Rise in fuel etc made you think about giving up fast cars?

[MarkCoupe]

Hi folks,

Ive noticed alot of people across a few car owners boards talking about giving up their fast (thirsty) cars, as the increase in fuel over recent months, and the increase in Vat is going to make things alot harder than it was, even 6months ago.

I just wondered what your thoughts were/ are ?

Mark

[Bikernut]

I gave up several years ago and replaced with the much more sensible performance bike option

[MarkCoupe]

I gave up several years ago and replaced with the much more sensible performance bike option

Me too. Well, i kindof have both, but it does seem like a no brainer when you have a machine capable of 0-100 in under 6 seconds and 175mph top end (even better on yours i suspect) whilst still retaining 40+ mpg.

[carmadbaker]

No way in a million years am i giving into "the man"
If it means working overtime (and paying more tax!) then thats what it will be! They can try and put me off as much as they like... with cost and environment threats.. but all i say is......

PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN FOR A WARMER ENGLAND!

[Chin.]

I reckon you all should stop winging tbh.

People say that in the UK petrol is the most expensive in the whole of EU - bullsh it. It costs more in Poland for instance and the national minimum wage is much less than over here.

For an hours work round here (minimum wage) you get more or less 4litres of petrol, in Poland not even half that. Also VAT round here is only about to go up to 20% , in Poland it's 23% already.

All in all, don't worry it could be worse.

[Drew]

might get something cheaper for the day to day grind, but ill still be driving. leave the supercar for the w/ends

Drew

[stefaclese]

Pfff, if I can afford to run a car that over fuels badly and doesn't return much better than 25mpg tops for the past 2 years, and also keep said car running whilst being an uber skint student for 3 years, then clearly people aren't trying hard enough

[Din]

All in all, don't worry it could be worse.

It could be a damn site better two

[Chin.]

All in all, don't worry it could be worse.

It could be a damn site better two

I agree, I remember when i first moved over here it used to be about 80p per litre, that was 6 years ago mind

[Din]

All in all, don't worry it could be worse.

It could be a damn site better two

I agree, I remember when i first moved over here it used to be about 80p per litre, that was 6 years ago mind

Yep, when i first started driveing (9 years now) i distinctly remember seeing 72.9 at the pumps

[stefaclese]

Maybe if we still had cheap and efficient public transport like the rest of Europe it wouldn't be such a problem, but all too often its quicker, more convenient and not a great deal more expensive to drive than take the train or bus.

[maestrovdpt16]

Yeah, I'll have to burn more oil than petrol me thinks. Or drive the maestro as if there is still snow on the ground? Not much fun and certainly not the vehicles real strength!

[bjrespect]

fast cars are for fun

dismal and bikes are for commuting

[Sheaf]

If I were to buy another car now, it'd be a diesel. I dont like them as much, but my god it does sting when it's about £70 to go 300 miles. Takes the fun out of driving when it costs so much tbh. I am generally doing 95% of my driving in situations when I cant take advantage of the power anyway, so it is a tad pointless anyway.

However, I cannot bear to part with the Accord yet. It's been good as gold for 4 years now and the economy is pretty much the only downside. To get a car to replace it that I'd now be happy with I'd have to spend a substantial amount of money, which I dont have. Or, I'd have to get some completely boring old car, which would probably break and cost as much in the lon run, which I cant bring myself to do. I mean, for the £2.5-£3k I'd probably get for mine, you're just going to end up with a 7 year old astra derv or something equally as crap. No thanks, I'd want atleast 150bhp and something jap or german in decent trim if it was my only car.

I'm hoping that my situation will change and I'll be able to have an eco commuter as well as the Accord at some point (in which case I'd actually start modding the accord as it wouldn't be a daily driver). Or, I have considered the boring eurobox and get a bike license for giggles, but again it's all down to money.
Presenty, paying at extra £50 or so a month on fuel is better than selling up, however I dont know how long it'll remain that way.

