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Saving on Petrol Costs

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Garpal Gumnut

Ross Island Hotel
Joined
2 January 2006
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I have managed to decrease my bill for petrol by driving at between 40 and 50kph in the city and between 85 and 90 kph on the highway over the past two months.

Initially I had other drivers swear and shout at me. So I got a sticker that said " Think green". I got it off a mate who is a greenie who is from South Australia, though I don't hold either of those two facts against him, as he can't help where he was born and I respect his right to his beliefs.

The "Think green" sticker however seemed to aggravate people even more, and one bloke at an intersection got out and threatened to take my lights out. He called me a f***ing green bastard. So I took the "Think green" sticker off.

So I now have two stickers, one says " Fishermen vote too" and the other says " Harley Owner" with a rather fetching skull underneath it".

Now everybody leaves me alone.

I drive a 1998 Commodore, and prior to the change was getting 13 litres per 100k and since the change this has dropped to 11.

Since my last fill up I now take my foot off the accelerator when I see a light change to orange in the distance, and put the automatic in to neutral at the lights. Although this means I don't get off from the lights as quickly, it is idling in neutral rather than in gear.

I hope to improve on my savings even more.

The warmeners and greenies should follow my example. I do it to save on petrol, as less petrol use means petrol will last longer.

For the greenies it would make them feel better to use less petrol to save us from ending up in Greenoah's Ark, as they believe.

I like my Commodore and wouldn't drive a Prius even if I won it in a raffle.

I wonder if Al Gore and Richard Branson use as little petrol as me.

gg
 
Or you know... what half of us in the SD programe do, ride a bike most of the time...
 
 
I got 8L / 100km from my VT commodore on a sydney / brisbane trip.

I simply drove at about 100ks / hour trying to keep the revs below 2000, about 1800revs / min is perfect,... I limited heavy acceleration, limited un nessisary braking by not speeding up to red lights and keeping a good distance from the car infront.

Gumnut, Have you looked into getting your car put onto LPG Gas the commodores love LPG.
 
another thing to look at is removing any excess weight that you don't need on your daily commute.
 

Tb , thats very good for sydney/brisbane, and all those measures I now take.

And I agree about limiting weight, I've stopped eating battered fish and potato scallops.

LPG I have not looked at. Do you just go to Kmart auto or similar or is there a speciality mob that does it better and cheaper?

gg
 
I've tried the hard versus soft driving experiment with two vehicles with different results.

1. Nissan Pulsar hatch, 1.6 litre manual. I consistently get 6.7 litres per 100km no matter how I drive it. Cruising at 110 km/h or puttering around the suburbs at 50 it doesn't make much difference. Even loading 400kg of stuff into it didn't make a noticeable difference (though it was only a 25km trip, mostly on the highway at 100).

However, put in some dodgy fuel and watch the gauge head to empty. I managed to burn 40 litres in just 280km using what I've since found out was poor quality petrol. The engine's intended to run on RON 95 (premium) and that's what I normally put in although it can run safely (with some loss of power) on 91. This stuff was sold as 91 but it seems wasn't up to even that standard.


2. Ford Falcon ute (flat tray). Automatic, 4.0 litre, steel tray (heavy) with about 100kg load normally. This is a work vehicle.

Hard driving gets it to about 14.5 litres / 100km according to the vehicle's computer. Sedate driving cuts that to about 13 litres / 100 km. So a 10% saving there. If you switch the computer to give the instantaneous fuel consumption and floor it up hill then it goes to 99.9 litres / 100km!

These run on 91 RON unleaded. We're phasing them out due to the high fuel consumption and poor reliability we've experienced with these vehicles. Replacements will be diesel.

As for the "greenie" stickers, I did once think about counting how many vehicles in Tassie don't have one on the back. Every second car I see seems to have one from one side or the other. I've also wondered how many different versions both sides have released over the past 30 years - I'd guess it's in the order of 50. I wonder if anyone's got a complete collection?

Greens have gone for standardisation - it's still the same old "No xxx""triangle, all they've changed is the last word to suit the different campaigns as well as changing the colour from yellow to light green. The pro-development side also uses green as a colour quite a bit now. I think the current one is "Our Future, Our Jobs" or something like that. "Mill" is the second word on the current Green one.

LPG. Ideally go for a proper LPG only conversion rather than messing about with dual fuel unless you can find someone who will do the job properly rather than ending up creating a gas guzzler that doesn't run too well on either fuel. Ideally, LPG works best with an engine specially built for it (higher compression) but it's not impossible to get petrol type efficiency (lower than the maximum LPG engine efficiency) from a conversion if it's done well.
 
