AA Zone
Eco-driving
How much fuel can you save simply by changing driving style?
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AAChris
Posts: 50
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Subject: Eco-driving
Posted At: 15/10/2008 09:32:53
In the 2008 MPG Marathon, a 'race' to drive economically from Bristol to Macclesfield and back, AA president Edmund King (driving with the BBC's Tom Symonds) achieved 73mpg in a new Fiat 500. This was an improvement of 9% over the official combined fuel consumption figure for the car.
The overall winners achieved more than 84mpg driving a Toyota Yaris. Have you tried eco-driving? How much have you improved on the official fuel consumption figure for your car? |
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GCheeseman
Posts: 16
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Subject: Re: Eco-driving
Posted At: 16/10/2008 11:12:32
I'm lucky enough to have a trip computer on my diesel and you can set it up to display (estimated) average fuel consumption instead of the clock!
I actually did this for a while back in the 'summer' and was amazed to watch my av MPG slowly rise, with more careful use of the right foot etc. It became a bit of an obsession trying to go from say 42 to 50 in a 20 minute trip - the pleasure in achieving that and thinking about how much money i was saving as i drove was ridiculous... sad really. Disadvantages were... having to drive like an old biddy, and not knowing how late i was because it replaced the digital clock on the dash. |
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Wardio
Posts: 2
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Subject: Re: Eco-driving
Posted At: 06/01/2009 00:30:15
I regularly drive at no more than 50 or 60 mph and often seem to be passed by everyone and their aunt doing well over 70mph. Not only does this increase my mpg but saves on wear and tear - both on me and my car - and hardly makes any difference to journey time. Lets face it, if you are making a journey of 10 miles, the difference in duration of travel time between 70 and 50mph - even if you were able to maintain a constant speed - is about 4 minutes, so why rush? I don't know about improving on the official fuel consumption, but on a 400+ mile journey last year I averaged 54mpg on my Citroen C5 (diesel) with two up and luggage for a two week holiday, and that was just keeping to the 60mph maximum and easing off on the throttle on downhills. I drove from Sunderland to Campbeltown and back to Helensburgh before I refuelled. I sometimes wonder how far from normal driving these so-called mpg marathons are. Maybe driving instructors should be extolling the benefits of a "light right foot" these days!
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Si
Posts: 1
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Subject: Re: Eco-driving
Posted At: 24/01/2010 21:11:39
Hi all,
I get 350 miles from a tank of petrol with my 1998 Ford Fiesta (mostly dual carriageway at 70). I think my fuel tank is 45 litres, so my miles-per-gallon works out at just over 35 mpg. Does that sound about right for a car of that age? And does anyone know how that compares to what I could get from one of the newer models? |
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