Some excellent research by tyre maker Michelin has revealed that drivers in the UK are losing out on more than £440million pounds by driving with the under-inflated tyres. An incredible figure.

Our website is all about saving fuel, and we have always said that checking your tyres is one of the easiest ways to make a difference, according to Michelin more than 370 million litres of fuel are being wasted each year due to under inflated tyres, I think this proves our point!

Until October this year a Michelin tyre specialist team are touring the UK and Ireland offering advice and correcting the pressure on peoples tyres. They are also giving away free glovebox guides, so keep your eyes peeled for them!

Here is also a supporting video on what they are doing:

So next time you have a spare minute go and check your pressure, if it’s low get pumping!

Image from sxc, by ‘sciucaness’.

I’ve published two new articles on the main website about the new fuels from Shell, they are called FuelSave and replace their old standard Unleaded and Diesel fuels.

In a nutshell; it costs the same as their old fuel, but means you use less of it = saving you money!

One article is a full report from my day learning about the new fuels. Read about it here: http://www.save-petrol.co.uk/shell-fuelsave-day.php

The second article makes up part of the main tips on the website, the important juicy stuff like ‘how much money can I save’!. Read the article here: http://www.save-petrol.co.uk/cartips/shell-fuelsave.php

Below I’ve put a selection of quick Q and A’s about it.

Questions And Answers

Q: Does it cost more?
A: No, the price at the pumps is the same as their previous generation of fuels. They are already competitive with supermarkets so there is no reason not to use it in my opinion.

Q: Can I buy it anywhere?
A: Only on Shell forecourts, they have over 900 in the UK so it is likely there is one close to you.

Q: How do they know it works?
A: They performed demonstration scenarios such as ‘family drivers’ and ‘professional drivers’ to see how effective it is in real-life situations. Over 8000km was driven in total to test it out. External test laboratories (MIRA) were used to see how it performed. With all this data they have came up with the ‘save up to 1 litre claim’.

Q: Is it only for cars?
A: No, it is for everyone including drivers of trucks, motorcyclists etc.

Q: Does this bring the fuel closer to V-Power?
A: No, they are still completely different, FuelSave is aimed at your regular driver who wants to save money, V-Power is aimed at those with performance cars who want it for the performance improvement. V-Power also costs more, the difference is about 7p per litre (but can vary).

Japanese manufacturers Toyota scooped two awards at the British Insurance Vehicle Security Awards, held at the Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre at Thatcham, Berkshire.

The Toyota Land Cruiser V8 kept hold of top spot, claiming the prize in the large 4×4 class for the third year in a row, with the Toyota Prius winning the Green Car category.

Thatcham’s Vehicle Security Manager, Mike Briggs said, “It’s great to see Toyota taking first place in both the large 4×4 and the new Green Car categories. Prius demonstrates that consumers concerned about both security and the environment need not compromise. Toyota’s success shows it’s commitment to design-out crime, thereby reducing the risk to insurers and the motoring public.”

The Prius earned top position in the Green Car field for having the lowest emissions among the UK’s top-rated cars for security. This acclaim highlighted the importance that the motorists of today place on a vehicles crime prevention standards and CO2 performance, both for their piece of mind and reducing running costs.

The advanced Hybrid Synergy Drive system of the Prius allows it to be driven using its petrol engine, electric motor or a combination of both. This means the vehicle can achieve its best possible performance, whilst keeping CO2 emissions to just 89g/km.

As a full hybrid, the Prius can run at lower speeds over varying distances using its electric power source alone. Therefore, fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions will be zero.

Now in its eighth generation of motoring, the iconic Toyota Land Cruiser V8 has the ability to seat seven passengers, whilst also boasting a range of capabilities. Their stylish management, suspension and drivetrain system, coupled with the secure handling ensures a safe and comfortable ride both on the open road and on rougher terrain.

The British Insurance Vehicle Security awards are intended to raise the awareness of consumers of the best practice in vehicle security and crime prevention. The vehicles are assessed according to the New Vehicle Security Rating Scheme (NVSR), with points being awarded under the two separate categories, the ‘theft from’ and ‘theft of’ the vehicle. The overall winners of each group are those models who achieve the highest scores in each category.

We have all became used to the various road safety adverts on our TV screens, such as the “hit me at 30mph and there’s an 80% chance I’ll live” ad. Now the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership has launched a new campaign, with a bit of a difference.

** If you like the video you can now vote for it to win ‘Youtube Ad of the Year’, here is the link http://bit.ly/VoteEmbraceLife **

The aim of the ad is to encourage people to wear their seatbelt. But instead of trying to shock you with blood, gore and general car wreckage messiness they have gone a different route. Watch and see for yourself at www.embracethis.co.uk.

