The frustrating thing about the lekker reduction in fuel prices over lockdown was that we couldn’t relay take advantage of them.
Now that we are returning to the roads, and many of us are having to operate on reduced incomes, it is more important than ever to decrease that spend on petrol.
Eugene Herbert of MasterDrive says: “Drivers tend to fall into bad habits that not only increase your risk of crashes but increase fuel consumption as well.”
Here are some ways to drive cheaper:
* Reducing speed by 20% is the most effective, keeping your revs between 3 000 and 4 000rpm.
* Anticipate red lights, take your foot off the gas and coast in, maybe even catching it on green. This saves having to power up from a dead stop.
* Look ahead so as to avoid unnecessary stop/ starts.
* Don’t drive aggressively, changing lanes and accelerating hard. Keep that for the track.
If you spend say R3 000 per month on petrol, and you can make a 15% saving this way per month, that comes out at over R5000 a year.
It’s worth the effort in these hard times.