• Drive a smaller (diesel) car, especially if you commute long distances (> 20 miles).
• Remove the alloy wheels from your car, honestly, this is a big saver, use smaller rims instead, the car will move more easily with these, they don’t look the part beside alloy wheels, but this change alone could increase your fuel efficiency by 25%, depending on how you drive.
• Change gear earlier, drive smoother.  When others told me about this, I often thought that I do drive smooth already.  I think the key to driving smoother is to make sure that the car changes gear earlier, say for example at 2000rpm instead of 3000rpm so the car isn’t working as hard, the key here is that because the hdi engine uses technology (not unlike a turbo) to produce more lift when you reach > 2000rpm, changing gear before this magical figure will reduce the amount of fuel being burned.
• Like the previous tip, keep your rpms to below 2000, especially true of you drive a diesel car, except when in your highest gear.
• When coming to a stop (at traffic lights for example), drop out of gear, coast to the lights.  If the lights change, don’t forget to change back into gear again!  I wouldn’t advise coasting at other times though.
• Don’t over-take.

At times when trying to do all of the above, it might seem like it takes forever to get anywhere, people might beep at you, or even over-take aggressively, but guess who’ll be laughing at the end of the week!

Fancy sharing your own?

Hydrogen engine performance boosting systems are known as Supplemental Hydrogen generators. A supplemental hydrogen generator is basically a tank that holds distilled water and an electrolyte, such as potassium hydroxide.

The water is charged to induce electrolysis, which separates the hydrogen and oxygen molecules. The hydrogen and oxygen that has been released is then collected and forced into the engine through the air intake system. The added oxygen increases the octane level of the fuel.

Once the supplemental hydrogen is in the engine, it helps increase the flame spread during the combustion process. In other words, the hydrogen makes the flame in your engine burn faster.

This, as with many other devices seems to be available on the other side of the water, what i can’t understand is how come there are so many devices designed to save fuel other there. but relatively few in europe, coupled with the fact that north american fuel prices are amongst the cheapest in the world.  it’s really quite mind boggling.

Supplemental Hydrogen Injection is possible with a Hydrogen Generator. (available in canada, no information on european availability)

Get your oen car converted, turn it into a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle, or PHEV, are electric vehicles with a safety net. Learn more about PHEVs at wikipedia.

Plug-In Supply Inc of Petaluma California. (only available in North America)

The news that so many hard-pressed drivers of older and second-hand cars will be hit has raised the spectre of another revolt by Labour MPs after the furore over the abolition of the lowest income tax band.

Sounds like more C02 friendly cars are the order of the day!  If this affects you, you should look at cars with smaller diesel engines like the Peugeot 206/207 1.4hdi and the Citroen c3/c4 1.4hdi (and others), with duty rates as low as £35 per year, it will leave you better off!

more: Car tax changes to leave 9 million worse off | Reuters.

Cheap Petrol & Diesel: Cut your fuel spend by a third….

Well I got excited when I first seen this, I thought, great, i’ll be able to save lots at the pumps!  It turns out that this website sells plans for making your own machine that will create hydrogen to power your car, but instead of storing it, it creates it as it needs to!  Sounds like a great idea, but I’m sure the amount of water that your car would have to carry might be a bit excessive!

more info at fuelless usa >

Recently, an article on the BBC News website highlighted a call by a govt advisor to show the cost of running a car for a much longer period of time than usual. The govt advisor had selected a 10 year period and the vehicles chosen for comparison were a 4.4i Range Rover vs a (probably) 2.0HDI Peugeot 307, each with an annual mileage of 12K, these vehicles are really at two ends of the scale, targetting two different demographics, but with the right figures, could provide a useful insight into how much we spend on our motors.

In the example quoted above, the savings over the 10 year period amounted to £24,000, this alarmed me, if I was drive may car for 10 years, the saving could be as much as £75,000 (I do 36K/miles a year).

Weekend newspaper reports say the chancellor might introduce a levy on new, larger cars that could increase their price by £2,000. The tax would hit new saloons, estates and people carriers, the reports say.

More info >

I have to laugh though, while reading these articles, i often come across figures that to my mind just don’t make sense. For example, the toyota prius tv adverts quote figures or approx emissions of 106g/km, don’t forget that’s a hybrid car (electric and petrol), but a peugeot 206 only has emissions of 116g/km, considering that it’s probably got tonnes more street cred, and you can get them much cheaper than a prius, and it’s much older!

Even the new vw golf hybrid quotes a figure that is far less than the toyota model, only thing is that they don’t make them yet!