No speech, no statistics, no shock, just a little pull on your emotional heart strings. I hope this ad gets lots of attention as it is great to see something different to the usual ‘shock ads’ the Government like to release. So pass the link on to your friends and family via email, facebook or during good old fashioned conversation! And remember….wear your seatbelt, no excuses!

Image is a screenshot from the video.

Vauxhall have recently released the very sexy new Astra, definitely a big improvement looks wise on the old shape both inside and outside. But how much have the engines improved?

With fuel prices likely to go up (popular opinion seems to be that it will rise by 15p in 2010) in the future, fuel consumption is very important, and also for you eco conscious drivers how have CO2 emmissions changed?

On this page we have some manufacturer figures for you, kindly provided by Torque Astra, a community for Astra owners and lovers to keep up with news on the car as well as chat in a forum and comment on articles, a great way to let your opinion be heard on the new car!

Figures

In the tables below you can see all figures for all engines. Here are some interesting findings I noticed from the tables.

• The 1.4l petrol (100PS) has improved from a combined fuel figure of 46.3MPG to 51.4MPG, over 10% improvement. And CO2 is down from 146 to 129, a 17% improvement.
• The most impressive figures are in the range of automatics. The 2.0 diesel (was a 1.9CDTI) has gone from 40.9MPG up to 48.7MPG, that’s not far off a 20% improvement! The CO2 is also 17% better.
• However, the 1.7l diesel (110PS) has gone from a combined fuel figure of 62.8MPG to 60.1MPG, this is very disappointing to see the MPG has actually got worse! The CO2 has improved by 6 G/KM though.

Here is a list of all the different engines and there figures so you can compare them all (click to enlarge). The first table is the new Astra, and the 2 tables below that are of the petrol and diesel engines for the old Mk5 car.

2010 Astra Petrol & Diesels

Mk5 Astra (2004 – 2009) Petrol Engines

Mk5 Astra (2004 – 2009) Diesel Engines

Once again, many thanks to the guys and girls from TorqueAstra.com for help with this article.

Image credit: Vauxhall press release.

With the price of petrol and diesel dropping significantly the focus on saving petrol seems to have dropped off significantly. It does suprise me a little bit because ultimately you can save upto 25% on your fuel bills, regardless of how much fuel costs you can still save a lot of money. Especially with this credit crunch going on!

I am also getting one of the new Ford Focus Zetec S’s soon which is a 1.8D so my focus on petrol will obviously drop because I can no longer use it to test methods of petrol saving etc. The rules of saving fuel do apply though for both diesel and petrol so not a great deal will change.

The plan was to have regular posts on this blog about but it will take me many hours to create and publish those posts as well as maintain and promote the rest of the website. With only a few thousand visitors per month it isn’t worth my while. So Ive decided to only post on this blog sparingly. I will still post when the price of fuel moves dramatically.

I still recommend you subscribe to the free updates so you remain in the loop. All I’m saying is don’t expect lots of great reading content to be churned out every week, but you will still get some worthwhile reading and news every now and then.

Thanks, Chris – Save-Petrol.co.uk Owner.

The whole website has been given a fresh new look, this brings the blog and main website closely together. It’s a big improvement and we intend to keep it this was for the next couple of years (who know’s what the future holds!)

On the main website the new pages include the maths of how much money can be saved by putting our tips into action. We also have a couple of new minor pages including get involved and subscribe via email.

On the money saving side of things we have a new page about when you have a cold engine, and also information on how to get the best price for very cool personalised number plates! This page has been created to go along our series of other ways to save money on motoring which includes our pages on car warranty and car rental deals.

Yesterday the Treasury announced that the planned 2p rise per litre on fuel duty has been postponed. There had been a lot of pressure on the government to postpone the rise after the cost of fuel soared over the past year due to high oil prices.

The 2p rise was originally planned for April 2008, but Darling postponed it until October 1st, now is has been postponed again until April 1st 2009. We will have to see how things go over the next 6 months, fingers crossed the 2p rise will be postponed again!

It appears the four day strike by 600 fuel tanker drivers has caused some people to start panic buying at the forcourts. The drivers deliver fuel to Shell garages only so their is no need to worry at all! By panic buying you are only wasting your own time and money at the pump when you don’t need to.

If you want to read more about the strike check out the BBC website.

On Monday evening I emailed BBC Midlands Today – http://www.bbc.co.uk/midlandstoday/ - which is my local news service on BBC1 at 6.30pm.They replied Tuesday morning and by Tuesday afternoon we were filming a small report for the website which will be aired tonight (Wednesday 30th April) or tomorrow (Thursday 1st May). They also passed my details onto BBC C&W Radio – http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/covwarks.shtml who I did a 4 minute piece with today at 8.05am. Listen!

I would like to say thanks to the BBC and the reporters/presenters that I spoke to/met who where all really great. Thanks, Chris.