This bad driving habit is costing you big at the petrol bowser

With regular petrol prices surpassing $2 a litre in most parts of Australia, cutting these bad driving habits from your daily drive can save you fuel in the long run. Image: Getty Images

In case you’ve been away in the remote Outback, or have had a long-term blackout, or perhaps have taken up residence under a rock these past couple of weeks, things have got, ahem, spicy in Iran.

Without getting into the politics of it, there has been a rather knee-jerk and somewhat extreme reaction at your local servo. Basically, fuel prices have gone insane. 

At the time of writing, they’ve increased by about a dollar per litre across the board, and by the time this sentence has been typed out, they will have likely climbed again.

So, it looks like we’re going to have to get used to selling a kidney to fill up the Toyota Camry for the next few months (at least). 

Luckily, there’s plenty you can do as a driver to maximise your vehicle’s fuel economy. In fact, chances are you’re already stuck in one particular habit that’s costing you some serious cash. 

We’re talking about doing your level best to mash the accelerator pedal through the firewall when you take off from the lights or head up a hill. Most of us are guilty of it, and the traffic light grand prix is a time-honoured Aussie tradition.

But with these new petrol prices, it may be worth us collectively taking a little time to examine our habits and correct them when we realise that driving it as we stole it is not really getting us to our destination any quicker (Attention F1, want a close race? add traffic lights!) and actively costing us serious money over a week of driving. 

Hard accelerating puts your car's engine under a significant load, which requires more petrol. Image: Getty Images

Jeremy Clarkson, philanthropist, scholar and despiser of bureaucracy, probably coined it best when he said: “drive like there’s a big, rusty nail sticking up out of the accelerator pedal”.

In terms of driving for economy, he’s bang on. Gentle application of the throttle is probably the best thing you can do to minimise fuel use this side of riding in someone else’s car to work. 

Erratic, choppy, or just plain old hard acceleration puts your engine under significant load, forcing it to burn more fuel. And yes, it is true that some cars absolutely love to be driven hard, but that rarely means that you have to.

While we all love to occasionally Initial D our way around a quiet hairpin or do our best Dominic Toretto impression while leaving the Macca's carpark, sometimes discretion is the better part of valour and you’re much better off tootling along with a minimum of accelerator input. 

The same goes when you're approaching a red light. If you can, roll to a gentle stop rather than braking at the last possible moment. Hopefully, the light will go green, and you can keep moving.

You may have noticed that truck drivers do this a lot. It’s partly so they don’t have to shift 11 gears and partly because burning fuel equals lost money.

In general, treating your right pedal like an on/off switch is the best way to burn through a few bucks unnecessarily. If you’re looking to extend your time between fuel stops, focus on driving for economy. It really can make a difference. 

Where possible, roll your car towards a stop at a stop light instead of pressing the brake pedal harder. Picture: iStock

• Ditching unnecessary, heavy items: Unloading your tools from the work ute on Friday arvo, or finding somewhere else to store that suitcase of gold bricks rather than in your Rolls-Royce’s boot, means your engine won’t have to work as hard to move the vehicle's mass and will cut down fuel consumption. 
• Roof racks affect your aerodynamics. Your engine literally has to work harder to push your car through the air. If possible, remove them when they’re not in use. 
• Avoid stop-start driving where possible. Traffic chews through the juice. Taking the back roads or driving outside of peak hours can save serious money. 
• Driving in your car’s optimum torque curve. Every motor vehicle has a graphical representation of its engine’s torque output across the rev range. With a quick call to your local dealer or by jumping on Google, you should be able to find your vehicle’s curve and adjust your driving to suit the rev range where torque is at its peak. Here is a good place to start. This will ensure your engine is at maximum efficiency for the longest period of time.
• Octane rating: Many cars will not be happy on 91RON or ethanol blends. Particularly when you start getting into the performance world. Even though it’s more expensive to buy, filling up with 95 or 98 will actually burn more efficiently, and you’ll get much more mileage out of a tank. You can find your car’s octane recommendation online with a quick search.

In the past 15 years as an automotive journo and 35-plus years of inveterate car-guy antics, Dex has worked across numerous titles and has even occupied the occasional editor’s chair when nobody was watching. He spends his downtime doing engine swaps (plural) on the nature strip out front and also once ripped a handbrake spin into a perfect car park. His parents remain indifferent.

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