Beat the petrol price hike!

I'm sure everyone is feeling the burden from the recent petrol hike from RM1.92 to RM2.70. That's a whopping 40%. Even if you don't own your own transportation or you cycle to everywhere you go, you're still indirectly affected. Dealers of all kinds from food to goods will use this excuse to raise their prices. It's inevitable.

Here's a picture I snapped on the night the petrol hike was announced:
See that green blob light over there? That's Petronas. Actually the jam is much longer than what you can see in this photo. This happens every time there is a petrol hike. It's crazy!

Anyway, back to the main point.

So, in the face of this harsh reality, how do we save petrol?

One way is to DRIVE SLOWER! It really works I tell you. For my latest full tank of petrol, I managed to get a mileage of 490km for about RM88 (based on the new price of RM2.70). That comes to about 15km/litre. Previously, I will usually get a mileage of about 420km for about RM65 (based on RM1.92). That works out to be 12.4km/litre. So with my new driving style, I managed to increase my mileage by 21%!

Just for the record, I'm driving a manual Kia Picanto with a 1.1 cc engine.

I made a conscious effort not to exceed 3000RPM, and usually I'll average at 2500RPM. On my 5th gear that translates to around 90KM/H.

For my next petrol tank, I'll try to beat the 500KM milestone by driving even slightly slower, not using air-cond whenever possible, etc. We'll see the results...