Fuel economy. It is all anyone goes on about nowadays – fuel economy, and CO2 emissions.

However, I have come to the conclusion that the figures given out by manufacturers bear very little resemblance to the sort of performance that we actually see in most cars when we, normal everyday people, drive them in day to day life. Achieving those idealised numbers – 60 MPG combined, for example – is all about driving a car in a way that you never normally would, at a slow steady speed that would double most journeys and have even the most patient car driver pulling their hair out in despair.

Meeting the manufacturers figures, should, of course, be physically possible, However, there are a number of steps that you will have to follow before you even have any hope of reaching that sort of level of fuel-efficiency. In order to perfect your technique and rise to the manufacturers challenge, you will need to perfect the following skills to a frankly god-like level of ability:

1. Avoid acceleration. Obviously I don’t mean never turning the car on and simply pushing it everywhere. Instead, never accelerate more than is necessary to fit with all the other cars around you – because it is those big bursts of speed and acceleration that really put a drag on the fuel economy of a car, turning even the smartest car into a bit of a gas-guzzler.
2. Boil to death. Again, not literally. However, no matter how smart your car the AC will always drink your fuel like it is going out of fashion. The ideal option, therefore, is to keep the aerodynamics by keeping the windows rolled up, whilst slowly sweltering to death in the summer sun. Lovely.
3. Shift quickly and smoothly. You have to be constantly up on your gear changes when trying to drive economically. Make sure that you shift up in gears quickly, generally whenever the engine is revving faster than necessary to sustain an even road speed. Get your head around that, and theoretically you should save fuel. You can skip gears too – breaking out of the habit of always going 1-2-3-4-5.

As you can see, meeting those manufacturers figures is going to be a bit of a challenge, and it is likely to dramatically impact on your driving style. Some of the tips are no doubt worth incorporating into your driving – but is it worth doing all of them obsessively?!