When will you be hanging up the keys to the car now that fuel is rising by what seems to be 2p per week ?
I have a company fuel card, so no need to.
All the goverment has to do is to bring in line petrol/diesel VAT with that on other Fuels.
5% (used to be 8%). 12% saving straight off the bat. Would mean petrol is still expensive,
but would make it a bit easier to swallow.. at least until the next budget comes along
Companies wont be wanting to pay for fuel if it goes up much more - or will force employees to drive sh*t cars.
If it goes over £2 in the next 12months I will personally piss through the letterbox of 10 Downing Street.
Quote from: MarkCompanies wont be wanting to pay for fuel if it goes up much more - or will force employees to drive sh*t cars.
fuel goes up, companies raise prices to cover costs. Peoples living expenses go up.
fat oil / red fuel use increase a cert
Quote from: neXusfat oil / red fuel use increase a cert
bad enough driving makes me thirsty.. dont want to end up craving chips as well :gag:
I need my car to get to work.
Quote from: EggtasticoQuote from: MarkCompanies wont be wanting to pay for fuel if it goes up much more - or will force employees to drive sh*t cars.
Some will, some wont - some large orgs (The RBS that I work with extensively) are cutting back.
I think if fuel goes to £2 a litre Ill go back on the SVO and drive the AX for work - Ill have to get rid of the saab after only having it for a short while!
Quote from: sdpIf it goes over £2 in the next 12months I will personally piss through the letterbox of 10 Downing Street.
might have to hold you to that
I really dont want to be paying anymore than £1.50 a litre, I think Id pack it in at £2 a litre and get a bike for sure! or get another LPG car.
I walk to work since i moved the other week, but its still downright annoying. Cost me £110 in petrol for a weekend away. Its making it worth the £20 itll cost to drive to Liverpool airport and just go abroad for a long weekend. On the sh*t cars comment, one place i used to work has just replaced all their cars. The installers are now driving Berlingo vans, and the other lads have been dumped into 1.4TD Polos. Thats taken them out of the 2.5TD Passats for the installers, and the 2.0L TD Golfs they had. Prices can rise, but there is a point where you just cant pass it on to the end user.
I think Im always going to have need of a car, but Ill just use it less and less - Ive already moved a lot closer to work and ride a push bike now, and am saving a small fortune.
Quote from: sdpIf it goes over £2 in the next 12months I will personally piss through the letterbox of 10 Downing Street.
I like that idea. Ill just invoice a bit more out to cover my fuel costs for work commuting. But socially, at £2 per litre Ill be selling my <30mpg MX-5 and be looking for something frugal.
Quote from: neXusfat oil / red fuel use increase a cert
Another issue is that chip oil is mostly veg oil which is also spiralling in price. The "bio"fuel makers are only just staying behind the price of regular fuel.
We have a biofuel company in one of our buildings and they have halted production for the time being, they can produce it for around 95p/litre atm (inc road duty) - most people cant be arsed for that kind of saving.
until public transport is reliable enough ill be paying whatever it costs.
Jaimz :rock:
Seriously considering going electric, we just need more stuff like the Tesla Roadster at a reasonable price.
Gonna learn how to drive a car, learn how to ride a motorbike, and then just ride the bike. Only time Id consider a car at these prices would be if I reallllly needed to move something substantial, its just not worth it.
Quote from: KunalSeriously considering going electric, we just need more stuff like the Tesla Roadster at a reasonable price.
If everyone went to electric cars, then the price of leccy would go through the roof - and the electricity production in this country isnt Carbon Neutral, or whatever the buzzword is these days.
My dad has a citroen berlingo electrique, and it is WEIRD driving it. Totally silent.
It has a range of about ~ 60-90 miles (Does him) and has regenerative braking. Its a bit like a game seeing how far you can extend the range by running her down big hills
Seems like the ideal solution to me.
Using the Tesla as an example;
0-60 - 4sec, top speed 130mph, range 200 or so miles
Lotus developed setup, so bound to be a good drive
Laptop batteries and regenerative breaks
Its fast enough, should handle well enough to still enjoy driving and has enough range for me.
As for the power argument, it centralises where the polution is produced and how its produced - what about if we had more nuclear station in 15 years time when these kind of cars might represent 30, 40 or 50% of the cars on the road?
Not to mention in 15 years time we wouldve seen leaps and bounds improvements in the technology.
Im all for electric to be honest, I love the concept of a skateboard car where you can replace the body.
Id like an electric car, itd be a great thing if it was a nice looking car at least, not like the Gwiz though. Id consider a Smart car if I could afford to buy one in the 1st place.
^^ yeah, the price of fat etc has rocketed.... and looks like itll increas more with because theres too many crops being grown for bio fuel and a shortage of food, which is why food prices are rising... apparently food is now too expensive for the 3rd world and theyre all going to starve.....
