How to get more MPG

[Over The Hill]

I always get confused at that sort of thinking. I know it is how a lot of people veiw the world. But when I buy a depreciating asset (a car in this example) I always feel I am turning money into a completly valuless lump of metal that will suck maintainance and tax out of me untill it dies. I never expect to get any money back from it. Once it dies I buy a new(er) one and it always suprises me that there is any residual value to it at all. Bonus!

I do the same but a friend of mine would say he also does. But he has quite different results.....

I run a car that cost me £1,000 and I have so far had nearly four trouble free years and 36,000 miles from it. It is a Diesel and gets a good 55mpg. It probably is worth what I paid for it still or near enough.
Friend of mine thinks £1000 is rather a lot to pay so buys really old petrol Volvos at about £300 a go. He has had to buy two or three in the same time and spends a good £500 each time an mot comes up and gets 20mpg if he is lucky.
He does about the same number of miles.
Now in that time I have spent about £3,900 on fuel and £500 tops on mot and repairs so £4,400 in 4 years.
Friend has spent £10,800 on fuel and £2000 on repairs plus a good £500 in scrapped cars. so £13,300 in 4 years for driving a real heap of unreliable rubbish.
Now he could buy a fairly new economical car and run it for less than he is spending. Oddly he is an economist.

Overall it is perhaps a matter of a good car choice being the main thing with it more to do with the life left in it and mpg rather than actual price.

 

[GrasB]

Yes but then drafting saves you fuel, I saw it on Mythbusters

Drafting saves fuel when cruising but if you're constantly having to accelerate you'll consume much more fuel than you save. With modern cars being quite heavy accelerating requires more power & thus fuel is used more quickly. This is why I can get 45-50mpg out of a turbo charged, high drag & under-geared car that'll keep a 911 (991) Carrera 4 honest until it bounces off the limiter at 110mph in 6th gear.

 

[helston90]

I never expect to get any money back from it. Once it dies I buy a new(er) one and it always suprises me that there is any residual value to it at all. Bonus!

Which is fine, is what a lot of people do and depretiation doesn't really apply massively- I was leaning more towards Mercedes-Benz S-Class AMG which will loose 39% in a year (or £63k loss a year) or £172 a day just sitting there- an extreme example but even the best (new car) Kia Picanto will loose 17.7% which is £1,250 a year- I wonder if that owner moans about fuel/ motoring costs.

 

[subaqua]

last time i put fuelin my car was over a month ago- thats the last time it was driven i think. can't remember driving this month

 

[threebikesmcginty]

can't remember driving this month

Me neither, that's angel dust for you though.

 

[ASC1951]

I take it that you were referring to the now demolished Leeds international Pool?

I was referring to the urban myth. I first heard it about my local pool in the West Midlands in the 1960s, but apparently it is a universal delusion. Pool makers do not in fact forget the thickness of the tiles.

 

[subaqua]

I was referring to the urban myth. I first heard it about my local pool in the West Midlands in the 1960s, but apparently it is a universal delusion. Pool makers do not in fact forget the thickness of the tiles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_Leeds#Swimming nah they made it too short by about 2 inches

 

[Black Country Ste]

I last used my car on the 4th, and that was to move it because my road has parking restrictions. I wanted to use it last Saturday but the battery's gone completely flat and it won't even jump start. Time for a new battery.

Eighteen months ago when I was doing 600 miles a month I averaged 35mpg.

 

[DRHysted]

The Ampera does between 175 - 235 mpg depending on what review you read http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/vauxhall/ampera it is expensive to buy though

Well that's only £33 495 than I paid for my car. It's range won't complete the annual trip to Scotland. It doesn't give the towing capacity. Finally it doesn't have enough room for the dogs.
I did my research, and got the best I could afford. With regard to using less, I have reduced my insurance mileage from 13,000 to 7,000. No matter how much I try, I can not get all seven dogs to balance on the bike.

 

[ASC1951]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_Leeds#Swimming nah they made it too short by about 2 inches

Too narrow, I think you'll find. But even that was nothing to do with 'forgetting the width of the tiles' etc - the Olympic spec changed shortly after the pool was finished and required an empty lane at each side, which there wasn't room for.
But it still keeps popping up. Just Google 'new pool too short' at Portsmouth, or Bath, or Nottingham, or Crystal Palace ....

 

[02GF74]

Wasn't there a test last year that showed drivers could save between 10 - 25% of their fuel costs by driving sensibly?

easily. volvo 850 T5, london to birmingham via m40, typically 26-30mpg. I watched the top gear episode where jezza drove from london to scottish land and back in audi(?) on one tank - so basiclaly slap it in 5th as soon as possible, stick to 65 mph, radio off, do not press accelerator pedal on hills (this is the worse and most dangerous part coz you are overtaken by lorries ), got me 36 mpg. not sure how much longer it took but not a pleasant way to drive in a car that is capable of nearly doubie the national speed limit

 

[classic33]

I get more MPG out of my Passat B6 than is stated by the manufacturer.

I have a 26 mile drive often that takes on average 46 minutes taking it steady returns me 54.6 mpg. Now rushing knocks the time down to 42 minutes and 46mpg. For me it is a no brainer, also I average 8mpg better than my wife does when we drive the same car.

How far do you live from the road?

 

[subaqua]

Too narrow, I think you'll find. But even that was nothing to do with 'forgetting the width of the tiles' etc - the Olympic spec changed shortly after the pool was finished and required an empty lane at each side, which there wasn't room for.
But it still keeps popping up. Just Google 'new pool too short' at Portsmouth, or Bath, or Nottingham, or Crystal Palace ....

I never said it was to do with tiles, that was you. Almost everybody knows that Leeds wasn't olympic standard, and Poulson was a crook.

if anything pools are generally longer to allow for the touch pads . but you can have fun with a laser measure, at a new aquatics centre just before it gets filled especially if you get a measurment a few millimetres short on purpose

 

[subaqua]

How far do you live from the road?

10 metres directly, it meanders around a bit

 

[screenman]

How far do you live from the road?

Good point, my drive is only 80 yards long, maybe I should have used the word journey instead?

Not sure if you were using humour or being pedantic.