Aprrox. how much fuel savings do you get if you only fill your tank half full?

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Mungo \"Two Sheds\" Toadfoot" saying something like:

If you run behind a Rolls Royce, you could save a hundred pounds a week, easily.

In message , Dave Baker writes

Quite.

Perhaps someone ought to tell the wheel-shufflers?

Interesting thread this Have you been into the Fleet services on the M3 recently ? when you go in to pay you literaly have to walk all the way around the shop to get to the till, it's to make you consider buying somthing I presume ! ( no wander they don't do 'Pay at the pump' )

I guess they would be right to say don't keep it topped up *if* you don't run it down to near empty every time.

If you always have at least half a tank on board (my Mrs would choose to fill up at half full if I let her...) then that is effectively half a tank worth of dead weight.

But if you fill it up, run it down, fill it up, then that seems to be about as good as you can get.

And emptying unnecessary bits from the boot, getting the tyre pressures right and driving more economically still makes far more difference than your fillup strategy.

Ah, but, we also have this advice on Winter driving from Green Flag:

"It's a good idea to keep the tank at least half full during the winter to prevent moisture freezing in the petrol line. However, many motorists admit they leave it until the last minute - when the gauge shows empty or a warning light comes on - before they fill up."

I'm sure I've also heard the police complain about people who run out of fuel, and advise that tanks should be topped up when half empty...

"Which" magazine readers' heads must be exploding at this point, which will make a terrible mess of their cardigans.

My fuel-saving advice is "buy an RX8". When you've a choice between "dire fuel economy" and "bloody awful fuel economy", you cease to give a shit either way.

I've never heard of a petrol engined car freezing its fuel lines up in the winter. That's not to say it doesn't happen of course. However it never did to me when I lived in Aberdeen nor to any of my friends who still do.

Yes, I'm not sure I understand this, so if the tank isn't half full or more the petrol line is empty and full of moisture? Seems unlikely! I would have thought that could only happen once you'd completely ran out, or is it the return line or something?

Z

Like it. Personally I prefer to buy a Hummer with the biggest engine option there is (maybe mod it too) and then just use my 1 litre Polo for getting about. The fuel savings are huge!

Z

Well given the tanks full of petrol, waters heavier than petrol & the pump inlets at the bottom it's presumably bollocks.

Apostrophe test result: 25%

See me.

Si

Nope, because if you'd had a full tank AND a few bags of shopping, your car would've been even heavier.

It's still in the region of f*ck all.

Si

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Steve Walker saying something like:

"Reverse in when you park. When you start off again, the engine will be cold and at its most fuel inefficient. If you can drive smoothly away without having to reverse when the engine is cold, not only will you save fuel you will also have better visibility"

Ffs, I wonder what anal retentive came up with that one.

Half a tank is still 20kg or so for an average car, which is equivalent to a decent load of shopping. Not that I'd do it, because I like to measure brim-brim mpg.

Do you have your rear seats up, or folded flat?

Fnarrr!

:)

Si