Fuel Economy

I've owned my car for just over a year. I was forced to buy it when my previous car broke down on me and the cost of the repair, for a new engine management system, meant that the car was only worth scrap price.

My new car, although fairly modest was a step up. It came with a few gadgets that have proven to be very useful. The first is the heating system. She warms up really quickly. This has been a real bonus over the winter and continues to be as this biting easterly wind prevails. Secondly, and also really helpful in the cold is the heated windscreen. I now wouldn't want to buy a car without it. The immediate effect that it has on the melting of the covering of ice on a frosty day has been a godsend; no scraping required.

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One of the things that my car has, which of course I realise is standard on most cars, is the digital readout. This allows me to scroll through a series of readouts. These include such things as average speed, estimated mileage until my fuel runs out and of course the trip odometer.

However perhaps the most annoying little readout is the average miles per gallon indicator. I have to say that I have become quite obsessed with it, especially after I have just refuelled my car. It is at this time that I reset the meter and try to drive as carefully and economically as I can, not too much acceleration, careful gear changes and no heavy braking. Initially this works well and the gauge can tick up to 50mpg on a good day with a clear road.

But my journey to work causes me to negotiate many sets of traffic lights, roundabouts and heavy traffic. These all play havoc with my fuel economy as I sit in queues not moving but with the engine running. I sit there and watch all my careful driving go to waste and the readout slowly but surely drops negating all my careful driving.

To this end I turn things off, the lights, the radio, the heated windscreen, the air conditioning, just to eke out a few more points of fuel economy.

With £50 required to refill my tiny fuel tank I have to try something. I filled up today and the readout is currently reading 47.6.

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