The A-Z of saving fuel

Fuel - we all need it but how much should we pay for it? Here's my forecourt do's and don'ts.

Air con. Turn it off. If you don't, your miles per gallon figure could deteriorate by between 5 and 25 per cent.

Best fuel consumption comes from sub 2-litre diesel engines. The finest are produced by the BMW, Ford, Merc, Peugeot-Citroen and VW families.

Congestion is one of your biggest enemies if you're trying to cut fuel consumption. Don't necessarily change your route. Just travel earlier or later.

Duties/taxes etc on fuel mean that for every £100-worth you buy at the pumps, about £70 goes to Gordon Brown. Now that's an incentive to use less.

Electricity powers hi-tech in-car gizmos. And to create electricity you need to burn more petrol or diesel. Do you really need headlights on during the day.

Fifty MPG is what you can realistically expect to achieve in a variety of road conditions in the most efficient diesel-engined cars.

Gallons. They now cost about £6 each. So a car with an 18 gallon tank costs £100 to fuel. That's crazy. And that'swhy you must reduce your MPG.

Hybrids. Honda does the Civic, Toyota the Prius. But if fuel/money saving is your top priority, avoid these and go for best in class diesels instead.

Instant and almost useless MPG read-outs are shown in the instrument panels of many cars. But it's the average (itals) MPG figures you need.

Jeeps have a history of being horribly thirsty. But that was then and this is now. I recently squeezed a shade over 50 MPG out of a new Jeep Patriot.

Keep records. You'll never really know how fuel efficient your car is unless you keep a book that logs precisely the amount and price of the juice you buy.

Liquid Petroleum Gas is still cheap - if you can find it on a garage forecourt. But the £1,000-£2,000 cost of converting a car to run on LPG is the killer.

MINI Diesels are among the most fuel-efficient cars. But they start at a hefty £11,625. The £7,900 Fiat 500 costs much less but doesn't drink much more.

No going to the office means no fuel bills. Work from home only two days a week and your fuel bill for commuting drops by a massive 40 per cent.

Overloading will force your car to work harder and drink more. Especially if heavy or bulky items are on a aerodynamically disastrous roof rack.

Petrol is about one third LESS fuel-efficient than diesel and results in extra visits/spending on forecourts and you paying more fuel tax to Government.

Queuing screws-up your MPG. So avoid drive-through 'fast' food outlets, toll booths, roadworks and anything else that'll force you to wait in line.

Rush hours. Gordon Brown and the oil firms love 'em as they make your car guzzle. Avoid roads at busy times. Can you work 10.30-6.30 instead of 9-5?

Shop around. Lately I've been avoiding major oil company forecourts and buying from supermarkets instead. Result? Savings of hundreds of pounds.

TDI's. My fave diesel engines. Good enough to win the Le Mans 24 hour race two years running, good enough for the Audi or VW you drive to work.

Under 40 MPG is unacceptable for a mid size car. A benchmark is VW's Golf BlueMotion which officially does 60 MPG+ in real world conditions.

V6 petrol engines are lovely, silky smooth….but very thirsty and to be ignored. A V8, V10 or V12 will give you even worse MPG returns. Avoid.

Wind. Drive into a 20mph headwind at 70 mph and that's the equivalent of forcing your engine to do 90 MPG which, in turn, gives it a drink problem.

Xsara Picasso is Citroen's answer to those seeking a spacious family car and 50 MPG or more, courtesy of its humble 1.6 litre HDI diesel option.

Yearly fuel expenditure on a car doing an average 50 MPG pa is about £1400. Make that almost 4 grand if you're only getting 20 MPG. Ouch!

Zero MPG. What your car engine achieves when it's stuck at the lights or in a jam with its engine running. Think about it.

Mike Rutherford is a freelance writer, broadcaster and pro-car activist. Currently writing weekly columns for The Daily Telegraph and Auto Express, and monthly columns for The Independent and Motoring & Leisure, he presented Pulling Power on ITV and is a member of the World Car of the Year jury.

Mike Rutherford will not reply in person to individual emails. AOL may, at its discretion, publish, in part or in full, any comments sent in response to articles published within its channels. Please ensure that you only send in comments if you are happy for this to happen.