“It’s a brand new car!“
“Why is it giving under 20 miles per gallon!?”
Exclaimed Bob when he drove his wife’s brand new car for the first time.
This simple trick fixed her car.
Have you ever tried to ride a mountain bike on a road?
It’s much harder to pedal than a road bike because the type of tire is completely different.
A mountain bike uses a thick tire for better traction and shock absorbing while mountain trekking.
Whereas a road bike uses low profile and fully inflated tires for easy rolling.
Under inflated car tires work in much the same way. They increase rolling resistance of your vehicle.
Rolling resistance in simple terms is how long can your wheel keep spinning without an external force acting on it.
Shorter time means more rolling resistance which in turn causes the engine to work harder and eventually use more fuel.
If you ever notice, sports cars often use very low profile tires because they have better road grip and less rolling resistance.
When a car is going fast, every little detail like this can make a massive impact on the performance.
However on the contrary 4×4 off road vehicles often use high profile tires so that they can absorb shocks from uneven roads.
Moreover, while off-roading, people will often under-inflate their tires to gain better traction.
However doing such tricks while driving on normal paved roads is nothing short of a disaster for your car.
Under-inflated tires will create heavy resistance for your car.
Your car’s engine has to work harder to overcome that resistance and the loss of momentum.
Doing so requires the engine to use up more fuel and hence the fuel efficiency goes down.
Bob and his wife learned this lesson much early on but I hope you are not doing the same to your vehicle.
So make sure your tires are inflated up to specification.
