Fuelly

I've always kept a tab on my fuel consumption and potential mileage is always a major influence on me when choosing a car. Partly, this is because I am concerned about the environmental impact of vehicle emissions and being minded to the fact that they are using a limited and depleting natural resource. However, mainly it is because I am a tight fisted bastard - not that I'm trying to live up to any sort of tired old Scottish stereotype.

To this end I always have an idea of what is a "good" mpg and what is "bad". My current car has exceeded expectations on this. They claim a figure of 50 mpg for the car but I would actually regard that as "bad" and typically only something I would see in the coldest winter months - although when we had the snow permanently down I did see significantly lower than this. The very best I've seen over a tank of fuel was 62 mpg but this was in mid-summer and mostly involved me driving at a steady 40 mph through the A80 roadworks. However, I have never kept a long term record of my fuel consumption.

I've decided that this is changing this year after coming across the website Fuelly. This is a free to use system that stores fuel consumption figures and allows the data to be freely viewed on the Internet. I'm normally not a big fan of this kind of public information sharing but the data is not of a particularly personal nature and the information gathered is very useful for anyone who wants to investigate real-world vehicle fuel consumption rather than the official laboratory produced figures which have very little bearing on the real world.



So far I have completed 3 fuel-ups and this has resulted in two average mpg figures for my car. I've added some other information about fuel type used and the type of driving so that like can be compared with like. I've also included the car's own trip computer readings so the accuracy of this can be assessed. So far it appears to be quite accurate if a little pessimistic. There are various tips on the website to improve fuel consumption but, aside from the bleeding obvious such as inflating tyres properly and not going too fast, it tends to be hair-raisingly stupid ideas like tailgating juggernauts and switching the engine off down steep hills.

Actually, I do regard myself as already being a fairly frugal driver but I wonder if recording consumption in public may have a Weight Watchers style effect on my driving style.