8. Keep everything well-maintained
Keeping your car serviced regularly is critical to ensuring that it everything runs as economically as possible. You’ll break down less often too.
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16 Comments
They should allow off shore petrol companies to run tax free stations, well they do with off shore banks where the politicians who tax us keep their savings.
Gordon Brown, his government and gross inflation are the reason why most people are drinking and smoking too much. Instead of asking us to stop or be moderate why don’t we just simply get rid of him and his government then we can concentrate on ourselves being healthy and the state of the country.
An obvious one missed off the list is to keep to 55 to 60mph on the motorway or dual carriageways which makes a big difference to fuel consumption.
In the longer term, living closer to work where possible and so reducing the need to travel represents a big fuel saving for those who choose to commute by car.
lets all hope gordan the won’t listen to the people pm,gets the message NOW we don’t want you we never voted you in as leader with every 40 pounds of fuel i put in my tank gordan the thief gets 23 pounds of it,even dick turpin wore a mask,nu labour same old rubbish,food fuel council tax all rising and there’s no end in sight.
Mr Brown,
You get me down,
You always did,
With every taxed quid,
“Don’t smoke” he said,
As he scratched his head,
Then having a think,
He added “And don’t drink.”
He doesn’t want us to have any fun,
He wants shooting, where’s me gun?
Actually, it is the tax he lost on fags and booze, that makes him get his revenue some other way, what a pity he and his cronnies can still afford to enjoy life with OUR money.
very well said “Lorraine + besty”
Dear all!
Great tips to ensure fuel savings up to more
than a few percentages,but,if traffic light
could be made more efficient,so-called “groene
golven” in Dutch,or green waves,or,better still,
traffic light with count-down systems to red
or green as in far-eastern countries,saves on
pollution too!
FJ Bartling,Hilversum,Holland.once a lad from
Dudley,never forgotten!
Dominic, I have never known anyone talk as much rubbish as you do.
First you talk about cutting down the speed on a motorway, well my 6 speed diesel is far more economical at 70 + miles an hour than at 30 or 40 miles an hour they are designed to work like that, so driving slower I use more fuel.
Driving consistently at a given speed does help reduce fuel consumption that’s a well known fact, so answer me this question, if a continual flow of traffic uses less fuel, why do councils keep deliberately blocking roads up, and narrowing them like they have on Bearwood High street, with the effect that traffic is stop start all the way along it, if oil is running out why are councils causing congestion.
You can guarantee that if there is a bus stop, there will be a pedestrian refuge just before it, this is obviously put there to bring traffic to a standstill and to prevent the traffic from driving round the bus, that means more fuel is used by cars having to stop and start, so why do you think that is?
You talk about workers living closer to their work, well it looks like a lot of people are going to have to move to Poland !!!!!!!!, did you see the Tonight Program recently where people who had been employed by a company for 20 years had been got rid off, and the Polish workers who had been employed for the same company for less than 2 years were kept on and took over the British workers jobs, this was because they couldn’t get rid of EEC workers from Poland because it would have been Discrimination, but it was ok to get rid of the British Workforce in the company.
The high cost of fuel !!!! while obviously it is effected by the fact that oil wont last for ever, that’s not why we in the UK are paying 126 pence a litre, its because Gordon Brown cant manage the economy, if my household costs go up, I don’t give money away, Gordon Brown does, instead of slashing the 80pence in the pound Fuel Duty, he still insists that he needs the money to pay for his spending commitments, well lets look at some of those commitments.
8.5 Billion Pound given to 3rd world countries to provide education for the children of those countries, countries like India and Pakistan who have Nuclear Weapons, they have been fighting a war for years over
Kashmir, but they cant afford to educate their own children, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda , all fighting wars in their own countries, and that’s why we are paying 126 pence a litre for fuel , so Gordon Brown can give our money away to support countries at war.
100 million pounds given by Gordon Brown to buy Mosquito nets to wipe out Malaria, what he has forgot that while it will stop people being bitten and night when they are asleep under the nets, when they wake up and walk around they get bitten by Mosquito’s, a 100 million pounds of our money raised from the 126 pence a litre cost of fuel, wasted, the list is endless.
Our roads are so congested now so why hasn’t Gordon Brown stopped immigration into our country.
Sorry Dominic, you just don’t have a clue what your talking about.
Jim of Bearwood
Well said Jim - fantastic reply! I’m fed up of people blaming others for having to use their car to commute to work. I have just been made redundant, I now live in Redditch having lived most of my life in Wolverhampton. I moved to Redditch for work (relocation). So what Dominic is saying is that I should turn my new job 18 miles away in Halesowen down because I live too far away? Ok, so I’ll just risk losing my house? I don’t think so!!! I before someone bangs on about I should use public transport, just have a look at getting from Redditch to Halesowen on bus or train. Time all you green lot started looking at the reality - we can’t all car share, bike it to work, use public transport, jump into a car with your neighbour, etc, etc. Its time for us Brits to put our foot down and kick this goverment out. If they reduce tax on fuel, they’ll only look for somewhere else to take it from - saying that, so will anyone else who comes into power!!!
I thought Dominic’s points were sensible and well made and apply to most normal people.
Jim G - I’m not sure quite how congestion can be equated to immigration policy. Most road users are UK residents, so its irrelevant.
Generally fuel consumption declines with speed much above 50mph. Yes, engine efficiency is less at 30mph, but peak efficiency is most certainly not at 70mph or above. No car can circumvent the law of physics: for every doubling of speed, you need four times the energy to maintain motion. My car (a 1.6 diesel) will easily return 10mpg+ more driving carefully, and keeping below 70mph, as I’ve experimented to find out. The introduction of “Active Traffic Management” on the M42 has actually reduced emissions because of the lower speed limits that are enforced when it is in use. Furthermore, with a lower speed limit, you get greater capacity, so at 50mph a motorway will cope with far more traffic than at 70mph before everything starts to slow down.
