4 fuel-saving falsehoods: these tricks will not actually reduce your petrol consumption
These age-old tips won’t save you any money when filling up your car
With petrol and diesel prices hitting an all-time high in Spain, it’s natural for drivers to look for ways to save a few euros at the pumps. With an average fill costing more than 87 euros at the moment, it’s tempting to fall for those urban myths that promise to give you more bang for your buck, but here are four tried and tested tricks that certainly won’t help to save fuel.
1. Shift into neutral when driving downhill
This one’s an oldie but a goodie: put the car into neutral and coast downhill to reduce fuel consumption. In addition to being a lie, this tip is also extremely dangerous: even in neutral, the engine is still turning over and so will burn fuel, but more importantly, the car will continue to pick up speed, causing the driver to continuously tap on the brakes, potentially wearing out the pads.
On the other hand, leaving the car in gear without touching the accelerator while going downhill could save fuel; the inertia itself will keep the engine going without the vehicle’s control unit injecting any fuel.
2. Windows down instead of air-con
Although it can be more economical to roll down the windows when travelling up to 30 km/hr, the higher the speed with the windows down, the greater the consumption compared to using the air conditioning.
This is due to the fact that air entering a car travelling at high speeds generates aerodynamic resistance, causing it to burn more fuel.
3. Start in second gear
This is another myth dating back to times unknown. In addition to the fact that it hasn’t been proven that starting the car in second gear improves fuel savings – if it did, it would be minimal – this practice puts extra pressure on the clutch, which could cause more serious problems over time.
4. Warm up the engine before driving
Vehicles today are not what they were 40 years ago and they don’t need to get hot before getting going. As soon as the typical driver gets into the car, they start the engine, put on their seatbelt, adjust their mirrors, maybe turn on the radio... this is more than enough time to allow the oil to lubricate the engine in most cars.
Waiting five minutes for the engine to warm up before setting off merely adds more pollutants to the environment and wastes fuel.
Image: Archive
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