Owning:
Join a breakdown service
Another case of spending money to save money. If the car develops a problem, call out the breakdown guys before heading to a garage. They have no vested interest in repairing the car so can give invaluable advice as what the problem is. Armed with this information, you're unlikely to get landed with a garage bill for unnecessary repairs. You're not wasting their time; any concern you have is deserving of a call.
Get a second opinion on service
A shock service quote should always be double-checked with another garage. For example if the garage is recommending replacing all the brake pipes and they weren't flagged up as a problem in the latest MoT, they're unlikely to have disintegrated to the point where they all need replacing. Don't tell the second garage you've been to the first. It'll be too tempting for him just to agree with the first and do the work.
Buy replacement parts yourself
A real-life story of parts saving from user Biglee on the Dooyoo review forum: 'I said to the guy [in the garage], okay let me know how much rear drums, shoes and brake cylinders would come to, if needed. He tapped away and came up with £340. I enquired at Euro Car Parts and purchased all the bits there for £79 including vat.' The danger is the garage might add on a couple of hours labour to make up for lost profit.
Buy tyres online
You can save money ordering tyres on the internet thanks to a link up with local garages. The website www.blackcircles.com sends the tyres to whatever garage is local to you, and for a price often better than Kwik-Fit can manage. For example a set of four Continental Eco Contact 3s (185/60 R14 H) costs £219 at Black Circles, compared to £264 at Kwik-Fit.
Floor it to 2000rpm
Mashing the throttle seems an odd way to save fuel and money, but there's a well-supported school of thought that says you should accelerate heavily up to 2000rpm to best eke out a tank of fuel. At low revs, so goes the theory, the engine is wasting energy by sucking air through a part-closed throttle. However past 2000rpm the energy lost to friction outweighs the so-called pumping losses and you're better off feathering the throttle.
Track your fuel consumption
Harness the spirit of competition to save money by beating your economy record. Working out your fuel consumption is pretty easy even if you're without a trip computer - just brim the fuel tank, drive, brim again and divide the litres used (converting to gallons first) into the mileage between the two fills. By keeping a record you can track what differences to driving style, temperature, season, servicing etc make to the consumption. Geeky, yes but quite addictive.