Councils do not cause congestion: people do. The car is not king, and there are other road users that should be considered and given more priority. Why is a car driver’s journey more important than a pedestrian, cyclist or bus user? Why should a pedestrian be prevented from crossing the road safely so a car driver can enjoy a few seconds shaved off their journey?
Rob - you seem to have ignored the words “in the longer term” and “where possible” that I qualified my original comments with. As motorised transport becomes more expensive it is likely that people will increasingly look to live closer to work where they can to minimise commuting costs.
Frank Jones, if you thought that Dominic’s points were sensible and well made, try asking him a few pertinent questions, like.
If there is going to be a problem in the future with supplying enough oil for the world, why does Gordon Brown penalize people who make their own diesel oil from waste oil? Oil that would normally be thrown away, why is it not tax free, why are British farmers growing rape seed crops in this country, and then exporting it to and for them to make cheap diesel from it?
Congestion is a problem in this country that’s obvious, so why does Gordon Brown not stop any more people from coming here and causing even more congestion.
Ask Dominic why councils deliberately narrow roads to cause congestion? when opening up roads would ease congestion.
If the government wanted us all to use public transport more, why is it doing nothing to bring in an integrated public transport system?
If the government wanted us to use less fuel why would it bring in laws that protect EEC workers who have only worked at a company a short time, and that ensure they have to be kept in employment, while British workers who have worked there for in excess of 20 years can be sacked and have to travel round the country looking for work, as was disclosed in a recent edition of the Tonight Program
The list is endless but the answer is always the same, its all about taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich.
By making people feel guilty about the amount of fuel they use, it justifies the government charging the motorist 80pence in the pound on the fuel they have to buy.
If you honestly believe its not about money try asking our MP’s, why their pension scheme is in a separate scheme to everyone else’s and why don’t they pay tax on their pension like everyone else does? Its because its all to do with changing a British workforce with one that resembles one more like a Chinese workforce, where people are paid a pittance in wages and the people at the top control 90+ percent of the wealth of the country.
Unless Gordon Browns cuts the tax on fuel this country is doomed.
I honestly believe that due to Gordon Browns insistence on bleeding the country dry through exorbitant fuel and motoring tax’s, that the UK is now on the threshold of one of the worst forced recessions in its history.
Jim of Bearwood
Jim G…
Diesel from waste oil. Two points: burning it still creates pollution, secondly, there’s a pretty finite supply of it. As for growing more fuel crops, we’re already seeing the damaging effect this is having through rising food prices and environmental destruction where land is being cleared to grow fuel crops.
Congestion - perhaps you could stop twisting congestion round to fit your anti-immigration agenda. Immigration is hardly the number 1 cause of congestion. It doesn’t even feature on the list of causes.
Narrowing roads. As I said, the car is not king, there are other road users to consider. All that creating more road capacity (which you seem to desire) does is create more traffic. That’s now a well established fact.
Since the oil crisis in the 1970s successive governments have monumentally failed to implement energy and transport policies to put us in a good position to deal with dwindling oil production and rising prices. That is where the scandal lies, not in the level of duty on fuel.
You appear to think that we should all be allowed to go on consuming oil in whatever quantity we like, at low prices, regardless of consequence. Well high oil prices are here to stay, falling production isn’t far off, so you’d better get used to it. If you don’t like paying for it then change your lifestyle to use less.
Dominic you really are selective in your facts and how they are interpreted.
Burning diesel oil in modern cars is far less polluting now than the pollution caused by the new COAL FIRED Power Station that China opens up every 10 DAYS, that’s 36 new polluting power stations that open up every year, or doesn’t their pollution count? Isn’t the pollution that China churns out the same pollution that we churn out, but we have to cut back on ours, while China daily increases theirs.
If there is a problem with growing food crops, why is the EEC paying British Farmers NOT to grow food, and to leave their fields barren?
So if our roads are congested when we have a population of 60 million people in the country, I find it strange that you don’t see the link to more congestion being caused when we have the projected 90 million people in the UK by 2050!!!!!!
I also find it strange that you don’t link that increase to recent immigration into the UK, obviously immigrants are not people so they don’t contribute to the population increase, silly me for being so stupid.
Stop all motoring in the UK, that’s what you believe in, yes????? Dominic you really do have problems with your logic!!!!!!
Where do you think the wealth of the country comes from, the MOTORIST, so you stop motoring then what?
How do you think people get back and forth to work, mostly but not exclusively with motorised transport, some are lucky enough to be able to walk.
How do you think you get your food Dominic? Think the fairies bring it? No it comes on fuel drivel vehicles.
One thing I have to agree with you on though, fuel will never be cheap and why would it be?
How would we be able to give money to despot leaders in Africa like Robert Mugabe? Sorry Sir Robert Mugabe, we made him a knight of the realm, also he needs to pay for his daughters education here in England, so he needs the revenue from us the motorist to pay for it.
And where is the money going to come from to pay for the MP’s TAX FREE pensions, from the 80pences in the pound fuel duty, so of course your right, fuel is never going to be cheap, it has to be kept artificially high to pay for the free loading government minister’s pensions and pay increases.
Next???????????
Jim of Bearwood
when the governent come to there sensesand start think of the people of this country and stop given them selves great payrises and extra to suit there pockets , then we will find the best prime minster but until then we can only hope it sooner not later so anyone out there who thinks they are the one stand for election there got to be one person who believes the people comes before them selves and arent grabbers and selfish like the goverment that in power.
more pressure should be put on the car makers to make more fuel efficent engines and transmissions,because if you can get a 2litre to give 400+ bhp.why cant you get one 100mpg??