If you’re a car, wintertime in Canada is a pretty crappy place for you to be. Salt attacks your body from the inside-out, the cold makes it harder to do just about everything, and you’re covered in filthy slush and abrasive sand for weeks or months on end.
Wintertime is hard on vehicles, and it can be hard on your wallet, too.
When it’s cold, your vehicle needs more energy to move. Whether gas or electric, your car is most efficient at room temperature, not 25 below. The added demand for energy can drive operating costs upwards in quick order. Add in excessive idling and improper tire pressure – both of which are highly likely during our colder months – and things get even thirstier.
Below, we’ll cover three simple ways to save money on every drive this winter, in order to help you mitigate the added costs inherent of cold-weather driving. Consistently following these tips takes little time, costs nothing, and puts dollars back into your pocket — which basically makes you a genius.
Use Your Cruise Control
It’s not hard to spot a driver who isn’t using their cruise control, as they randomly slow down, speed up, frustrate nearby motorists, and impede the efficient flow of traffic. Using your cruise control not only makes you a less irritating motorist, it also saves you money the instant you turn it on.
Figures vary depending on what you drive and how bad you are at holding a steady speed manually, but using cruise control consistently can easily cut your fuel consumption by 15 per cent; will likely reduce it by about 25 per cent; and could save you even more if you’re particularly bad at holding a steady speed. According to data from NRCan, drivers whose manually-controlled highway speed fluctuates widely and often could be wasting $10 of fuel per hour, every hour they drive.
The gist? If you’re not using your cruise control as often as possible, you’re throwing money out the sunroof. Holding a steady speed whenever possible saves money, make life easier on your engine, and help motorists around you save fuel, too.
Check Your Tire Pressure (Seriously)
Checking your tire pressure in the wintertime downright sucks. It’s cold, you’ve got to fiddle with a nozzle, and your valve caps are covered in sand and salt. Just remember that skipping this all-important maintenance ritual can have negative consequences for your wallet — especially in winter.
Improper tire pressure makes it harder for your vehicle to move, meaning more fuel is required to travel the same distance. It also leads to accelerated tire wear, which means you’ll need a new set sooner. Checking and adjusting your tire pressures often is vital to maintain good fuel mileage and tire life. This becomes especially important when temperatures fluctuate wildly in transition months like December and March.
Checking and adjusting your tire pressure takes just a moment or two, making it a quick and very powerful way to instantly save money. Check your owner’s manual for the full scoop.
Reduce Your Idling Time
Many Canadians pre-warm or remote-start their vehicles in wintertime to ensure a warm and comfortable drive for them and their families. An idling engine merely sips fuel from its tank, though the costs can add up in a big way.
I’ve crunched some numbers to determine the approximate fuel cost of running a remote starter for an entire winter season, based on typical driver habits and the fuel consumption rate of an idling, fuel-injected gasoline engine. If you’re a light remote-start user with a small-displacement engine, a winter’s worth of remote-starting might cost you $20 or $30 in gasoline.
The average owner of a V8-powered pickup will use between $80 and $100 worth of gasoline during a winter of remote-starting; and remote-start enthusiasts with high-displacement engines running premium-grade gasoline can see that figure climb towards $200 per winter season with little trouble.
Being conscious of when and if you remote-start your car, and using your heated seat and steering wheel in place of longer warm-up times (if applicable), might even save you a tank of fuel (or more) over the course of the season.