Nurse Spends 24k on Fuel!
With fuel prices rising all the time it is little wonder that people are looking into fuel efficient vehicles. So if you do not want to go down the route of electrical cars your best option is a diesel, or is it? Car manufacturers have been working on economy as a matter of priority and and new engine technology has been developed. All the manufacturers have been able to squeeze more power out of smaller engines. So it really pays to work out which vehicle is going to suit you the best.
We met a regional nurse who was in charge of home care for a county. Her job was to drive around the county making sure the other nurses were doing their job, as well as popping in and looking after patients. Her mileage had averaged around thirty five thousand per year. To do this mileage she had taken the decision that an older car would be cheaper as all these miles would depreciate a new car at a rapid level. So the vehicle she used was a ten year old Vauxhall Vectra 1.8 petrol. With her local stop start mileage she was achieving twenty seven miles to the gallon. A gallon of petrol costs six pound twenty pence at today’s prices. This means that every mile travelled in this car was costing twenty three pence. This adds up to a whopping eight thousand pounds a year in fuel costs. If we take these costs over a three year period it would mean that she has spent twenty four thousand pounds on fuel.
If we now take a new car and look at a Volkswagen Polo 1.2 TDI 75ps Bluemotion. This car is capable of an incredible ninety one miles to the gallon. Even around town this vehicle is capable of nearly seventy to the gallon! For this exercise we will take the average claimed figure of eighty to the gallon. The cost per gallon for this vehicle is six pounds and fifty nine pence as it is diesel. This means that the fuel cost per mile for this car is only eight pence per mile! If you take the total cost per year at two thousand eight hundred and seventy pounds. Over three years this would cost eight thousand six hundred and ten pounds. Of course you have to add the cost of buying the new car which starts at fifteen thousand three hundred and sixty five pounds. This adds up to Twenty three thousand nine hundred and seventy five pounds. Effectively she would own a Volkswagen Polo for no further cost than she was paying over three years. There are further savings with maintenance and warranty on the new car. Also road tax is around one hundred pounds cheaper. If she kept the car for a fourth year the savings really come into play and she has the value of the car to play with even though it is high mileage.
Ensuring your car’s tyres are properly inflated and have adequate tread depth is one way of saving money on fuel – having under- or over-inflated tyres, or worn out tread can drastically reduce the fuel efficiency of your vehicle, costing you more each year on your petrol or diesel. Grippy can replace your tyres with premium or budget brand tyres at a time and place that is convenient for you, just give our mobile tyre fitting team a call to see how much you could save on your tyres!