Economical Driving

Tom|Nbk

Tom|Nbk

Tom|Nbk

Soldato
Joined
12 Mar 2006
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N.E England
Maybe I'm opening a can of worms by posting something like this on a petrolhead forum so this thread my fall on its arse but I'm genuinely interested, I only decided to alter my driving style after my mate told me how better his consumption was when he stopped driving like a numpty (shock horror) and suggested I do the same.

So I decided to try it. I was once under the impression that getting into the highest gear possible as soon as possible was the best way to drive economically. I was pretty wrong - a common misconception. I now keep revs between 1500 and 4000 RPM and try not to make the engine "labour".

I've also started to drive at 55-60MPH on some dual carriageways in order to try and get more miles for my pence as apposed to previously looking at getting to the limit as fast as possible and sometimes going over. I now prefer driving a little slower than normal if I'm not in a rush, maybe I'm turning into an old fart and need to get that Honda Jazz sooner than I thought ;). Anyway, I have noticed a good improvement in the miles I get to my weekly topup (£20)

I know that taxi drivers drive like this for a reason, so with rising fuel costs is anyone else trying to get the extra mile out their tank or do you generally not give a toss?

Genuinely interested to hear your views on this and whether you're bothered. I know some people pay silly amounts now to fill their tanks with rising fuel costs so maybe saving money is more important than it once was. I know for someone like me (Student - Low income) it's a bit better if I can get the most for my money out of the fill up. Maybe when my income goes up I can stop worrying about how many MPG's I get!

This is kind of linking to the trading down thread.
 
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Interesting stuff mate, I frequently decide to be as feather footed as I can in the truck (when I've not got 3 hours to do a 4 hour trip mind you) and can often get well into double figure MPG, not bad when my average is usually around 8 MPG.
 
Well that is interesting R124.

Some vehicles the difference is very negligable and for others not so depending how heavy you are with your foot but it is nice when you do see a good difference from an altered driving style. I know that some notice little difference whether they're at 60 or 80!

I believe it's best to keep the car near the peak torque range??

Of course we have to take in other things into consideration such as Air Con and the drag of the vehicle at the given time for instance putting air con on at 60-70 is normally more efficient than leaving your windows slightly open!

I know that using Air Con dramatically reduces my MPG as the system is not very economical at all where as for others like the BMW's I hear that it barely touches the MPG. So unless I want to refil more often than normal I barely use it apart from once a week just to keep the system flowing.
 
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R124/LA420 said:
Interesting stuff mate, I frequently decide to be as feather footed as I can in the truck (when I've not got 3 hours to do a 4 hour trip mind you) and can often get well into double figure MPG, not bad when my average is usually around 8 MPG.
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Something I've always wondered; do you guys get any sort of bonus for taking it easy and saving money in fuel? Is there any incentive to take it easy rather than put your foot down and get home early?
 
Tom|Nbk said:
Of course we have to take in other things into consideration such as Air Con etc. I know that using Air Con dramatically reduces my MPG as the system is not very economical at all where as for others like the BMW's I hear that it barely touches the MPG. So unless I want to refil more often than normal I barely use it apart from once a week just to keep the system flowing.
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The difference in using air con on my motor makes a negligible difference to MPG, I can barely notice it. At present with normal driving, i.e. 80-85mph on the motorway, the occasional race up to the red line to hear the engine and with not much regard for economy, I average 28mpg. However if I drive like a granny, sit at 60mph on the motorway and really think hard about saving fuel I can push that up to about 33-34mpg. To be honest, it's not really worth the effort unless I'm doing a really long journey where tank range comes into play. <300 miles to a tank is an absolute pain in the ass.

Those figures are with V Power. With normal cheap unleaded my last calculated average was 24mpg with normal driving and 29mpg on a run, so quite a staggering difference.
 
I do occasionally, When I'm playing fuel light bingo with my brother.

He usually wins, but he paid the "ultimate price" once, and I had to go rescue him, with a 5l can.
 
I do a mixture of town and Motorway/A road driving.

£20 gets me on average around 120 miles which works out around 28MPG off the top of my head. A bit naff really for a 1.6 Petrol.

Adjusting my style as of late gets me another 20-30 miles on top of this. A negligable difference you may say but when you think that I top up £20 a week.

and £20 gets me 120+ miles that's a saving of almost £20 a month compared to previous driving style. Not a lot but it does add up. Air con is a big no no unless I want fuel costs to shoot through the roof. Also make sure tyre pressures are kept at the normal level as this can be another MPG killer sometimes affecting it by 10%.

Of course it's really difficult to get the optimum MPG out your car because there are so many factors which come into play but adjusting the lead in your right foot is one way to start :D

Fuel light bingo. Ah yes a fun game I'm very much used to :D
 
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Scuzi said:
Something I've always wondered; do you guys get any sort of bonus for taking it easy and saving money in fuel? Is there any incentive to take it easy rather than put your foot down and get home early?
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, no, not at all! - Given that fuel is probably the biggest outlay (including the trucks themselves!) of any haulage / transport operation you'd have thought that fuel effieciecy would be top priority, it seems near the bottom tbh.

The main incentive to getting back quickly is that the company saves a bit of wages as I am paid by the hour, I usually just want to get home before I run out of driving and / or duty time.

I am frequently routed in such a way as I can't really avoid towns & the stop / start driving that goes with it, or, two trucks from the same depot will criss - cross each other going to collection points that the other has had to pass to get to his if you see what I mean - fuel efficiency seems to be far from the planners thoughts.

