Summer is quickly approaching and we are sure that you have already started thinking about holidays. (That is because we always run the engines in May for the busiest season of the year.)

If you are traveling by car, with your whole family or with a large group of friends, and you are passionate about outdoor sports or you simply know that your luggage will seriously test your skills as a good organizer and the space in the trunk, you have most certainly looked for alternatives to help you. An external luggage compartment always gets you out of trouble, and the offers for this type of product are so varied that it is impossible not to find the perfect option for you.

You have to know, however, that attaching a luggage compartment can influence the performance of your car to some extent. The experts of the British magazine What Car? Demonstrated it following a recent experiment.

What is this about? In a nutshell, when you use an external luggage compartment, the fuel efficiency of your car will decrease by more than a third over the standard specified by the manufacturer.

The magazine team tested in parallel two commonly used models in the UK - a Dacia Logan diesel and a Nissan Qashqai on gasoline - first without an extra luggage compartment, then with 50 kilograms extra. In the first case, Dacia Logan indicated a consumption of 5.2%, while, with the external trunk attached, the consumption increased to 5.8%, 35% more than the standard specifications. The Nissan model indicated a consumption of 7.6% during the test without external luggage compartment, and 8.8% in the second case (compared to 6%, as estimated by the manufacturers).

Jim Holder, editor of What Car?, says: "The vast majority of cars exceed the consumption specified by the manufacturer even without extra weight. Adding a luggage compartment increases the overall mass of the vehicle and its aerodynamic resistance, so it is normal for fuel efficiency to be affected."
There is, however, one solution: the driving style may reduce this loss.

• If you keep your eyes on the road and reduce acceleration early, so that there is no need to stop abruptly at crossroads or when the driver in front of you makes an unexpected move, you will keep fuel consumption to a minimum.
• In addition, pay attention to speed! A cruise speed of 95 km/h on the highway saves fuel more than driving at 110 km/h.
• Staying in traffic consumes fuel, and cars equipped with start/stop systems that automatically stop the engine in the stationary position consume approximately 15% of fuel in the city.

All the above measures are familiar to you, we know. But they are further proof that the preventive driving style is not only safe, but fuel-saving. Even when you have extra luggage!