13 lucky ways to cut your driving costs

Updated 02/3/12

Has running a car become a luxury you can’t afford? There are loads of changes you can make, both big and small, that will really have an impact on the amount you spend as a driver.

Start saving now with our top 13 ways to slash your driving costs:

1. Save pounds on petrol

Combat rising petrol prices by shopping around on petrolprices.com. This is a free price comparison site, updated daily, that searches for the cheapest petrol prices near you.

You have to create an account to use it but it won’t cost you a penny. You can opt out of receiving emails, so don’t worry about your inbox being flooded.

Also, avoid filling up with fuel from a motorway. According to recent RAC research you can pay an extra £5.50 at a motorway service station compared to off-motorway supermarkets. And not only are supermarkets frequently cheaper – it’s a great opportunity to top up your supermarket loyalty card points and take pounds off your food shop.

Some types of petrol are better than others too. Shell FuelSave Unleaded and Diesel is formulated so as to save you up to one litre per tank – at no extra cost. Ask about it at your local garage.

If you spend a lot of money on fuel, you should definitely consider getting Santander’s 123 Cashback Credit Card. This gives you a fantastic 3% cashback on petrol (as well as cashback on other everyday spending). However it does charge a £24 annual fee, so you’ll only get most out of it if you regularly use it to buy fuel.

2. Make money from your car

You could make up to £1,500 a year from your car without lifting a finger. Do it by allowing adverts on your car. It’s a really simple way to earn money for doing very little. Sign up with money4space.com or Comm-motion who are looking for people who drive cool cars and drive them a lot. They have a way of putting ads on your vehicle without harming the paintwork.

If you agree to be a mobile advertising hoarding you can make between £60 and £1,500 a year depending on the size of the advert you agree to display on your vehicle. You may even get some freebies thrown in by the company you advertise. Also, with such a unique looking car there’s much less chance of it being stolen!

Go to the money4space website where you simply fill in a form online and wait for them to contact you.

3. Get the best insurance policy

Save £100s by shopping around for the cheapest policy for you. Use comparison tools like Confused.com to find a car insurance policy that matches your needs. Also try other comparison sites to see if you can get an even better deal.

(Comparison sites are useful – but what they don’t tell you is no one site covers the whole of the market.)

So put aside 20 minutes if you can and compare the comparison services. We recommend Confused.com, but see how comparethemarket.com does, as it has recently increased the amount of insurers it covers. Money Supermarket is also worth a look.

Also some good deals aren’t covered by the comparison sites at all.

Our pick of the best offers (that aren’t on comparison sites) are:

Aviva

They are currently running a special offer for new customers who buy online. Right now you can get 15 weeks of free car insurance. Plus their premiums are as low as £204 to start with. Check out Aviva’s deal.

Kwik Fit

Offer a 20% online discount. Not only is it potentially a very good discount, but their customer service has won quite a few awards. (It’s important you get good service as well as a good price).

BeWiser

Give you free RAC breakdown cover with its car insurance policies.

Whatever policy you go for, don’t forget breakdown cover too. Check out our breakdown insurance article to find the cheapest and most effective breakdown policy.

Got kids learning to drive?

If your kids are learning to drive in your car, it’s normally cost effective to get them their own temporary car insurance policy.

We recommend the insurance company Provisional Marmalade as being the best for young drivers at the moment. They insure drivers as young as 17 – a lot younger than most other insurers are willing to go.

They’re cheap too, with their prices starting from just £2.81 a day. This is far preferable to putting a young driver on your own policy, which can be prohibitively expensive – a quote of two to three thousand pounds is not uncommon! (Also, putting them on a separate temporary car insurance policy ensures your carefully maintained no claims bonus won’t be affected should they have a scrape).

4. Best value MOTs

If you’re due an MOT it’s a good idea to have a quick pre-test of your own. Check out this useful checklist of things to take a look at before the test.

MOT fees are fixed – take a look at them here – but garages will usually have their own pre-test and give you an idea of what needs doing and how much it will cost, so if it sounds a bit steep go to another garage to see if you can get it for less.

There are often deals to be found by garages offering to do both the test and repairs.

However, it’s a good idea to check your local council’s MOT testing centre too. Because they only provide tests (they don’t do repairs) they have no incentive to find any unnecessary faults with your car (so they can charge you for the privilege of fixing them).

You can find a list of local council MOT test centres here.

If there isn’t one listed near you it might still be worth giving your local council a quick call to double check. Find the contact details for your council here.

5. Slash the cost of tyres

Save money by going to Etyres.co.uk where they can cost as much as 30% less than traditional fitters. They also send someone out to fit them for you. You can make significant savings here. For example, you could save £15 on Bridgestone tyres at Etyres compared to Kwik Fit.

6. Hitch a ride

No, we’re not referring to sticking your thumb out and hoping for a lift – we’re talking about sharing a journey with someone else and then splitting the costs of petrol to save money. Go to a car-sharing website like carpooling.com, which has quickly become Europe’s number one carpooling network. Sharing makes the journey up to 75% cheaper while reducing carbon dioxide emissions and congestion.

The portal is easy to use, as, with just a few clicks, drivers can offer available seats and passengers can find or book a ride. You can access the service from anywhere – a computer, a smart phone or the carpooling.co.uk Facebook app. With advanced searches for top rated users, woman only, premium users or users with verified licences, car sharers can define their own security parameters.

There is also Villagecarshare.com, aimed at people wanting to share journeys in rural communities. Studentcarshare.com is worth a look for students and Londoners wanting to spread the congestion charge cost can sign up with TFL’s LondonLiftShare scheme.

