, but you can’t plug then in to charge up the electrical bits, unlike so called PHEV plug in hybrid vehicles. They can work in electric only mode, combined electric/petrol or pure petrol power modes. Some of these cars have eye popping, official three digit economy figures, although real world MPG returns often fall short, particularly on longer petrol only journeys where the cars are lugging dormant electric motors and batteries about.

Take the Mercedes C300 AMG Line auto, a traditional looking executive saloon, with an alleged official economy figure of 403mpg, combining an all-electric 62 mile range, with its internal combustion and electric/petrol modes. Too good to be true? Well, official government figures for its petrol only fuel consumption stand at a rather less startling 42.8mpg. This sort of statistical smoke and mirrors applies to other PHEVs.

If you’re looking for a cheap new electric car, you will look in vain. Smart’s not very nice, two seat only EQ fortwo city car not only has a daft name, but a paltry official range of 81 miles, so it will be less than that in the real world. All this can be yours for ‘just’ £22,175.

Rather more practical, if still absurdly monikered, is the VW e-up! a diminutive four seat city car allegedly capable of 159 miles between charges. Officially priced from £22, 865, VW won’t import any more of them, so you will need to trawl its dealer network to find one, or buy second-hand.

The self-consciously cute Fiat 500e costs from £23,835, but with a 118 mile range is only suitable for urban trundling.

Chinese budget car maker MG’s electric models aren’t cheap, but in relative terms they offer good value for money. Its Nissan Qashqai-sized ZS EV is roomy, well equipped, has an official 275 mile range and costs from £27,745. MG also offers the MG5, a Vauxhall Astra-sized estate car which in Long Range guise claims 250 miles between charges and costs from £28,195.

For economy-minded drivers, such cars are probably the future of motoring.