[VVC MINI]

Metro with a big engine for daily commute. Cheaper and faster than the electric Honda's.

[MGTurbo]

I would much rather fill the tank in the Mondeo and blow it all away in a weekend than spend say, £60-70-80 on a night out on the tripe n onions, no hangover in the morning, no extra calories you dont need, just a dirty car that needs cleaning on a Sunday morning.

My daily driver is either my Transit van which does 40mpg or the runaround ZR, which will also do nearly 40mpg, nothing will stop me driving even at £2.50 a litre, i would sacrifice food for petrol.

[stefaclese]

i would sacrifice food for petrol.

Been there, done that

[paul888]

Definitely going to use the car less and continue with using the motorbike (well just sold my vtr 1000 but looking to get something like a blackbird next ).

[mike88]

I'll never give up my fast car, even if it means i have to drive it less and walk a little more..

[Stealth213S]

I only had a fast car before because I live within walking or cycling range of work. We have work cars when we need them for work so I don't really need a car except for the weekly shop and visiting friends.

I don't think that, in my current situation, I would need a cheaper to run car. The cost of swapping would probably be greater than the saving on fuel etc.

Besides, the increases in fuel and insurance costs seem to have had a negative impact on the prices of performance cars, so mine has depreciated to the point of not being worth selling.

[mg-richard]

it wouldnt be so bad if insurance wasnt going through the roof

and a second car wasnt like having a drugs problem in terms of a money drain

[edward22]

tbh i do all my driving on the motorway and the turbo returns around 350 ish miles to the tank and costs me 40 pound to fill up .

yes it may not do grate mpg compared to new cars , but my turbo cost me less than a grand . a new semi decent turbo deisel would cost me what 4-5 k . now thats alot of fuel . plus costs alot more to service and alot more to fix.

i have a decent quick car with air con full leather . costs me almost nothing in labour to fix. parts are cheap enuf. and theres no crappy modern electrics to go wrong . and costs me alot less to insure than my old 2. lite turbo diesel x type i used to have.

i dont smoke . i dont drink much any more if at all . so i view my cars as a hobbie if anything else.

if people where to invest in mods that improved reliability and the welfare of the car instead of trying to get every bhp they can out of them . they would find they are nice comfy cars to drive.

plus std turbo rims tyres are what 108 pound for all four ( toyo t1rs) . not 108 pound for one like the jaguar or newer modern cars

[mike88]

i dont smoke . i dont drink much any more if at all

This. I've never smoked and drink VERY rarly, All my spare cash goes on the car.

Its like when people moan about fags being so expensive, or beer, they only complain because they smoke or drink alot, we complain because we have thirsty cars.

I couldnt give a toss is a pack of fags was £20, and beer was £5 a pint, doesnt bother me because i dont like them. V-power on the other hand, I loves the stuff!

[Punx0r]

Oi! I love beer!

Edward, based on £1.20/litre, your car does 48mpg. You might want to check your maths or your odometer

Sheaf, I'm sure you're already aware of this, but would you really break even on a diesel runabout on the mileage you do? When I worked it out for myself a couple of years ago I'd have to do 20k/year before I saved any money - just on the cost of tax/MOT/insurance. If the Accord is costing you an extra £50/mo in fuel I'd be surprised if you could buy(annual depreciation), maintain, fuel, tax, MOT and insure another car for less than £600/yr.

Plus, the biggest catch: you spend your life driving a logger car while your nice one sits on the drive.

I think the most sensible thing is just to suck it up and continue to enjoy the car you like. Commutes are crap, might as well do it in a nice car.

Or - and I'm not just being smug - get your nice, but thirsty, petrol car converted to LPG. A pro, turnkey job shouldn't cost more than £1500 sheets for a nice system.

