How YOU can ease misery at forecourt

YOU may not be able to do much about the soaring prices but here’s how to make your car more fuel efficient...

Keep it light The less weight in your car, the less fuel it will use. It’s all to do with how much effort is needed for your vehicle to accelerate. Time to throw all that junk out of the boot.

Make it aerodynamic Remove roof racks and boxes to cut wind resistance.

Keep tyres correctly inflated

If pressures are too low, your tyres will drag and you’ll use more fuel. Over-inflated tyres can also affect your mpg.

Don’t speed Being heavy on the accelerator is one of the biggest guzzlers of fuel, so put your foot down gently when you need to speed up. Always drive in the highest possible gear while keeping within the speed limit.

UP AND UP Yesterday’s report Use cruise control on

motorways It’s a good idea to keep a constant and similar speed when you’re on a long, flat road, for example, a motorway. But if you’re on a bumpy road with lots of turns, you could end up using more fuel if you leave cruise control on. This is because your car is slower to react to changes on the road.

Switch off the AC Using air conditioning increases fuel consumption as the engine works harder to generate electricity to run the system. The only exception is if you’re driving at higher speeds, when it is better to use the AC and keep your windows up. For lower speed, roll your windows down and keep the AC off. Switch off at traffic lights

Worth thinking about if you have to wait more than 30 seconds. Keep rolling Try not to lose momentum. It all depends on road conditions but having to slow down and then accelerate again burns up more fuel. Anticipate by looking well ahead.