Brake revelation

Earlier in the month, my car had some issues, the back brakes were faulty. My car uses mechanical hands called Calipers to squeeze heat resistant pads against a metal disk attached to a wheel, that is how the brakes slow the car down. The calipers were catching on the wheel disks and making scratching sounds and causing vibrations to travel back up to the brake pedal. Anyway, I got the issue fixed but the week before I had the brakes repaired I learned a valuable lesson.

I was traveling at slower speeds on the motorway to compensate for my car's fault and learned that my car actually uses less fuel at slower speeds. I was driving at close to 70 miles per hour normally but when I had faulty breaks, I was driving just under 60 miles per hour. My car was able to travel nearly 340 miles when the tank was full. Normally my car would run out of fuel just before 300 miles.

It cost me a few hundred pounds to fix the brakes but it saved me more because I realized that cruising between 55 and 60 miles per hour is the most efficient speed for my car. 

Every time I refill my car I am saving about  £4.60 because I am burning less fuel to get by. I fill my tank up every week so  I am saving £18.40 per month. That is £220 per year. Many new cars now don't burn fuel, they use stored electricity but until I have such a car I can apply this new knowledge.