The True Cost of Motoring
You won’t know if your new driving style and practices are working unless you know the average miles per gallon (mpg) of your car. Some cars have onboard computers, but they are not always accurate.

To find out your fuel consumption rate, simply make a note of the following when filling up your car:

• The number of litres of fuel you put in
• The cost per litre of fuel
• The vehicle mileage
• To find the fuel consumption figure

Use the online calculator at:

www.torquecars.co.uk/tuning/uk-mpgcalculator.php

Or To work it out yourself

• Fill your tank to the top
• Zero the trip counter.
• When you next fill up, note the mileage driven.
• Fill the tank again and note the number of litres put in.
• Divide the number of miles driven by the amount of fuel used (miles per litre).

To convert the figure to miles per gallon multiply it by 4.544.

EXAMPLE
Frank does stages one and two above. His trip meter reads 160.1 miles when he next fills up. It takes 22.3 litres to fill his tank.

Frank works out that his fuel consumption has been: 160.1 divided by 22.3 = 7.179 miles per litre.

This is 7.179 x 4.544 = 32.62 miles per gallon.

It’s easy to overlook the full cost of running a car. As time goes by, you will have to pay servicing costs, parts and repairs and the value of your car will decline. Whether you drive a lot or a little, you still have to pay:

• Car tax (for most cars)
• Car insurance
• MOT test

There may also be other costs such as:

• Membership of a breakdown service.
• Parking charges or private garage fees.
• General repair and
• maintenance expenses.

When you add all these costs together the true costs of cars is staggering, as shown in the table below.