Considering the petrol engine in my car isn't the most economical in the range, getting a diesel-like 32MPG from my mostly puttering about town driving is just lovely and shows what you can squeeze out of an average aged petrol engine when you drive it smart. When I first got my Focus I remember getting absolutely terrible mileage (we're talking <20MPG here) from town driving. On the rare occasion I've done a lot of motorway driving I've gotten a most excellent 40MPG out of my car.

All it takes is little changes to your driving:

• Be easy on the accelerator - my car will easily pull from standing with just the engine idling (this is good for crawling traffic) and if I need a quicker take-off 1500-2000RPM max is all that it needs. I don't floor the pedal either, about half-way is as far as it goes. There's enough power in my car to get me moving fast enough like this.


• Be easy on the brakes - if I see a red light ahead or coming to a roundabout I coast up to it in gear and only start using the brakes when I need them. So many times this saves coming to a wasteful total stop because the lights change to green in time or you can better judge for a gap to join a roundabout. You really want to keep stopping to a minimum.


• Understand your engine - all modern car engines shut off the fuel injectors when you coast in gear with a high enough engine speed (usually above 1000-1500RPM), this means when coasting you are getting infinite MPG. Coasting with the clutch down or in neutral doesn't kill the injectors so is a complete waste.


• Turn it off - Another way to get infinite MPG is to switch off the engine and so something I've started to do is turn off the engine when sitting in traffic at red lights; although I only do this when I'm not at the front of the queue or I'm at lights I'm familiar with so know when to start the engine. Holding up a bunch of people isn't a nice thing to do.


• Slow down - I just go a bit slower now, especially on dual-carriageways and motorways where I religiously do 60MPH unless I have a serious need to overtake and I take it easier generally in town. Unless you're doing a really long-distance travelling a bit slower will only mean arriving marginally later at your destination.


• It's like a mixed drink - getting good mileage is a combination of managing your engine speed, and throttle position - for example my car will easily move along a flat road at 30MPH in 5th gear with the engine rotating at less than 1500RPM with my foot just touching the accelerator to maintain the speed; in other words sipping fuel. Now I wouldn't want to accelerate onto a motorway or overtake in 5th gear, I'd have to floor the pedal and it would take ages with the engine devouring fuel to pick up speed. Even though it'd only be ticking about 2000-2500RPM it'll be burning petrol with the throttle open so wide when dropping down a gear or two making the engine hit 3000RPM or more would get the job done so much quicker with less throttle and in turn using less petrol. Always remember your foot is controlling how much petrol the engine is getting every time it does a single rotation.

All it takes is a bit of concentration in what you're doing and you can save a bit of money, and it's become a game for me after creating a spreadsheet to track my fuel economy over the weeks and months. You can also sign up for FuelFrog which you type in how much fuel you put in since your last fill-up and how many miles you've done and charts out your mileage for you. Though FuelFrog does it's MPG calculation using US-gallons not Imperial/UK so it spits out worse figures than you're actually getting.

Weeeeeeeeeeeee...