7. Share a car with a friend

One way to save a packet is to share a car directly with a family member or friend. One of you can keep your existing car then add the other as a named driver. This will mean that you can share costs but it does also mean that the named driver will not be able to build up any no claims bonus and may have expensive premiums later on down the line. One way around this is to stick with the same insurers you have for the car that you’re sharing and explain the situation when you come to insure yourself.

Another consideration is to keep your existing policy (and no claims bonus) and use temporary car insurance for the other person sharing your car. You can get more details of the cost of this in our article on temporary car insurance.

Do consider carefully who you’re going to share with, and be clear from the very beginning about how you want to split costs, who uses the car when etc. The best thing to do is set up an online calendar so that you both know who is taking the car on any given day. Set up a calendar here.

8. Join a car club

Scrap the car altogether and join a car club to get pay-as-you-go access to cars all over the UK. These clubs can really save you money if you live in a city and don’t need a car every day. Sign up with a car club like Zipcar or City Car Club and rent one of their cars by either the hour or day. Once you’ve signed up and paid the annual fee (around £50) you will be sent a special smartcard and PIN number which you can then use to access the cars and make your bookings. Compare prices and find out more with our article on alternatives to owning a car.

The one big disadvantage to these car clubs is that they are only available in a few major cities across the country. However, as they get more popular they will branch out into other places too.

9. Park your car for less

The costs of a car don’t stop when you turn off the engine. As parking costs continue to rise, it pays – quite literally – to do a bit of research and think ahead to where you’re going leave your car when out and about. All sorts of local websites are springing up dedicated to helping you find the cheapest parking spots in your area. (London, for example, has the nifty Park-Up site.)

Plenty of people rent out their private driveway and parking spaces all across the country at sites like Parkatmyhouse.com – which can be worth looking at, particularly if you’re going to a place where parking spaces are hard to find. (If you’ve got your own driveway or parking space you can hire out for certain periods, you could make some serious money yourself doing this). See our article on renting out your driveway for more information.

10. Drive economically

Try to drive as smoothly as possible – avoid sharp acceleration and breaking.

If you have a manual gearbox try to keep the engine revs between 2,000 and 4,000 rpm. The more revs you use the harder you are working your engine, using more fuel and not necessarily going that much quicker. Conversely, if you keep the car in too high a gear when driving slowly and let the revs drop to about 1,000 you may feel the car start to judder and struggle – this can use even more fuel than over revving!

So when driving try to keep to a constant rev range – this will keep the use of the accelerator to a minimum and save you fuel!

Get rid of any clutter and unnecessary items. By reducing the weight of your car it will use less fuel. Also, make sure your tyres are fully inflated. The engine has to work much harder (and therefore use more fuel) if you have under-inflated tyres.

About half of the energy used to drive a car is used to fight aerodynamic drag. The faster that you drive the more aerodynamic forces the car has to fight against. So instead of driving at 70 mph, try driving at 60 mph which could reduce your fuel consumption by up to 10%.

Avoid opening your window, particularly on a motorway where you drive faster because your car has to work much harder and use more fuel – because of the drag mentioned above. If you have a roof rack (and you’re not currently using it) take it off, as they add huge amounts of drag.

Air conditioning uses up fuel so use it sparingly. By turning it off, fuel efficiency is improved by 8%, so it will make a real difference. If you do use the air conditioning press the recirculation button – this means that you will be keeping the same air cold rather than having to constantly cool air from outside and therefore use more fuel.

When on the motorway, try to keep a good distance between you and the car ahead so that you can judge your speed against the traffic flow. Tailgating makes you brake more and accelerate more, using a lot more fuel and increasing wear and tear on tyres and brakes.

11. Care for your car

Check your tyre pressures and keep them correctly inflated. Not only do under-inflated tyres reduce fuel economy, but they also wear out more quickly and can make it more difficult to handle your car. Operating a vehicle with just one tyre under-inflated can reduce the life of the tyre by 5,000 miles and increase your car’s fuel consumption by 3%. Check your tyre pressure once a week.

If your boot is filled with junk you don’t need, get rid of it. Much of your fuel consumption is used whenever your vehicle accelerates – the lighter your car is, the less fuel it uses.

Change your car’s oil level on a regular basis. Clean oil reduces wear caused by friction between moving parts and removes dirt and grime from the engine. Also, a clean air filter will improve fuel economy and protect your engine.

It’s also a good idea to buy petrol from a reputable petrol station that sells fuel in high volumes. Tanks are refilled and replaced more often so there’s less chance of impurities such as water or rust in the fuel.

12. Save money on used cars

Used cars vary in quality from excellent value to downright criminal rip-offs, so beware. If you don’t know much about cars, make sure you always take someone with you who does, when you go to look at second-hand motors. Even if you take a friend, you should still check the car’s background on the RAC website. They do background checks on second-hand cars so you can find out if the seller is hiding any nasties in the car’s past. (The check will cost £15.50 – but this gives you peace of mind and will be a lot cheaper than being landed with a dodgy vehicle). The AA also has some useful tips on things to be aware of when buying a used car.

If you go to your local second-hand dealership remember there’s plenty of opportunities to haggle prices down. Find your nearest one by looking on Buy Your Car which lists all the used car dealer’s in the UK.

Another option is to go to a car auction where you can often nab a real bargain. There are even online auctions like Expolicecar and Expolicecars direct which specialise in selling old police cars and stolen property.

13. Play the tax game

If you do decide to buy a used car you can save even more money by choosing one that was made before March 2001. Old tax rules apply to cars made before this date, so you can avoid the increases in VED (vehicle excise duty).

Don’t take the dealer’s finance, even if there are special offers that go with it. Forecourt finance is generally the most expensive option. Get your finance sorted out beforehand and that will make you a cash buyer which might get you a better deal. Check out our ‘Borrowing’ section for the best loans and 0% credit cards around.

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