Saving fuel with careful driving

The car we use for hypermiling - a 1300kg 1600cc turbo-diesel

Apologies for not blogging much on hypermiling for quite some time.
As I mentioned in my last post, I don't drive much, having  moved my workplace during an internal re-organisation in the company I work for.
This has left me with a one mile cycle to work, rather than a twenty-five mile (each way) drive.
Saving fuel with careful driving isn't the entire answer, but it is easy enough to do, and makes a real difference, at least until better transport solutions emerge in the future.

We still use our car for some journeys, particularly the longer ones.
Recently I made three long-ish journeys in our car, and it is these that I will share with you now.
Just to remind you what we drive, there is a picture of our car at the top of this article.
It is a 2006 Citroen Berlingo Multispace "Desire", with the 1.6L 90 hp turbo-diesel engine.
The "official" fuel economy is as follows:
Urban (that's town driving) 42.2 mpg (imp), 35.14 (mpg US), 6.7 l/100 km
Extra-Urban (out of town, including motorways/expressways) 60.1 mpg (imp), 50.04 (mpg US), 4.7 l/100 km
Overall (a typical mix of driving) 52.3 mpg (imp), 43.54 (mpg US), 5.4 l/100 km.

In case you are thinking "my those are good fuel-mileage figures for what is essentially a very short station-wagon" - then, yes, you are right.
Part of the secret of getting good fuel mileage is to get a pretty economical car in the first place!
And the Peugeot/Citroen 1.6L turbo-diesel is a pretty efficient engine!
Our car is not modified, "chipped", or in any way altered from the "standard" specification.
We even run the tyres at "normal" pressure, although they are special, low-rolling resistance tyres (which are on the "standard" specification for our car!)
It does have a full, factory, service record, carried out at the appropriate manufacturer's recommended intervals by a "main dealer", and it had about 70,000 miles "on the clock", and that's about it.
The fuel is just normal diesel from whichever garage is selling it cheapest, and we don't add any strange additives, or anything else for that matter, to the fuel.


1. The Holiday
A long motorway drive down to Cornwall, followed by not-very-busy main roads. Same sort of thing on the way back. we made a couple of diversions due to long tailbacks notified on the overhead displays on the motorway (expressway/freeway), and even went through the middle of Bristol on the "normal" roads, before picking up the M32 and resuming our normal journey.
Pretty good fuel/gas mileage, I'm sure you will agree.
Our "special techniques" were only really smooth driving, and keeping the speed down to 60-odd mph.
We actually drove the trip a few days before, but as I was about to go on the next trip, I took pics of the computer readouts, and then reset the computer for the next trip/

Recent picture!

distance until estimated refuel

overall trip distance

72,5 mpg (imp) for the trip!

Average speed on the trip.

2. The Airport Run
Just a 70 mile run, there and back.
Main roads, then motorways, then up three leves at slow speed in the airport car park. Out again before the engine had cooled down much (I was only stopped for about 20 minutes).
Modest speed driving - mostly about 50 mph, except on the M25, when the usually heavy congestion had us down to 30 mph or less for a while.
The usual techniques were employed - smooth driving, leaving a big gap to the next car in front, and trying to average out the surges in traffic speed that occur in congestion. then a similar trip back, with the same sort of congestion.
Really pleased with this one.
I think 80.7 mph (imp), 67.2 (US), 3.50 L/100km is the best airport run we have yet done!

The date of the airport run

Distance to refuelling

overall trip distance - it is 70 miles
from our house to the airport and back

An incredible 80.7 mpg (imp)!

Average speed on the airport run - 31 mph

3. The Funeral.
A former colleague of mine, Alan, died recently.
Alan was just 54.
Alan was a very much larger-than-life character, both in his appearance and sense of humour.
Alan will be missed by all who knew him.
Anyway, i'm not much of a one for going to office funerals of folks I used to work with several years ago, but, as I hope I have outlined above, Alan was an exception.
The timing was tight, as I had to go to work in the morning, and then get to the funeral for mid-afternoon (Twenty-past Two).
I drove to work in the morning - only the third time I have driven in the three years I have worked locally - because the extra time to cycle home and get the car would biye into my driving time, and I did not want to be late for Alan's funeral.
I finished work early enough to be able to drive out of town at a moderate pace, onto the nice dual-carriage that links out town with the M25.
17 miles on a half-empty dual carriageway with "motorway-style" junctions is a good time to get some decent fuel mileage, even if I did have to cross The Chilterns (a major range of hills in Southern England) to get to the infamous M25 (the London Orbital motorway).
The traffic was in my favour, and I was able to just cruise round the five or so junctions (intersections) to wher I had to turn off - then a short stretch of urban dual-carriageway (with traffic lights!) to the funeral.
I made it with 20 minutes to spare - just enough time to be comfortable.
Again, steady driving, and keeping the speed down to the lorry (truck) speed (about 56 mph) were the "special techniques" I used.

Alan's funeral was on the 8th Augusr 2014

It was an 87 mile "round trip" to the funeral and back

Pretty impressed with the 78.5 mpg (imp)

Average speed for the trip was 37 mph.

4. The other trips I did in that time that I haven't mentioned.
I didn't do any!
Even when I got a load of parts for my bike, the car just sat on the drive.
I even get my groceries by bike.
And that's the best way of all to save fuel - don't take the car on short trips !!!
It really doen't take that much diesel/petrol to pay for the cost of a cheap bike plus some panniers, and it keeps you fit, too!

getting a new bike wheel - by bike, of course!

Panniers are handy for shopping on a bike

All that goes in one little
(17litre rated capacity) pannier!