Factors Influencing Petrol Consumption as Determined from a Survey of the Australian Passenger Car Fleet

A survey of the on-road petrol consumption of Australian passenger cars provided data which has been analysed for effects on fuel consumption caused by features such as transmission type, vehicle inertia class, engine size, air conditioning presence and vehicle location. Results show that cars with automatic transmissions consistently have higher petrol consumption than manuals for all inertia classes - 15% higher in city conditions and 11% higher in highway conditions. There is also a penalty for automatic transmissions at most engine sizes, although the penalty is relatively larger for smaller engine capacities. Presence of air conditioning was found to increase petrol consumption by 13.5% on average, but the data did not allow the impact of frequency of use to be determined. Coastal driving conditions resulted in petrol consumption being 9.4% higher than for inland conditions, and cars driven in winter had 4.4% greater fuel consumption than cars driven in summer. Cars serviced by home mechanics had 8.9% greater consumption than vehicles serviced by commercial establishments.