Image taken from the web
Hello! So as you guessed by the title fuel economy will be talked about. BUT it is not what you may be thinking. Firstly fuel efficiency is not always the deciding factor for buying a vehicle. BUT that will be another topic for another time. With that said Fuel economy starts not with the vehicle as you might think but with YOU the driver.
What does this mean? Well having the most efficient car in the world will not demonstrate its efficiency if you drive it like you are racing. The more you beat on the vehicle the worse your mileage will be. So while the mileage of the vehicle may be rated to be high, driving style will not give you the mileage you think you are getting. The key here is in how you accelerate as well as the speed you maintain. High miles per gallon comes with driving in a controlled manner and keeping your final speed consistent. Hybrid's and Electric Vehicles actually have a clever way of trying to keep the driver in check. For lack of knowing the term these vehicles have something like a mini game in them. Where your goal is to keep either the butterflies or the vines on the screen in the dash. And this all boils down to acceleration control and maintaining speed. Something that is useful for any vehicle.
Second in the fuel economy strategy is of course the car you drive. You are not going to purchase a Mustang GT 500 or a CTS-V if you are looking for fuel economy. However even vehicles like those can benefit from "economy" driving styles to help get you places in a normal manner. It is fairly obvious that you are going to look at the MPG of a vehicle to determine what will work for you. And lastly going with this is of course your budget. Sure best in class mpg can be great but you do not want to over spend. And no do not try and crunch the numbers on your gas savings to see how much extra money you can supposedly "afford" to add to your budget number.
That last part was probably painfully obvious to everyone but it was worth putting out there. What the average driver may not realize is that there are 2 other factors to consider. The first is the manual transmission. A manual transmission can give you a slight boost to your fuel economy. It is not going to be a huge boost but if you want maximum mpg then if there is manual transmission available for the vehicle you may want to consider it. This is of course if you are comfortable driving a manual. The second factor is fuel namely going diesel. Diesel is not something to be afraid of and can definitely give you a boost in mpg provided you can get a diesel motor in a vehicle you want. DO NOT put diesel fuel in your gas engine. It will not do anything good for you.
Well thanks for reading through this! fuel economy can be boring but it is just one facet of consideration when it comes to car buying. Some other facets will be covered in time here at The Digital Garage as well as perhaps a closer look at Diesel.
See you on the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment