Immortality

Real Fuel Savings of 10% or more are Possible!

No magic, no magnets, no tin, no secrets!

Taking these tips will inevitably save you 10% or more on your car's fuel usage:

1 Tune-ups. Have your car tuned professionally at least six-monthly. Being perfectly tuned leads to much better fuel consumption, as do the peripheral things done at the same time - air/oil/petrol filters, etc. The cost of the tune will soon be repaid.

2 Driving habits. Accelerate and brake smoothly. Hard driving and excessive use of accelerator and brake can cost you up to 20% extra fuel usage. No kidding; bad driving and hard accelerating & braking are huge chewers of fuel. Once travelling smoothly the kinetic energy stored in the moving vehicle ensures that minimal additional energy is required to keep it there. Use cruise control when possible. Stay at the speed limit - the ideal speed for economy is around 95 kmh but little faster, so 100 kmh is good.

3 Drag. We're not suggesting that wearing women's clothes will save on petrol, but stopping drag on your vehicle can save you 2-3%, or even more, depending on what bits you have sticking out from the sleek streamlining your vehicle was created with. Roof racks are shockers, adding an average 3% drag to a vehicle. This can be 1% of your fuel cost alone, even for the most streamlined kind. Ski racks are fine when they've got skis on them, but the rest of the time, they're just helping you put money into Saudi Arabia's pocket. "Bling" is great for increasing drag - looney, whirly hubcaps, extra lights slung under trim, etc. Take it off! Seriously, if you drive on the open road a lot, even polishing the car regularly will decrease drag caused by dust & grime build-up.

4 Tyres. Keep the tyres at the correct pressure! A variance of 10% in your tyres could add 2 or 3 % to your fuel bill.

5 Shock absorbers, wheel bearing, brakes, wheel alignment. Make sure they're operating properly. Brakes can be quietly gripping and costing you money through poorly-balanced brake pistons, poor wheel alignment can simply add friction to the tyres which adds work to the engine. (and wears your tyres out very quickly, a double-whammy)

6 Air conditioning. Here's a neat little test for owners of small cars to do to show how much power an air conditioning unit uses: Take car up to 50 kmh in 3rd gear and cruise on a smooth road. Switch on air conditioner to "full". You can immediately feel the drain on the car's engine. Air conditioners are shocking power wasters. In the summer, open a window, in the winter, use the heater & fan. The fan uses electricity and therefore energy from the motor, but a negligible amount compared to the A/C. The heat from the fan setting is just heat from the motor, using no extra power at all. Test for yourself, if you can afford it! use your car for 100 kms with air conditioning, then 100 without. You'll be amazed at the petrol consumption.

7 Empty your boot! Like fat ladies, every extra pound of weight requires extra energy to move it, but cars don't get fatter, they just eat more....... petrol. That 30lb toolkit sitting in the boot with Uncle Bob's 10 kg dumbbells equate to having an extra passenger on board all the time. Extra weight = extra energy required to push = lighter wallet.

8 Use neutral! Not recommended for automatics as new gearboxes are dearer than petrol, but when driving a manual, there are often opportunities to cruise for long periods in neutral - down long, slight inclines, coming up to stop signs in 100 kmh areas. Put the car in neutral and put your feet up, have a coffee, and let the car cruise to where it needs to be, the engine quietly ticking over. (Don't take your eyes off the road, though!)

9 Car pool with co-workers. This is a no-brainer. Within 1 km of your house, there will be someone who drives a car to within 1 km of your work. Find him or her and share. This will reduce your petrol costs by 50% immediately! In fact, we're so into saving you real money on petrol, we've started a carpool registry right here!

10 Plan ahead! Make sure that you never double your tracks unnecessarily - if you're going to need to go to two different places, organise things to go one after the other, or make sure the trips are planned the most economical way.

Most of these things are self-evident, but it often works that the most obvious things stare us in the face for no result. Just thinking about it and taking a few quick actions can save you huge amounts at $2-12 or more a litre. And unlike fuel-saving scams, these tips will work on any vehicle, every time!