Garpal Gumnut said:
LPG I have not looked at. Do you just go to Kmart auto or similar or is there a speciality mob that does it better and cheaper?

gg
Click to expand...

there are places that do solely LPG conversions, But alot of mechanics have started doing now because the demand is so great. with the grant it is really affordable.

You'll notice that you burn about 20% - 30% more LPG but it's still fantastic value,... for instance Lpg is about 65c / L so add 30% = 84.5c compared to $1.6 for petrol.

One other thing about my 8L /100k trip was that I was using premium ulp so that may have given me better mileage than standard.
 
Syphon half a tank out of each of your neihbours cars , top up there tanks with water and blame the servo down the road for everything

i drive v8,s and ride an 86 rattler of a chopped up,tempremental, hybrid of a softail/fatboy/sporty, so fuel costs the least of my problems just gettin them where i want to go my main concern
 
Thanks for all the tips everyone.

One more question I've got.

Is there any advantage to using the high octane petrol rather than the ordinary ulp in my old commodore.

gg
 
I started using best unleaded petrol available and I noticed that fuel consumption dropped by about 1 to 1.5 litres per 100k, I also noticed that car appears to be stronger.

I did it first time 4 or 5 years ago; when after topping up with regular unleaded I couldn’t climb a small hill without terrible pinging.
(It was at the time when it was reported on TV that solvent was added to unleaded petrol as it did not have excise on it and unscrupulous operators pocketed extra 15 to 30 cents per litre)

Later practice seem to have stopped, but I never went back to regular unleaded.

Also closed widow lowers consumption a bit not mentioning A/C or roof-rack.
 

Happy, Thanks for the info, I've heard similar stories and might give it a go.

gg
 
If the engine is running well on 91 RON then, in theory, there's no advantage in using RON 95 or 98 petrol.

In practice however many engines aren't running as well as they could be, in which case there should be an improvement in fuel consumption using higher grade petrol.

If the engine is running rich then, again in theory, ethanol blended fuel will burn more completely. Depending on the situation that might simply translate to more power (and possibly higher fuel consumption) or it might translate to lower fuel consumption and similar power. It's all very vehicle specific.

Be warned that for some older vehicles ethanol will cause serious problems with fuel lines etc. It's worthwhile in some cases (especially non-fuel injected engines) but check first or you might find yourself going literally nowhere at great expense for towing and repairs.

I'd suggest you try a higher grade petrol but only keep using it if there's an improvement.

A word of warning about mowers, whipper snippers, small generators, post hole diggers etc. Stick to regular ULP (no ethanol) unless the manufacturer specifically recommends a higher grade or there is some other sensible reason to be using it. Otherwise you're asking for lots of problems with things getting blocked, two stroke oil not mixing properly and so on.

A lot of those motors have an actual RON requirement in the high 70's so don't bother messing with RON 95 or, worse still, 98. All you do is give yourself trouble and a dose of nasty fumes from unburnt fuel in two stroke exhaust. As long as it's proper petrol (not solvents etc), regular ULP will be fine for all of these uses and in general it's the best choice.
 
I live in one of the more expensive places in the middle east and am paying 20 something cents per litre. :

I'll have to come back to reality some day though!
 
I realised that one particular local servo was selling crook fuel when black sludge started oozing out of the mower. That plus there was so much smoke it was ridiculous. It was somewhat entertaining though - trying to run fast enough so as not to choke, then realising I head to turn around and head straight back into the cloud that had completely obliterated everything. Now I know why the car wasn't running too well either... This was about ten years ago and that servo has sinced closed (thankfully).

As for the windows etc, it's aerodynamics at work there. Best choice is generally keep them up - using the A/C will add less to fuel use if the car is moving at a decent speed. Same with the roof rack - it messes up the aerodynamics so take it off if you don't need it.
 
Smurf1976 said:
using the A/C will add less to fuel use if the car is moving at a decent speed. Same with the roof rack - it messes up the aerodynamics so take it off if you don't need it.
Click to expand...

yep windows up, AC off is best,.... offcoarse in summer I make an exception.

when I make long trips I try to leave early in the morning so it's nice and cool and I can make do with just having the fan pumping air in from outside with out having the AC on.

If you want to see how much power you lose from the AC, sit with the car in park just idleling and switch the AC on,... you will here the engine come under load and see the rev counter drop about 100 or 200 revs.
 
The general information I have read suggests that using higher octane petrol reduces fuel consumption (can anyone verify this?). However, you have to weigh this against the extra cost of buying it. I suggest you trial it on your own car and then do the maths to work out the cheapest option.


One point from the url I gave, that hasn't been discussed, is tyre pressure.
Do not underestimate the advantage to be gained from keeping your tyres inflated to the correct pressure. I find that when I haven't kept the pressure up, fuel efficiency is noticeably decreased. Of course, keeping the tyres inflated also improves steering.
 
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