Oily rag: Drive safely and cheaply

Tune your car and your driving to save money on your summer road trip.

For most people holidays involve travel. It's therefore an appropriate time to remind motorists that safe driving also makes financial sense.

We have done number crunching using the latest motor vehicle operating cost report. The cost of owning a vehicle (ignoring interest or lost income opportunity) ranges between $1000 and $1500 a year depending on the value of the car (the main difference being insurance).

It's in the running costs that the cost gap between a small or large car starts to open up. Small cars (less than 1500cc) cost about 21 cents a kilometre to run, 27 cents for a medium-sized car, and 35 cents for a large vehicle (over 3500cc). Those cents become significant dollars when the running cost is multiplied by the 14,000km an average vehicle does a year, and ranges between $3000 for small cars to $5000 for large.

The much larger "running" cost is depreciation, or loss of resale value. The oily rag rule here is to buy used not new. If you buy a new car you are likely to lose 30 per cent of its value by the end of the first year, 15 per cent in the second and 5 per cent every year after that. If you buy a used car that is 1 year old it will lose about 25 per cent in the first year and about 7 per cent every year after that. If you buy a used car that is 2 years old or older, you can expect to lose about 10 per cent every year.

The bottom line is that trading down to a smaller vehicle and buying a good second-hand vehicle, will save significant dollars, but check the smaller vehicle is actually more fuel efficient. According to sustainability.govt.nz "generally, larger engines use more fuel than smaller engines, but within each engine size there is a wide range of fuel consumption rates. For example, the most efficient three-litre engine uses fuel more economically than the least efficient 1.6-litre engine."

An oily rag reader says the best buy is a car that is a few years old, with around 80,000km on the clock. It should give trouble-free motoring for at least another 100,000km, or about 7 years use for the average family.

Here are other ways to reduce motoring costs:

Bike or walk. It is estimated that half of all journeys are less than 3km. Biking is four times faster than walking, and takes about the same time as the bus. And better still, the cost of buying and maintaining a bike is about 1 per cent of the cost of buying and maintaining a car.

Sell the seldom-used vehicle and replace it with a motor scooter or bike.

Become a better driver. Drive with a "soft" foot. A manic driver, who breaks heavily into corners and accelerates out of them, will use 25 per cent more fuel and a fast driver, 10 per cent more than a smooth driver. Slowing from 110km to 100km will result in a 15 per cent fuel saving. You will also avoid speeding tickets and be safer.

Make sure tyre pressures are right. According to Beaurepaires, every 10 per cent under the vehicle manufacturer's recommended pressure costs about 2.5 per cent in extra fuel consumption.

Turn off the air conditioner. This needs power, which comes from the engine. Air conditioners can use about 10 per cent extra fuel.

Make sure your vehicle is tuned. A poorly maintained vehicle will consume 5 per cent more fuel.

Do you have a favourite tip to share? Send it to us at www.oilyrag.co.nz or write to Living Off the Smell of an Oily Rag, PO Box 984, Whangarei.