[MarkCoupe]

Just worked something horrible out. If you travel 12,000 miles a year, at an average of 27.5mpg, assuming fuel costs what it does now, itd cost between £2550-£2800. If they push fuel up to £1.50 a litre, you're talking more like £3000 +

[radddogg]

Just get a ped and stop whinging

[MarkCoupe]

Just get a ped and stop whinging

I have a ped (well, 150bhp 'ped') but i quite like fast cars too.

[edward22]

Oi! I love beer!

Edward, based on £1.20/litre, your car does 48mpg. You might want to check your maths or your odometer

its roughly and its not far off it tbh . i do drive like a nun though on the motorways .

i averages around the 42-45 mpg on a long run which is what i do alot of

why convert to lpg you only get around 25 mpg on it ... and u seen the cost per litre lol

[MGTurbo]

Oi! I love beer!

Edward, based on £1.20/litre, your car does 48mpg. You might want to check your maths or your odometer

its roughly and its not far off it tbh . i do drive like a nun though on the motorways .

i averages around the 42-45 mpg on a long run which is what i do alot of

why convert to lpg you only get around 25 mpg on it ... and u seen the cost per litre lol

2 litre Turbo? Impossible unless you drive like an old fart and do 150 miles each way. Thats diesel economy.

[edward22]

no really its not . book figure is 45.6 mpg at 55 mph .

tompinneys managed 380 miles to a tank on his gsi turbo

and i managed 370 on a run to glasgow before .

i sit around 60-65 mph .

[MGTurbo]

It all goes wrong when you say it costs £40 to fill up, thats only just over 33 litres @ £1.20, 220 tank is 55 litres?

What are your actual mpg figures? There is only one way to work this out, fill the tank up, reset trip, drive till empty, top up, convert the amount filled up into gallons and then use that figure to divide your mileage. Any other way is guesswork.

[Punx0r]

I'm tight, but even I refuse to drive at less than 70mph on the motorway to save fuel!

why convert to lpg you only get around 25 mpg on it ... and u seen the cost per litre lol

Yep, I posted about the price yesterday. 25mpg is a good guess though, it's about what I get on average in the summer. Generally I get 4-5mpg less than on petrol. Despite the cold weather and high pump prices it's still just under 15 pence per mile.

Supposedly you shouldn't see any drop in economy (LPG actually contains more energy than petrol), so it's likely my particular system isn't running optimally.

I wonder what the pence-per-mile cost is on a modern 200hp diesel?

[edward22]

ur be surprised actually . ive got a few friends with lpg cars and they never get as much mpg as on petrol .

i actually worked out at the cost of installing the kit around 1700 pound and the price difference between lpg and petrol ( lpg was alot cheaper than it is now ) it would of taken him with his yearly driving figures just over 2 years to break even before actually saved any money lol

and it all depends how you drive at the end of the day. for the bigger dervs id say around 50 mpg

[Din]

and it all depends how you drive at the end of the day. for the bigger dervs id say around 50 mpg

Depends... i have got 60mpg out of a BMW 120d with the later N47 engine, thats somewhere in the region of 160/170bhp and i was very carefull to achieve that..

Getting in to the bigger engine i often look at the mpg counter on say 530ds and they seem to usually come in the early to mid 40mpg area, although these are usually autos and not driven carefully

[Punx0r]

ur be surprised actually . ive got a few friends with lpg cars and they never get as much mpg as on petrol .

Totally par for the course on mixer-type (older, simpler) systems as it's like comparing EFI with a primitive carb. For the sort of price you mention you should get a good quality multi-point injection system and these are supposed to be much better for economy and power (the idea being they're the same as the original petrol system).

Buy-back period is usually 1-2 years depending on the cost of the system and the mileage you do. Don't forget there is also a buy-back period with buying a second, runaround car (which is also an ongoing liability).

LPG is more expensive than it used to be, but so is petrol and diesel They go up and down together.

It's not for everyone, but costwise your car (currently doing 45mpg) would do the equivilent of ~80mpg. There are downsides: it does take twice as long to fill the tank as it does with petrol.