With unleaded petrol costs at an all time high in the UK (the April 2010 report from the AA details that a litre of unleaded petrol will now set you back a bank-busting 120.5 pence), it’s important that you try and reduce the amount of fuel that you need to run your vehicle.

Known as your MPG – miles per gallon – this is the ratio of how many miles you can travel on each gallon of petrol that you put into your vehicle. The Fuel Economy websites Brand Levitra states that the average MPG for a UK car (combining urban and extra urban figures) is 37.837 MPG. This can increase or decrease substantially depending on your car, however, and the website also states that the Honda Insight, which has a petrol hybrid engine, can achieve a staggering 83.10 miles for every gallon of fuel that is put into it.

Unfortunately, this ratio is not currently commonplace in the UK and whilst more and more hybrid vehicles are entering the market each year, it is still going to be several years before you can expect to buy an affordable vehicle that has an average MPG of over 50 miles per gallon.

Therefore, in the meantime you need to be looking at different ways of increasing your MPG ratio so that your vehicle running costs remain as affordable as possible and these three steps should all help to save you some substantial money overall.

1. By losing any unnecessary weight from your vehicle, your overall load will be lighter, meaning less power is needed, which results in generic cialis buy online less fuel being required. You may think that you already have a light and empty vehicle, but check in the car boot or saddle bags of your bike. If you’re carrying a bike chain around with you, for example, check with your bike insurance company to see if it is necessary – it might actually only be saving you pennies using it, when in fact you would be able to save pounds in fuel costs by not carrying it with you.

2. Planning your route may seem like a boring thing to do, but if you can take a look at your map before you head out on a journey, you will be able to plan the best route possible to reduce the amount of miles you need to cover.

Also, remember that the route that allows you to go on the motorway may not be the best for your MPG. As the best fuel consumption rate is around 50 miles per hour (with exact figures depending on the individual vehicle), you would be much better travelling on a road that has a speed limit around this than being on the motorway and travelling at 70 miles per hour.

3. It is a common misconception that your vehicle will use more fuel being turned off and then on again, rather than just leaving it idling. This may have been true many years ago, but modern cars are designed to be able to be turned off regularly, so if you’re sat in traffic and going nowhere, turn off the ignition to increase your MPG.

Author Bio: Kwik Fit Bike Insurance have a team dedicated solely to finding the best possible deals in motorcycle cover – and have an 18-strong panel of leading insurers specialising in quality Motorbike Insurance and Motorcycle Tadacip Insurance Services.

Category: Cars and Trucks/Motorcycles
Keywords: bike insurance, bike, motorbike, motorcycle, insurance, fuel costs, petrol prices