One thing I have noticed about the new Scania's that I have been driving recently is that they seem to return near identical fuel consumption between driving along constantly in "Hill mode" on the semi auto gearbox (it holds onto gears longer and tends not to use 12th gear at all,generally making the truck much better on motorway hill climbs) at an average of about 1450rpm @ 56MPH compared to driving them in normal "Drive" where they lope along at about 1125RPM @ 56MPH.

Strange!

Tom|Nbk said:
Air con is a big no no unless I want fuel costs to shoot through the roof.
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Despite it being crap & blowing warm air (re-gas I suppose?) I have noticed that having the A/C light on in my Mondeo TD knocks about 6MPG from it! In my previous 728iBMW I could notice no difference at all iirc.

Running with A/C on in a modern Scania HGV has no effect at all, yet in an 07 plate DAF it seems to take anything upto 1MPG which is a hell of a lot if your only averaging around 8MPG overall.....
 
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Scuzi said:
<300 miles to a tank is an absolute pain in the ass.

Those figures are with V Power. With normal cheap unleaded my last calculated average was 24mpg with normal driving and 29mpg on a run, so quite a staggering difference.
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It really doesn't seem that bad for the size and power of the engine. I love how efficient the BMW engines are.

It could be worse. I'm sure I saw someone on here say they got 150 miles or something to 60 quid out their Scooby. Mind you it was a 470BHP tuned Scoob though :D
 
R124/LA420 said:
One thing I have noticed about the new Scania's that I have been driving recently is that they seem to return near identical fuel consumption between driving along constantly in "Hill mode" on the semi auto gearbox (it holds onto gears longer and tends not to use 12th gear at all,generally making the truck much better on motorway hill climbs) at an average of about 1450rpm @ 56MPH compared to driving them in normal "Drive" where they lope along & 1150RPM @ 56MPH.
Click to expand...

Maybe because the truck is closer to the peak torque and you don't have the throttle as open as it would be at 1150??

Could be way out here..

R124/LA420 said:
Despite it being crap & blowing warm air (re-gas I suppose?) I have noticed that having the A/C light on in my Mondeo TD knocks about 6MPG from it! In my previous 728iBMW I could notice no difference at all iirc.
Click to expand...

Would a regas really make that much difference, I'm talking a knock off of around 30 miles off my 120-130 Average!!?

It was done a year or so ago I believe but perhaps that's something to look at
 
Tom|Nbk said:
Maybe because the truck is closer to the peak torque and you don't have the throttle as open as it would be at 1150??

Could be way out here..
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I've pondered this too, but, in a lower gear, the engines turning over faster, thus -you'd have thought - sucking more fuel and by quite a bit, yet for some reason there seems to be little difference at all. N.B. When I say little difference, I've noticed 0.5MPG + / - depending if I use 12th or not, that said, a variance in my load weight could easily skew that figure by quite a margin.



Tom|Nbk said:
Would a regas really make that much difference, I'm talking a knock off of around 30 miles off my 120-130 Average!!?

It was done a year or so ago I believe but perhaps that's something to look at
Click to expand...

I've been considering a re-gas but am not that bothered as long as it continues to de-mist the car on damp mornings which it still does well, despite its inability to cool the air to any degree! - I'd be surprised if a re-gas helped with the MPG it will be worth it to silence my daughter who is already bemoaning the loss of my 7 Series & its "Nice cold air Daddy!" as she puts it! :D
 
R124/LA420 said:
I've pondered this too, but, in a lower gear, the engines turning over faster, thus -you'd have thought - sucking more fuel and by quite a bit, yet for some reason there seems to be little difference at all.
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Turning over more but you don't need your foot planted in order to retain the speed as much as you would at the lower RPM - less labour for the engine also?

Thus more efficient or at least no particular difference in your case?

R124/LA420 said:
I've been considering a re-gas but am not that bothered as long as it continues to de-mist the car on damp mornings which it still does well, despite its inability to cool the air to any degree! - I'd be surprised if a re-gas helped with the MPG it will be worth it to silence my daughter who is already bemoaning the loss of my 7 Series & its "Nice cold air Daddy!" as she puts it! :D
Click to expand...

:D
 
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Tom|Nbk said:
Turning over more but you don't need your foot planted in order to retain the speed as much as you would at the lower RPM?

Thus more efficient or at least no particular difference in your case?
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Apart from when your in traffic & being gentle with the throttle to stop your load shifting there is only one foot position for HGV driving & that's planted. ;):D

I will investigate this further (the fuel efficency thing - I've finished my PHD on "foot planted driving" ....) :D
 
I've been driving a bit more sensibly and averaged 42.7 according to the computer in the megane over 750miles. Admittedly half of that was motorway driving but the other half was a mix of A/B roads and town driving so I reckon that's quite good. Air con seems to make little difference so I just keep it on for convenience.
 
I have to calculate my MPG based on my fillups, and it's pretty much always hovering around 30mpg.

I don't drive like my hair is on fire most of the time, not a lot of point when I'm commuting anyway, the journey is crap, might as well just make it relaxing. I do enjoy the odd blast however, which doesn't seem to alter the MPG either. And now that there's roadworks on the A316 where it joins the M3, and they end and the limit goes from 30 to NSL, I have developed the habit/addiction of blasting it in 3rd, which is gonna lower my average figures I expect ;)

I also find air con makes no difference to the economy, I can only notice the ever so slight suck in power from the engine :)

30MPG is fine by me anyway


R124, is it actually possible to "feather" a lorry without causing huge tailbacks? ;) I would have thought you'd have to give it a bit of welly (in the right gears of course) to get xx tonnes of nappies or whatever moving :D
 
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Driving gently doesn't seem to make much difference to economy, maybe it's to do with the supercharger. I have recently switched back to my 16" lightweight wheels and have gained a few more MPG which is good.
 
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