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With petrol prices nearing £6 per gallon (that $12 a gallon to you US types!) you need to try to save as much fuel as you can. Here's some useful tips that'll keep your car running smoothly, and your wallet happy, without buying a new car!

1) Walk!

It may seem a bit obvious, but for short journeys, walk, or use a bike. A car uses a lot of petrol on startup, due to it having to run richer till it warms up. You'll also do a lot more damage to your engine in the first 2-3 miles of your journey than any other part.

2) Service your car on time

Not only will it save wear and tear on your car's engine, keeping your car serviced on time, and to the service schedule will keep the engine running sweetly and efficiently. If you do a lot of necessary short journeys, then you should service your car more often than the service schedule.

3) Driving technique

Driving smoothly saves fuel. Stop/Start traffic really wastes fuel. Try to anticiapte the road ahead and adjust your speed accordingly. Changing up as early as you can without labouring the engine, usually around 3000rpm is a good point to change gear.

4) Obey speed limits

Driving at 80mph uses up a lot more fuel than at 70mph, you car may be up to 20% less efficient for just 10mph more speed. The most efficient speed is usually around 3000rpm in top gear, for most smarts that's 65-70mph. Not only will obeying speed limits help you save fuel and money, but will save your licence. Constant speeding is using up more fuel

5) Keep heavy stuff out of your car.

Empty your car's boot, only keep the essentials in your vehicle, a heavy car is much less efficient. Put anything you don't need in your car, in your house or shed.

6) Keep your car well maintained.

Check your tyre pressures, and keep them up to the manufacturers stated pressures, a tyre at manufacturers stated pressure will be much more efficient than a tyre a few PSI down. You may also want to change to a fuel efficient tyre brand when you come round to replacing your current set.

7) Wash your car, and keep it clean.

It may sound silly, but all that dirt means your car isn't as aerodynamicly efficient, and you're carrying a little bit of extra weight around. If you find your car filling up with rubbish, clear it out, it's all extra weight!

8) Change your petrol station!

Use a service like petrolprices.com and find out where your cheapest petrol station is, it'll save you money on the fuel you buy.

9) Don't idle your engine

Switch off your engine when waiting for more than 20 seconds.

10) Use cruise control

Your car's ECU is much more efficient at keeping a constant speed than you are, leave it to do the hard work, set your speed at 70mph on the motorway (assuming it's not the M25 or M1 roadworks!), and just steer while enjoying much better mpg.

11) Stay off the turbo!

Most smarts (except the forfour and the new fortwo's below 84bhp) have a turbo, a turbo gives your engine more power, but it also uses more fuel. If you're lucky enough to have a boost guage in your smart, then you can use that as an economy meter, keeping the revs below 3000 helps, but your boost guage will also show how much pressure is being used. If you keep your turbo off-boost (below, or at 0) then your not using boost, therefore you're not using up much fuel!

Discuss your fuel saving tips in our forum.