increasing fuel economy pt 2

[andy]

biblejohn



Best way i found of increasing my fuel economy was to buy a more economical vehicle. Ive done 30k miles a year now for the last 5 years. I started of in a race prepared hot hatch which was doing about 25mpg.... then moved onto a 1000cc sports motorbike... which was doing 45mpg but got through a set of tires every 2000miles. Moved onto a touring motorbike which did 50mpg and 5000miles out of tyres.

But for the last 70k miles ive been driving a battered up old peugeot 106 1.5 diesel. Costs about 600quid to buy these days, does 58mpg, 100quid to insure, cheap road tax and reliable as anything. Ive done 70k on mine without any major problems appart from regular servicing. Granted, its not the most exciting drive in the world, but it will happily cruise at 85mph on the motorway.

but if you do buy a new car to save a little fuel, it costs in the long run since you have to buy the car, and loads of energy is used in making it, which can be more than your gonna save.

what MPG do you lot normally get? i get around 50-55MPG

 

[AdamW]

35mpg for my start-stop town driving.

41mpg with nothing but motorway driving, with sensible use of throttle.

 

[elvinmark]

If you want to save fuel, buy a hybrid.

They really are fantastic.

 

[elvinmark]

If you want to save fuel, buy a hybrid.

They really are fantastic.

 

[nstreet]

Yes it wil save you fuel, but you would have to keep it for a good many years to get a good return as they are that much more to purchase compared to a standard model.

 

[elvinmark]

The model I have, the Honda Insight, drops from a new price of 17k, to a s/h price after 12 months of 8k, mine was 1yr old, 10k miles, paid 8k for it.

Looked at the prices the other day out of interest, it's still worth about 7k, it's now 5 years old.

Top that off with fuel consumption regularly over 80mpg, sometimes upto 110mpg, it's a no brainer if you can live with 2 seats.

 

[andy]

no way i could use a small car. even my estate isnt big enough at times

 

[nstreet]

The only other down side to a hybrid that i can see is if it goes wrong, lots of technology in there = big repair bill.

 

[elvinmark]

That's why Honda give an 8 year warranty with their hybrids.

 

[andy]

no wonder there so expensive

 

[AdamW]

no way i could use a small car. even my estate isnt big enough at times

Yes, but that's your personal transport AND your office though!

One of my mates tried the Civic hybrid, she reckons it drives very nicely and cost about £2000 more, which she would have got back easily with her 30k miles per year. The reason she didn't get it was she hates saloons, and being a US-market thing the hybrid only came in saloon.

Anyone driven that Lexus RX-400 hybrid? Lexus claim "V8-like performance".

 

[Gardenfreak]

Ive got an 'R' reg Passat 1.9 TDI and i get around 350 miles at least from half a tank,according to the 'comp' its doing around 55 to the gallon and its done 210,000 miles.