Skoda Fabia Owner's Manual page 149

148 Driving and the Environment
Reducing idling
Idling also costs fuel.
It is worthwhile switching off the engine in a traffic jam or when waiting at a level
crossing or at traffic lights with a lengthy red phase. Even after just 30 - 40 seconds you
will have saved more fuel than that is needed when you start the engine up again.
If an engine is only idling it takes much longer for it to reach its normal operating
temperature. Wear-and-tear and pollutant emissions, though, are particularly high in
the warming-up phase. This is why you should drive off right after starting the engine.
Do avoid high engine revolutions at this time, however.
Regular servicing
A poorly tuned engine consumes an unnecessarily high amount of fuel.
Having your vehicle serviced regularly at a specialist garge enables you to satisfy one
of the requirements for economical motoring even before you set off on your journey.
Keeping your vehicle properly serviced not only has a positive effect on the safety of
your vehicle and maintaining its value, but also saves on fuel.
A poorly tuned engine can result in a fuel consumption which is 10% higher than
normal.
The foreseen maintenance work should be undertaken exactly according to the
Service schedule by a specialist garage.
Also check the oil level after refueling. Oil consumption is dependent to a consider-
able extent on the load and speed of the engine. Oil consumption could be as high as
0.5 litres/1 000 km depending on your style of driving.
It is quite normal that a new engine has a higher oil consumption at first, and reaches
its lowest level only after a certain running in time. It is therefore not possible to
correctly assess the oil consumption of a new vehicle until after you have driven about
5 000 km.
For the sake of the environment

You can achieve additional improvements in your fuel economy by using high-
lubricity oils.

Check the ground below your vehicle at regular intervals to detect any leakages in
good time. Please have your vehicle inspected by a specialist garge if you find any
stains caused by oil or other fluids on the floor.
Avoid driving short distances
Short distances result in an above-average high fuel consumption.
– Avoid driving a distance of no more than 4 km if the engine is cold.
The engine and catalytic converter must first have reached their optimal operating
temperature in order to effectively reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions.
The cold engine vehicle consumes approx. 15 - 20 litres/100 km of fuel immediately
after starting. Fuel consumption drops to 10 litres/100 km after just 1 kilometre. The
engine reaches its operating temperature (outside temperature and engine
dependent) only after about 4 to 10 kilometres and the fuel consumption then stabi-
lizes. You should therefore avoid driving short distances whenever possible.
An important factor in this connection is also the ambient temperature. The
 fig. 135
shows the different fuel consumptions for the same distance, on the one
hand at +20°C and on the other hand at -10°C. Your vehicle has a higher fuel
consumption in winter than in summer.
Fig. 135 Fuel consumption in litres/100
km at different temperatures