Honda’s Fuel Economy Drive Advocates Proper Driving Habits for a Greener Future

June 4, 2008 by Tsikot

Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. recently completed the Media Edition of Honda Challenge Cup, a fuel efficiency driving competition that serves as an instrument in promoting fuel economy awareness in the face of fuel crisis.

Honda, in cooperation with Petron, embarked on this drive to demonstrate how a simple fuel efficient driving style can make a big difference. The competition posed grueling challenges in both city and highway driving conditions using normal, day-to-day driving style with running airconditioning system. Natural driving environment was chosen for the competition. For city driving, participants were tasked to traverse traffic congested roads of Ayala Avenue, Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue and EDSA on a Friday morning at around 11 AM. As if the challenge was not enough, nature also had its way in making the activity trickier by pouring heavy rains by noontime. For highway driving, participants tackled the North Luzon Expressway on the way to Dau, Pampanga. The team with the best kilometer per liter record generated by adding the fuel consumption within the 39.3 km stretch of city driving and within the 65.5 km distance under highway driving condition wins.

{mosimage} A total of 28 members of the media showed full support to the main goals of the activity by putting up a good fight. Participating media were divided in to 14 teams, each team composed of a driver and a navigator. Two teams were tasked to compete in one of the seven categories. The seven categories represent different Honda variants namely: 1.3 City, 1.5 City, 1.3 Jazz, 1.5 Jazz, 1.8 Civic, 2.0 Civic and 2.4 CR-V.

The team of Ron delos Reyes and Ronald delos Reyes of Autoreview topped the 1.3 City category with an average fuel mileage of 37.66 km/li. Al Mendoza and Andy Sevilla of Business Mirror led the 1.5 City category with 39.36 km/li, Pinky Colmenares and Anjo Perez of Manila Bulletin with 33.02 km/li for the 1.3 Jazz category, Mike Potenciano and Lindy Pellicer of SPEEDTV with 27.49 km/li for the 1.5 Jazz category, Allan Sevilla of NU107 and Barbara Lorenzo of Businessworld with 21.48 km/li for the 1.8 Civic category, Popong Andolong of Business Mirror and Fhort Manahan of Manila Times with 18.17 km/li for the 2.0 Civic category, lastly, Lory Uy and Maike Evers of Slipstream with 13.41 km/li for the 2.4 CRV category.

“Such results only proved that simple tweak in ones driving style can go a long way. Burning less fuel not only means monetary savings but also reduces deposit of harmful emission into the environment.” said Mr. Arnel Doria, VP Marketing of Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. “Making fuel efficient driving a habit is a simple effort with a significant repercussion. Every motorist’s conscious effort can help address fuel supply shortage and reduction of CO2 emission.” he added.

{mosimage}Several techniques can be applied in optimizing fuel mileage but the most essential of all trickles down to three main aspects: vehicle, fuel and driver. Here are a few practical tips in order to earn extra fuel mileage:

* Plan your journey. Avoid congested roads that are under construction.
* Change your driving habits. Leave early to avoid traveling during peak hours. Also, combine small trips and errands. Your car burns 20% more fuel every time you start your engine cold.
* Gas up wisely. Buy gasoline during the coolest time of the day and use only clean and high quality fuels.
* Get rid of all extra weight. Extra weight reduces mileage especially when driving inclines. Your car’s mileage increases by 2% for every 100 pounds.
* Accelerate with care. Avoid jack-rabbit starts and avoid sudden, heavy braking. Rapid speeding and sudden braking decrease fuel efficiency by 5% in city driving.
* Shift gears sensibly. On hills, shift up as soon as you can without lugging the engine.
* Pick a lane and stay on it. Frequent changing of lanes is unsafe and burns more fuel.
* Observe proper maintenance. Regularly tune up your car to ensure best performance. A clogged up air filter can waste one mile per gallon. Dirty oil can cause friction and can rob you of gasoline mileage.
* Check your tires. Keep your tires properly inflated. Under-inflated tires are dangerous and require the engine to produce more power to drive the vehicle. Each under-inflated tire causes a 1% increase in fuel consumption.
* Park your car properly. Park your car under the shade of a building or a tree whenever possible.

Petron XTRA Unleaded gasoline is the official fuel of Honda Challenge Cup. Motolite, PAGCOR and media partners Jam 88.3 and yehey.com also joined Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. in its simple drive for a cleaner and healthier future for the generations to come.

Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. is set to stage the customer’s edition of Honda Challenge Cup in July. For more details, watch out for the latest updates on www.hondaphil.com.

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