James Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 I prefer solid fuel....... As long as you could run you solid fuel car on charcoal, you could 'fill up' at every petrol station in the UK regardless of the time of year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted April 12, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 12, 2011 Maybe it's different for petrol and diesel too - but I find diesel a depressing thought! Unless it's something like a class 37! James - diesel is not depressing. My local motor race - the 24 hrs of Le Mans - has been won by a diesel for the last few years, as the petrol cars can no longer manage the power or the economy. A decent turbo-diesel is a joy to drive - only the sound is different. And yes, I've had a few hotter petrol cars, even if the most powerful was only 160 bhp, so have some idea of the difference in feel. On the road, in the real world, with everyday driving, diesel delivers - at less cost to you. Nothing depressing there, surely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Hippo Posted April 12, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 12, 2011 Diesel's depressing....... My 270hp Scania goes well........ although I dream of a Volvo F16 660hp Nothing wrong with Skoda Octavia's all the cabbies round here use the diesel estates, and i love my Fabia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 ames - diesel is not depressing. My local motor race - the 24 hrs of Le Mans - has been won by a diesel for the last few years, as the petrol cars can no longer manage the power or the economy. A decent turbo-diesel is a joy to drive - only the sound is different. And yes, I've had a few hotter petrol cars, even if the most powerful was only 160 bhp, so have some idea of the difference in feel. On the road, in the real world, with everyday driving, diesel delivers - at less cost to you. Nothing depressing there, surely! It's mainly because if I have to consider a diesel I will be choosing a car based on fuel ecomony and it will be a sign of maturity - something which I am desperately trying to avoid! I have owned a diesel and the lazy, torquey nature can be nice. I've also driven a lot of modern diesels with my previous employers. I don't like the power delivery - too many seem to have maps which to get the most power and torque produce it over a very limited section of the rev range, compared with a good turbo petrol engine. The diesels which would work for me are those with larger engines with good auto boxes. A friend has a diesel Jag XF and it's smooth and very quiet. Lovely car overall too. A BMW 530D auto which a colleague had just felt like one massive wave of torque - I liked that! However for me, a good, nicely powered petrol engine will win everytime. A lot is down to personal preference of course - and the delivery of higher powered petrol cars (aside from my wife little run around, we don't have anything less than 180bhp in the family!) is my preference. Fuel costs more, but we don't buy new so the overall cost per mile is still very much in our favour. So for us, on the road, in the real world, with everyday driving, petrol delivers very well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 As long as you could run you solid fuel car on charcoal, you could 'fill up' at every petrol station in the UK regardless of the time of year! That would be like Mamod - it would take ages to warm up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 Fuel costs more, but we don't buy new so the overall cost per mile is still very much in our favour. I don't follow that? I don't buy (anywhere near) new either, but still worked out this lunchtime that I would have saved a grand or so in fuel costs over the course of last year by running the equivalent diesel... which would (perhaps) have depreciated less too. Eeep. But what rubs salt into the wound is that I'd have had cheaper road tax, much more torque and quicker acceleration to enjoy whilst saving this cash, with negligible increase in purchase or insurance cost. So Dave F and his 58mpg kinda turns me green with envy at the moment. (relevance to topic: none really. I did run a Skoda for a couple of years though, a £750 Felicia estate with proper Skoda 1.3 SPI engine. Solid as a rock, but as slow as one too. Would by another, TDi though, if the local private hire companies didn't run them all into the ground before they reached my budget secondhand) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davefrk Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 And you coulda had a share in that 58 mpg Jamie, I did offer you a trip..... to Wakefield. See you at Rutherglen, I'm easy either day so which would suit you. Dave Frk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PMP Posted April 12, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 12, 2011 It's mainly because if I have to consider a diesel I will be choosing a car based on fuel ecomony and it will be a sign of maturity - something which I am desperately trying to avoid! Yup more than enuff evidence of that of late. So for us, on the road, in the real world, with everyday driving, petrol delivers very well! Clearly you don't do many miles then. Even with our older TD oil burners we save significant sums on fuel over petrol. At work with vehicles running at varying speeds almost 365/24/7 they use diesel, theres a reason for that ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 I don't follow that Jamie, I think I should elaborated - I often don't express myself exactly as I want to We've bought cars 'for cash' without finance using savings (interest rates work more in yoiur favour that way!) and with my wife's car which was on finance I chose to pay off the balance of the loan. So we have no monthly payments to pay off cars which is preferrable for us at the moment with a largish mortage and a pet human. To get a diesel which I wouldn't mind (I will admit some of the cars I've driven weren't too bad! A 2.0 tdi Volvo V50 was rather nice) which would fulfill all of our needs and have SWMBO's approval (a key factor in all of this!) would require to buy much newer vehicles, thus we'd need a loan. So for us, without monthly payments and cars which haven't been bad on service costs we still do quite well each month. If you see what I mean... Work wise, in my previous job cost wasn't an issue (see below). It suits us I suppose. The biggest cost often seems to be tyres Yup more than enuff evidence of that of late. Clearly you don't do many miles then. I don't now and it's fantastic! Previously with work and pleasure I was doing 30,000 miles a year - I now work about ten miles from home and it's much nicer. No more boring motorways everyday and now longer journeys are for pleasure, having a rather nice effect on quality of life. I have a short journey each way now (with some typically East Yorkshire B roads ) and have so much more time at home. Worked out very well all round! Previously I was site based so every mile for work was paid for, at £0.40 per mile - having a larger engined petrol car made sense for this. Much to the annoyance of some parts of the company but if they thought an annual mileage of 30,000 isn't enough for a company vehicle, it was for me to reason why... I had leather, air con and two hundred horses to play with so I was quite happy. Even with our older TD oil burners we save significant sums on fuel over petrol. I don't doubt that at all. The diesel I had could be driven hard and still give 50mpg. I just preferred to drive my other car fueled by petrol! At work with vehicles running at varying speeds almost 365/24/7 they use diesel, theres a reason for that... There is, and works vehicles are chosen for economic and practical reasons whereas we chose our current car because it was reasonably quick, went round corners well, suited our budget and because we liked it! The last reason is, I think, the most important of all. After all, why buy a car if you don't like it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 That would be like Mamod - it would take ages to warm up How about a full size version of this?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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