Are These Petrol Saving Tips Real?

The following petrol saving tips have been circulated around the world for quite sometime and few days ago I received it again. So, I’m just sharing these tips to you. But the question is how true the tips are? Are these tips real?

(1) Fill up your car or truck in the morning when the temperature is still cool.

When temperature high, gasoline expands (less dense), with the same amount money you get less gasoline.

My Comment: It sounds making sense from the physics point of view. I think I will buy in this. You may also interested there is a special pump to compensate the temperature swing but I don’t think every petrol station has it.

(2) If a tanker truck is filling the station's tank at the time you want to buy gas, do not fill up.

This is due to the fact that the dirt and sludge in the tank is being stirred up when gas is being delivered, and you might be transferring that dirt from the bottom of their tank into your car's tank.

My Comment: It doesn’t really matter to me whether it is true or not because it never happens to me (tanker truck is around) when I pump in the gas or petrol.

(3) Fill up when your gas tank is half-full (or half-empty).

The more gas or petrol you have in your tank the less air there is (empty space is small) and therefore gasoline evaporates less.

My Comment: It sounds theoretical right, but have you ever think of the more gasoline or petrol you have in your car, the heavier your car is and therefore the fuel consumption is higher? I wonder the impact is minimum and I think I choose *not* to buy in this. What about you?

(4) When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to the high setting (pump faster).

Hoses at the pump are corrugated; the corrugations act as a return path for vapor recovery from gas that already has been metered. If you are pumping at the high setting, the agitated gasoline contains more vapors, which is being sucked back into the underground tank, so you're getting less gas for your money.

My Comment: Hmm… how true is this? Honestly I don’t believe in it and I definitely has tried it out myself and I don’t see any differences between the low and fast setting. Anyway, I don’t buy in this.

The way I look at it, driving habit also plays a very important role.

The way you drive affects how often you have to fill up. Driving smoothly with as little sudden acceleration or braking could help a lot in your fuel consumption. Research is also showing that if you cut your average speed from 70mph (110kph) to around 50mph (80kph), you will burn about 25% less petrol. Around 50mph is the optimum speed for fuel consumption.

Here is my conclusion for Petrol Saving Tips that I’m going to follow:

1. Pump petrol only in the morning.
2. Maintain my driving habit – not to accelerate and sudden brake.

One last thing, buy an "Manual" car instead of the "Automatic" one. Is "Automatic" car really necessary?