Seven practical ways to save on fuel

With petrol prices in Australia averaging around $1.90 per litre, fuel is a meaningful household cost. Here are seven tactics that actually reduce your annual fuel bill — in rough order of impact, not hype.

1. Time your fills around the price cycle

In Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide, filling at the bottom of the price cycle instead of the peak saves around 25 cents per litre. For a weekly 60-litre fill, that's roughly $780 per year with no other change. In Perth, the bottom of the cycle is consistently Tuesday. See our price cycles guide for current cycle timing.

2. Drive past the obvious rip-offs

Highway, airport, and tourist-precinct servos routinely charge 15–25 cents per litre more than suburban stations just a few kilometres away. A short detour is almost always worth it. Refuelr's “Cheapest nearby” card surfaces the lowest price within a configurable radius so you don't have to hunt.

3. Use the right fuel for your car

If your manual says U91 or E10, switching from U98 back to U91 saves 15–30 cents per litre with no measurable impact on performance or engine wear. The benefits of premium fuel only apply to engines designed for it. Always check the fuel door before assuming premium is necessary.

4. Keep your tyres correctly inflated

Under-inflated tyres can reduce fuel efficiency by up to 3%. Check pressures monthly against the sticker inside the driver's door jamb, not the sidewall maximum printed on the tyre (that's the absolute maximum, not the recommended pressure). Tyre pressure drops as temperatures cool, so check more often through autumn and winter.

5. Remove unnecessary weight and drag

Roof racks, roof boxes, and bull bars all increase aerodynamic drag significantly. An empty roof box can cut highway economy by 10–20% — enough to wipe out months of price-cycle savings. If you're not using it this month, take it off. Same goes for the spare bag of cement that's been riding around in your ute tray since June.

6. Drive more smoothly

Harsh acceleration and heavy braking waste fuel — you're essentially paying to heat up your brake pads. Holding to around 100 km/h rather than 110 km/h on highways can improve economy by 10–15%. Using cruise control on flat sections helps maintain a constant speed. Anticipate traffic further ahead so you coast instead of brake.

7. Combine trips and avoid cold starts

A cold engine uses roughly 50% more fuel than a warm one for the first few kilometres. Combining two short trips into one warmed-up trip meaningfully reduces weekly burn. This is also where electric vehicles have their biggest advantage over petrol — no cold-start penalty at all.

Tracking your actual savings

The best way to know whether any of this is working is to log your fills. Refuelr's premium fill-up log records litres, price, and odometer reading and calculates your real-world litres per 100km. Over three or four fills you'll see whether your average is trending down — and can spot if a new habit is actually paying off or if you're just feeling better about it.