Whenever you visit a showroom to buy a car, the salesman will tell you a mileage that will be far higher than the actual mileage that any car would give you. When you go back to the showroom and ask him about the difference, naturally, like all of us would be familiar by now, they will just say that the car would give that mileage on average testing conditions.

So to understand fuel economy better, we need to know what the standard testing conditions are.

A car driven on a smooth, straight and level road at a constant speed, accelerating gradually, shifting gears at speeds and engine rpm as specified in the manual, never breaking and never exceeding 50 MPH at any time and not even fluctuating is supposed to be the standard testing conditions of any vehicle. To add more details to it, to reduce friction, all joints should be greased and lubricated well, the car shouldn't weigh a lot, loaded with people and their luggage, tyre pressure should be optimum, and the air filter and the engine lubricant should all be clean and new.

All car factories have dedicated huge amounts of lands to create various road conditions for automobiles to be tested. Super Highways, bumpy roads, dirt roads and any type of road that you would see outside, and they would be testing the cars before they come out for sale. So with whats given above, we know whats required to achieve optimum fuel economy and derive the maximum mileage from your car. Obviously, we cannot achieve most of the factors in the Standard Testing Conditions on our regular road trips.

1. You cant expect to drive on a straight, level and smooth road every day.

2. You cannot expect to drive without brakes, if you don't want to be killing up a cyclist on your way to the office.

3. You cant expect to drive at a constant speed or without stopping at the traffic signals.

4. And you really cant expect to shift gears at the right times on the traffic that we see on our roads these days.

5. Just drive thru a dusty area, and your air filter gets dirty.

6. Fill pure Gas, and before you close the lid wind could blow some dust inside, and this could make your fuel filter dirty as well.

7. You can't check tire pressure every day.

8. You will be driving around with different loads on your car, thru different roads on different days.

How to make the most number of miles with the fuel you fill in our car? Well, its going to be something like a combination of the things above.

1. Never race your engine on a lower gear, or drive slowly on a higher gear. Try to maintain gear ratio as much as possible.

2. Try to maintain the appropriate tire pressure at all times. A bit too much will result in lesser road grip, and a bit too little will result in more fuel spent.

3. Use your Air Conditioner optimally. Don't set it to very cool when you are driving within the city. It is pointless, and the AC will take up more energy from the engine in cooling the cabin. When on the freeway, it will not make much difference.

4. Try to maintain your vehicle properly. Well lubricated and nuts and bolts tightened in all places at all times.

5. And above all, if only one person drives one car, and it doesn't have multiple users, naturally you will get more mileage.

6. Step on the Gas Pedal lightly. Pressing it to the floor is not going to give you any more performance than the car is designed to give you, but will only waste a lot of unused fuel.

Learn more about this author, Ravi M S.
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