Fuel is an essential part of transport and there is no avoiding it despite how much we may want to when prices increase. The surprising fact that fuel takes up 40% of your vehicles running cost means we should care about fuel efficiency, the price of fuel affects everyone but there is not much we can do about fuel costs but we can do something about how efficiently our cars use that fuel.
In short, we measure fuel consumption by calculating how many litres of fuel is used for every 100KM driven. You don’t need anyone to test this, you can do it yourself.
To test the fuel ratio of your vehicle, follow the below steps:
- Fill your tank up
- Reset your trip meter
- Drive your vehicle as you normally do
- Divide the distance travelled by the litres used and you will get the km/litre
- Convert km/litre to L/100km (i.e. divide 100 by km/litre)
- You will now have your fuel consumption rate.
Factors that will affect your fuel consumption
- The size of your engine, the bigger the engine the more fuel it will consume.
- The size and weight of the vehicle, the heavier the vehicle the more fuel it will consume.
- Maintaining your vehicle in a tip-top shape ensuring your vehicle is running efficiently.
- Make sure your tyre pressure is at its maximum, worn out tyres causes additional friction to your vehicle’s momentum this affecting your fuel efficiency.
- While aerodynamics always impacts fuel used, it mostly has a role when you’re doing long-distance travelling. Less aerodynamic vehicles, like vans or SUVs, will experience more wind resistance, which, like tyre pressure, acts as additional friction and forces your car to use more fuel for the same speed otherwise.
- Turbos are surprisingly good for fuel efficiency, against popular opinion. It’s a power-smart and fuel-smart choice. Turbocharged engines differ from naturally aspirated engines in that turbocharged engines artificially pump more air and fuel into the engine’s combustion chambers, whereas naturally aspirated engines use natural air pressure to trigger combustion.
- You’ll have often heard the adage that “regular short trips aren’t good for cars” and one of the reasons for this is because it guzzles your fuel. Your engine works best when it’s warmed up, and short trips simply don’t allow it enough time to do so, making your car use more fuel for the same results in long-distance travelling.
- This goes without saying, but speeding, excessive or hard braking, and other bad driving habits or styles all impact your fuel consumption negatively. Like with most of the previous points, if you’re making your car experience more friction and weight, or regularly using more power than is necessary, you’re wasting fuel.
- Motor oil lubricates your engine and so reduces the friction your engine experiences while running. The better lubricated your engine is, the easier it will run without friction, and the less fuel it’ll need to do so.
Luckily for us, all Honda’s are highly fuel-efficient due to many factors such as the CVT gearbox or even Honda Dream Earths engine.
Come on down to CMH Honda Pinetown at 153 Josiah Gumede Road (Old Main Road) Pinetown and test drive any of our fantastic vehicles.
