Here I will show you my calculation on how I saved about 12,500 dollars.
Fuel price in Norway is about 2.1 Dollar per liter of unleaded 95 octane and about 2.2 dollars for 98 unleaded octane. (Remember we have high taxation on fuel that is coming in the rest of the world soon too because governments earn huge amount on it + increase in oil prices, and higher prices for everything will not make price for fuel look better in the future) Or 7.94 dollars a gallon for 95 and 8.33 dollars a gallon for 98 octane. I run on 98 unleaded octane because I use 14 % less fuel on my car with it. It does not mean your car will do it, so be sure to calibrate it for the right octane.
Now I drove about 50,000 km a year.
My test car: Land Rover Range Rover Classic LWB, production year 1993 4,2 Liters petrol engine, weight about 2.2 ton.
It had a fuel consumption when I bought it of about 26 liter per 100 km or getting 9 miles per gallon.
It was not maintained, and things were out of sync. Cars need to be recalibrated and looked properly over every second year to obtain a proper fuel economy.
The car from the factory should get about 12 mpg on combined driving, or 19.6 liter per 100 km.
After the tune up: now it gets 16.8 mpg or 14 liters per 100 km.
That is a 46 % total reduction.
It is about 29 % better than it did when it came out of the factory 15 years ago.
New 2008 factory car of the same brand with the same engine size and about the same weight uses 16.8 liter per 100km or 14 mpg on combined driving. Now I perform with a 15 year old car and engine that has gone now close to 200,000 km, 124 000 miles, about 16 % better on combined driving than a new car with the newest car technology available.
So there is no reason why an old car should use more and more fuel just because it is old.
Then it should be possible to reduce the fuel consumption of the cars that are sold today with at least 29 % too.
Now here is how much I saved:
I drive 5,000 metric miles multiplied by a fuel consumption of 2.6 liters = 13,000 liters a year by 2.2 dollars = 28,600 dollar a year in fuel cost.
After tune up I drive 5,000 metric miles, consumption at 1.4 liter = 7 000 liter a year by 15,400 dollars. 28,600 dollar I had to pay if I do not fix it minus 15,400 dollar equals = 13,200 dollars saved that I did not have to buy fuel for…
That tells me two things: It has not happened much in the car industry in 15 years and there is a huge saving potentiality in the world’s energy usage just by maintains and upgrading to a newer technology.
It is your hard earned money! Check how much your car should use here: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ratings2008.shtml
Now it is important to know: on new cars there are a lot of electronic devices actually standing in the way for many improvements, you need to fix sensors, wiring and ECU problems on a new car. You might find out that a 10 year old car is easier to improve fuel economy on than a new car; you might even find out that you can improve it more than a new car can do.
Sadly the cars that are sold now will be around on the average for 15 -20 years. This is why I wrote this book, because we will still have these cars around us for a long time, because people are not going to exchange them in the near future for hydrogen or battery drive cars even if the availability of fueling stations for hydrogen is popping up, because of the investment cost the car represents for them. It will help people that are going to buy new cars for the first time or send the old worn out car to the junkyard to choose hydrogen. In poor countries cars can live more than 30 years…
It is important before you start buying a lot of tools and equipment for your car to check your fuel usage. If it is a new car, you might not be able to improve more than by 10 % by reading tip 5 and 7. If your car is more than 2 years old, there is a lot to check up in this book to improve worn air filter, spark plugs, oil, oil filter and faulty sensors. If your car is more than 10 years old, it is a lot that can be done to save you a lot of fuel.
My dream is that I will manage to rebuild my 15 year old car so it will go on hydrogen within 5 years and use hydrogen only. But I need more filling stations for hydrogen.
back to: www.shrinkfuelcostnow.com/index.html