Anyone see the national news report today about SHELL and their drive to help motorists get the best economy from their fuel?

This is no surprise to most of us I'm sure, but it seems experiments have show that for every 1 PSI that your tyres are down on the manufacturers recommended pressures costs you about 3% in fuel. May not sound much but read on. Most people I know don't check their tyres anywhere near enough and when they do, are usually 4-6psi down per wheel. On the basis of what shell says this means they are losing loads of miles per gallon (12-18% of wasted fuel)!! On a typical fill up of my Fabia, that would be like me just chucking £10 cash down the nearest drain!! Don't forget too that tyre pressures can change literally from day to day with some weather extremes so check them more often at times of rapid temperature change. I know, I know, we all have talked about this stuff before but it doesn't hurt to remind everyone. Shell also gave some other basic but very useful advice on general driving and servicing of the cars engine. All in all a very good news article and better than watching a load of politicians on the telly arguing about who to bomb next!

it seems experiments have show that for every 1 PSI that your tyres are down on the manufacturers recommended pressures costs you about 3% in fuel.

That would explain Skoda's over-inflated consumption figures.

Biggest problem I have is I run a non-standard tyre size, which leaves me in a bit of a quandry as to what to put in. I generally plump for slightly more than the official figures. I check mine about once a fortnight and I've got a tyre that goes down about 5psi in that time.

It sounds like what we need is self-adjusting tyres.

Anyone see the national news report today about SHELL and their drive to help motorists get the best economy from their fuel?

This is no surprise to most of us I'm sure, but it seems experiments have show that for every 1 PSI that your tyres are down on the manufacturers recommended pressures costs you about 3% in fuel. May not sound much but read on. Most people I know don't check their tyres anywhere near enough and when they do, are usually 4-6psi down per wheel. On the basis of what shell says this means they are losing loads of miles per gallon (12-18% of wasted fuel)!! On a typical fill up of my Fabia, that would be like me just chucking £10 cash down the nearest drain!! Don't forget too that tyre pressures can change literally from day to day with some weather extremes so check them more often at times of rapid temperature change. I know, I know, we all have talked about this stuff before but it doesn't hurt to remind everyone. Shell also gave some other basic but very useful advice on general driving and servicing of the cars engine. All in all a very good news article and better than watching a load of politicians on the telly arguing about who to bomb next!

Hmmmm, sounds a bit like one of those fuel statements like "can save up to 10% in fuel". The important part is 'up to' which means anything from 0.0001% to 10%. Of course firmer tyres save fuel. It was the quick cheat way to make the GL1 more efficient. Just change the px placard on the fill door to make standard tyres go from 32 psi to 38.

There is always a point of diminishing returns. The 3% figure is probably only valid for a few psi of a range then tails off significantly. Of course its always good practice to check your pressures. I always slightly overdid mine on my previous Fabia. The GL1 just makes this practice official by bunging on a different set of elevated pressures.

Always check mine every week. Had to let some air out as the warmer weather put them up to 40 ! Should be 37.7 on the front.