Five ways to beat rising car costs

Or the easiest and likely to lead to the biggest savings - reduce your car use. Walk or cycle for shorter journeys.

I'll be back on the bike for my 15 mile commute to work now that the weather has improved. I try and cycle 2-3 days a week on average over the spring, summer and autumn and aim to reduce my car use by around 1500-2000miles per year.

"keeping your car secure could also help to significantly reduce your insurance costs".

'Could' being the pertinent word here. I moved last year to a flat with its own garage with good locks.

When I asked my insurers whether that qualified me for a reduction in my premium, I was told in no uncertain terms 'no', and that this was now the case with many insurers.

Unless anyone out there knows better... my policy is due for renewal shortly.

"...... avoid sudden breaking.... !! "

This will definitely endear you to your insurance company.

Not comprehensive obyiously cheaper but one bang could cost more than a full policy. Never had one yet but would not dare change. Found the meerkat quite helpful but not to the extent claimed.

Anyone tell me how I can get my new BMW M3 fuel consumption down ::))

Taxing fuel on the false premise that it causes climate change will come back to bite all politicians,

I got it sussed, nick your managers car or any random bank managers car and use thier petrol, this in turn will push up thier insurnace....while you use all thier fuel.....sound like a plan? lol

Here are a few tips I gleened from an article I read a while ago by a petro chemical engineer.

1. Fill up as early as pos. during the day. When temperatures are at thier lowest. [petrol expands with temp. rise & petrol is dispensed at pump volumetrically]

2. Allways fill up at slowest setting at pump so as to minimise the turbulent flow of petrol into the tank. [turbulence causes the petrol to vapourise, the pump nozzle is designed to suck the vapour out of your tank and back into the garages]

3. Try and fill up from say 1/2 tank to full tank and not nearly empty to 1/2 or 3/4. [ to minimise petrol sloshing around in tank causing it to vapourise while traveling]

4. If you pull into a forecourt and there is a petrol tanker there, drive off to another garage to get petrol. [ there will have been a lot of turbulence in the garage tanks and also all the crap in the bottom of the tanks that will be churned up.]

5. Move to Tenerife. Just come back from there. Diesel is less than 70c a litre and petrol is about 84c a litre.

Like many people, I cannot use mass transit to do my job. I have to be at different parts of the country at different times of the day and driving a car is the only way to do it. It costs a fortune to fuel, park and pay the occasional [but too frequent] speed camera tax, over and above servicing, taxing and insuring. But what else do I do? Glad Dave can cycle, but if all he can do is reduce his mileage by 2000 miles per year, it's peanuts. I do that every couple of weeks, sometimes in less time than that. It is simply a pre-requisite for many to have a car - don't work, don't eat, etc. So, I have a big and comfortable 3.2 litre car with lots of toys. It's now 12 years old but cost £50k when new - needless to say I wasn't the first buyer and I paid an order of magnitude less. Amazingly, I get nearly 30 mpg for this 2 tonne tank as it wafts me to the next speeding ticket, but it proves the adage that the cheapest car you will own is the one sitting on the driveway. I don't live in the SE, but I don't get any insurance dividend for having a locking garage in a posh postcode - why would the insurers give us any benefit? However, when I get the chance, I become Jeremy Clarkson and thoroughly enjoy it for the brief time available. While I'm watching the fuel gauge fall, I just think how glad I am not to be Gordon Brown or any other of the self-righteous at Westminster