Improve Your Car Mileage

In these days of rising fuel costs, you could save a fortune if you adopt optimum driving techniques to improve your cars' fuel economy. For example a Tata Manza diesel car (which uses 1248 CC 4 cylinder Engine) which normally gives 15 km per liter in highway conditions can give 19.4 km for the same one liter of diesel when driven more efficiently. This translates to a saving of 33% in fuel expense. Putting actual fuel consumed into our above example, instead of the normal 67 liters of fuel, your car will consume 51 liters - which in today's price will save Rs.1300 for 1000 km. Typically you would save about Rs.15,600,000 per year. Yes - That is a lot of money for one car. Imagine the savings for Chennai city which has about 600,000 cars.

It may not be this dramatic all the time unless you resort to Hypermiling. Every liter saved is more money in your wallet, less earth resource usage and less pollution. We, in Madrasi.info, collate the latest,authentic,completely proven scientific techniques on improving car fuel economy in these pages. All our individual car pages contain fuel economy details for every car listed in our pages. What is more, you will find the cars offering top mileage figures - available in the form of Bar Charts in this page. We have listed out the bar charts top 10 cars in every car segment.

Generally best fuel economy is achieved when acceleration and braking are reduced. Anticipate what is ahead and drive as the situation demands. As they say in one popular Ad - 'Kitna Deti Hai ? ' you can improve your average mileage if you follow the techniques listed here. But make sure that you gain some experience in using some of the more advanced techniques before you try them out in relatively easier conditions. We provide no warranty to the effectiveness of the techniques listed here in any way. You try them out at your own risk.

Maximizing Fuel Economy

1. Reduce extra weight: Remove any item not required in the journey. For city driving, if your tires are good, you can remove the spare tire. There is no free ride anywhere. You pay for every kilogram carted in your car.

2. Inflate the tires to the correct manufacturer recommended values. This can enhance your fuel economy. The higher the tire pressure the lower is the rolling resistance. But don't over do it. When you drive in hot weather on a hot road, your tire temperature rises too. A rise in the temperature causes more pressure inside which may lead to a blown tire.

3. Remove unused roof racks.Anything which increases the wind resistance lowers your fuel economy.

4. Anticipate traffic situation and proactively avoid braking and rapid acceleration. Every time you brake hard, you burn fuel wastefully into brake dust. This technique alone can save you liters of precious fuel every year. If you want to be a purist, ditch the footwear and drive with your bare feet. This will give you better tactile feedback from the pedal. See red every time you floor the pedal.

5. Slow down Cow Boy/Girl. If your car is fitted with tachometer, try and keep the engine RPM to less than 2000/2500 rpm without lugging the engine. Drive within the car's efficient speed limit. Your car's efficient speed is just about the lowest speed your car gets when you slot into the top gear. This effectively lowers the wind resistance.

6. Use less of accessories as they consume fuel. If possible avoid using AC when driving shorter distances. On the other hand if the car speed exceeds 80 km per hour, it might be better if you raise the windows and turn on AC as the rolling resistance increases with in flowing winds. Wash your car before you hit the highways. A clean, well polished exterior can result in less wind resistance. Over a 1000 km journey it can save you 2.8 %.

7. Maintain your car regularly. A well maintained engine and transmission will be efficient. Use the right grade of lubricants and service your car at the scheduled interval. Clean the air filter regularly. A clogged air filter will burn more fuel.

8. Plan your route in advance. Run your errands in such a way that the first stop is the longest. A warm engine burns less fuel than a cold engine. Never accelerate a cold engine beyond 2000 rpm for a diesel engine and 2500 rpm for a petrol engine. When the engine is cold - drive at a sedate slow speed until it warms up. All turbo charged engines require careful running at idle speeds for the bearings of the turbo chargers to be lubricated when you start the engine and before you turn them off.

9. Maintain data on the fuel economy figures of your car. Any untoward drop in fuel economy may indicate something abnormal in the car. You don't need iPad or Android apps to keep track of the fuel consumption. Even this plain old fashioned fuel expense sheet (downloadable here in PDF format which you can print) can help you track your car's fuel economy figures.

10. Just as you dress for the occasion - you select the car for the occasion. You need to cart the whole family and the dog to the mountains - then SUV might be the choice. Do you need a 2 ton truck to transport yourself for the city shopping ? A Tata Nano might save you enough money for that holiday you dream about. Take a look at the cars page of Madrasi.info for some fuel economy figures for every car in India.

11. Burn and Coast (Pulse and Glide) In high ways, you accelerate the car to a certain speed and then coast the car in neutral. This bursts of speed and coasting process is part of the Hypermiling techniques. It requires care and experience in judging the terrain for best results. But it involves a certain amount of risk as you may lose control when you are not in the right gear. Never try this in hilly terrain as you would lose control when you hurtle down a mountain in neutral. Never turn off the engine - you need the engine running to have steering and brake systems to work.

12. Drafting - you lower your wind resistance by following closely behind another vehicle which will shield your car from the aerodynamic drag. But again this technique is dangerous as it may reduce the reaction time for you to brake in an emergency. This and the previous hypermiling techniques are risky and require experience. Avoid trying these last 2 techniques in city conditions.