4 Easy Fuel Efficient Car Tips

Petrol prices are doing nothing but going up. They are going to stay up, permanently. There is no hiding from that fact. So ,as wel all may be able the moment, you could be strapped for cash. Well that's why we have come up with a few simple and easy tips to save you money and increase your fuel efficiency.

1. Keep your windows up

Driving along with the window down can have a bad effect on fuel efficiency. This is because the wind resistance caused by the car losing its naturally aero-dynamic design. This causes the engine to work harder. If It’s a hot day, just open the window when you’re not moving in traffic.

2. Do routine maintenance often

It's true when they say have a service on your car regularly. However this is not for prolonging the life of the engine, it's for fuel efficiency. If your oil is old and dirty, the engine is working harder to run your car as efficiently as it should be running. Making sure your engine is always in pristine condition will ensure that your car is as green as possible and you should not have to worry about breaking down nearly as much either.

3.  Keep your tyres inflated

Having tyres under-inflated is one of the leading reasons for lower fuel efficiency. You should check your tire pressure often to make sure they are at the optimum pressure. If your tyres aren’t up to the correct pressure, they will increase the amount you pay on fuel. The tyres will also wear out a lot faster costing you money to replace them a lot faster. You will also have to worry about disposing of the old tyres, possibly at a charge.

4. Learn to drive economically

This is the most obvious solution, yet the one most people take the least notice off. If they actually realise how much full throttle acceleration actually costs then they wouldn’t do it, simple as that. If you know you’re about to stop, then why still accelerate? For example coming up to a set of traffic lights. Or needless hard acceleration, a slow and elegant move off will still get you to where you’re going, but cheaper!

Just a few short tips to get you thinking about the money you could save buy just putting a little effort in. Here at car leasing made simple, we are constantly reassured by the motor industry about fuel consumption. Manufactures are coming out with great new cars and engines all the time, read about them here!

 

How Whole Life Costs Can Help Reduce Your Fleet Expenditure

Can you run a greener, more environmentally-friendly company car fleet and save your business money and fuel at the same time? How do you really know which cars are best for your fleet and your bottom line? The answers can be found in Whole Life Cost calculations, as they provide an irrefutable means for selecting the right vehicles at the lowest total cost to the business.

Why Whole Life Cost decisions are so important
The "credit crunch" has forced increased pressure on businesses to run greener fleets and save money on their car fleet operations. And for businesses, there are stronger than ever incentives to reduce CO2 emissions of their car fleet - not only from an environmental attitude - but also as a way to minimise the impact of volatile operating costs and rising fuel taxes.

Choosing the right vehicles is therefore vital; every fleet decision you make "locks in" CO2 emissions and running costs such as fuel and tax bills for the lifetime of the vehicle on your fleet - and in the case of some tax charges, long afterwards. However, commonly used criteria such as purchase price or front-end lease rental costs will not help you define and run a low-cost, low-CO2, low-tax fleet.

The alternative - using Whole Life Costs - is the only tried and tested method when it comes to maximising financial, environmental and tax efficiency. A Whole Life Cost car fleet policy shapes your fleet around the entire range of known fixed and variable costs. It takes into account future changes such as CO2 -based writing down allowances that will undoubtedly have a significant effect on the feasibility of many currently popular models.

Real savings for business and employees
Whole Life Cost policies give your organisation three "wins":

• A green win from running cars with low CO2 emissions, thereby lowering fuel consumption
• A financial win from selecting vehicles with optimum funding, operational and tax costs
• A personnel win from lower P11d tax bills and lower fuel bills

How are Whole Life Costs calculated?
Unlike list price or lease rentals Whole Life Cost calculations accurately compare the full lifetime impact of each vehicle choice on your business's bottom line, as they take into account all factors which make up the lifetime cost.All these factors can be modelled to help assess the Whole Life Costs against a wide range of variables such as contract length, lifetime mileage and expected future fuel prices.

Whole Life Costs calculations can help you to do even more than simply comparing vehicles. By modelling the relationship between prices, funding costs, taxes, depreciation and mileage, a Whole Life Cost approach helps you establish the optimum replacement cycle and funding method for your business as well as the best cars for your choice list. Some companies find they can reduce costs substantially by using different funding methods for separate parts of the fleet, for example a Personal Car Leasing plan for high business mileage users and higher CO2 rated cars and Contract Hire vehicles for cars with CO2 emissions of 160g/km or less.

Whole Life Costs and existing allocation policy
Can you use Whole Life Cost calculations with either a fixed allocation list or a user-chooser policy? The answer is a resounding "Yes!". If you have a fixed allocation list, using Whole Life Cost calculations enables you to specify the right vehicles for your fleet in every respect - whatever the application. If your priority is simply to minimise overall costs, Whole Life Cost calculation illustrates the options with the lowest overall costs, accurately factoring-in all costs - many of which are often overlooked at the fleet procurement stage.

On the other hand, if status is also a factor, you can take advantage of the fact that a premium model with low CO2 emissions may have a better Whole Life Cost than many typical high-volume models; this gives you the opportunity to give more desirable brand cars to staff at a lower cost to the company, with clear benefits for recruitment and retention. For user-choosers, grade benchmarks can be set according to Whole Life Costs, which will ensure that drivers' choices fairly reflect the relative cost of providing vehicles and helps prevent poor choices, such as selecting cheaper vehicles with heavy fuel consumption or poor CO2.

Implementing a Whole Life Cost policy
To implement a Whole Life Cost policy in your business, a full review your fleet, focusing specifically on choice lists from both the company and the drivers' perspectives. The Whole Life Cost calculations, can be used to draw up recommendations for tackling your existing vehicle costs, improving efficiency and achieving green objectives.