Breelander wrote:Dod101 wrote:Not getting at you but why? Do you do anything with the figures, like altering your driving habits...
It's a habit I've kept up since I started keeping records with my first car (in a notebook back then, spreadsheets hadn't been invented yet).
Primarily, I use it as an early warning of impending mechanical problems. An unexplained drop in mile per gallon would need investigating promptly. A side effect is that I find myself trying to get the most mpg out of my cars. So yes, it does/has altered/trained my driving habits.
Same here. I also found that the "green" cars were not so green. I've owned 3 diesel Fabia's
1) 1.9l normally aspirated diesel bought 2nd hand and run into the ground* It did just over 60mpg which was close to the quoted euro combined cycle mileage. It drove like a lead brick and had no acceleration.
2) 1.9l turbo charged diesel bought 2nd hand and run into the ground which drove nicely and got 59.82mpg which wasn't as good as 1) and was not as close to the quoted euro combined cycle mileage as 1). This car was supposed to have better fuel economy than 1).
3) 1.2l 3 cylinder " blue motion" turbo diesel, bought new (ex demo). sold after 3 years cos it was crap, kept breaking down and was starting to sound as if the engine was terminally knackered. This one did 57.81mpg, so not as good as the two earlier non green Fabias and miles off the euro combined cycle mileage figures quoted by Skoda. Basically it was terribly under powered so performed well in the lab tests, but not in reality when you had to drive up hills or into a breeze.
* I drove it for ~6 months with no power steering (which was "interesting") as it was going to cost more to fix than the car was worth. It would be illegal today as now under present regs it would have failed it's MOT, but at the time it passed. The garage I exchanged it with was not pleased when I warned them to be careful as it had no power steering after the deal was done and I was driving off in car 2)