...its all good for me tho... Im making 12,000 litres of fat a week at work which has gone from 8p/litre to 22p/litre (woohoo)
I wonder if I could run the AX on fat - heated of course
If I develop a system I could try it out on one of your vans! Imagine that for savings on fuel
I actually think it would be pretty simple - my version 3 of my current system has 3 heating stages
the problem with my fat is... it sets hard (rock solid) at room tempreture :(
Ive sold a few IBCs to a guy who uses it in a genny tho... and Ive got all the stuff i need to make my genny (grid connected too)... just no time to set it up :(
Id love to run the vans on veg oil.... but theyre all common rail diesels now and I heard they dont like it ?
The setting hard at room temp is no issue.
We preheat the stored fat, then that liquidises and moves to another heated tank.
Then there is a preheater before the injector pump.
I would envisage starting on diesel, running on the heated fat, and running down on diesel (With one of my modified turbo timers)
Ive been converting cars to run on veg oil for almost 9 years now - and Ive been through a good few different systems getting them right :)
Its simple enough to get round the common rail issues - theres not much that cant be solved with a good lift pump ;)
veg oil has doubled in price in the last 6months.
I need my car for my job so Ill have to keep driving untill it makes more sense for me to quit and go on the dole.
Quote from: MarkThe setting hard at room temp is no issue.
We preheat the stored fat, then that liquidises and moves to another heated tank.
Then there is a preheater before the injector pump.
I would envisage starting on diesel, running on the heated fat, and running down on diesel (With one of my modified turbo timers)
Ive been converting cars to run on veg oil for almost 9 years now - and Ive been through a good few different systems getting them right :)
Its simple enough to get round the common rail issues - theres not much that cant be solved with a good lift pump ;)
ohhhhh, now that sounds quite intresting :o
but... when I say hard, i mean hard like a lump of lard...?
Im not sure, if i still had my bike and I was in England I would still be buying petrol no matter what the cost, ill just bitch about it more.
Amusing that over here its about $1.60 a lr (70p) and they are really insanely up in arms about it maybe hitting $2 by Christmas (less than a quid a lr)
Biofuels can create as big a problem as petrol burners, we need something else, another option.
Although I dont like the idea of power plants being run to create electricity for cars it might be more efficient. TBH battery powered cars could be used by a lot of people to save money, and they are getting better.
Mostly my brother has no choice but to run a car, the question is how much he drives it.
i do remember something being quoted...
petrol is about 65% energy efficient (refinery energy costs)
diesel something like 80% ?
where as modern power stations are stupidly efficient even if theyre not carbon netural,
they run big steam turbines as long as a football field attached to generators.
just gotta get the heat / fuel to the station, then its transmission losses from there on out.
probably why councils are looking to subsidize micro generators (home install solar / wind)
and my fireblade according to it can do 12 miles per litre on average... dont know how much i trust it like,
down hill with closed throttle it bumps up to 17 / 20, thrash it and worst it said was 3.8 :rofl:
think its 4.5 litres to the gallon so...
but im feeling the hike, used to be £15 and id put 16 litres in and fill her up,
now its more like spend £17 and be lucky to get 15 litres!
^^ plus, if its only 65%/80% efficent to make.... and then the engines are.. (a bit of a guss) but less than 50% efficient ?
electric cars are more than 90% efficient iirc :o
Quote from: madmaxi do remember something being quoted...
petrol is about 65% energy efficient (refinery energy costs)
diesel something like 80% ?
where as modern power stations are stupidly efficient even if theyre not carbon netural,
they run big steam turbines as long as a football field attached to generators.
just gotta get the heat / fuel to the station, then its transmission losses from there on out.
probably why councils are looking to subsidize micro generators (home install solar / wind)
and my fireblade according to it can do 12 miles per litre on average... dont know how much i trust it like,
down hill with closed throttle it bumps up to 17 / 20, thrash it and worst it said was 3.8 :rofl:
think its 4.5 litres to the gallon so...
but im feeling the hike, used to be £15 and id put 16 litres in and fill her up,
now its more like spend £17 and be lucky to get 15 litres!
My ZX-10 does about 11 mpg when being driven the way its meant to be (Thrashing fireblades :P) but I barely ride it nowadays. Average is 40mpg
Bikes are horribly inefficent compared to similar sized cars
Except the Honda 90 which does about 100 mpg
QuoteBikes are horribly inefficent compared to similar sized cars
Only becuase we love to thrash them so much :P
Like madmax it used to cost me 15quid to fill my 16/17ltr tank and I used to get around 140miles (sensible riding) out of it before the reserve light would come on, 100miles if full throttle between lights in London and worst is around 70miles when doing about 120mph most of the way home
QuoteMy ZX-10 does about 11 mpg when being driven the way its meant to be (Thrashing fireblades :P) but I barely ride it nowadays. Average is 40mpg
Bikes are horribly inefficent compared to similar sized cars
Except the Honda 90 which does about 100 mpg
hehe yup i bet, one major advantage bikes have however innefficent is they weigh with rider probably about 200 - 250 kg tops.
less weight the engine needs to drag around all day,
if they made them more efficient as well sure we could average 60 mpg easy, though not gonna happen with race bike mentality, striving for more bhp rather than lean burning.
just got a power commander off ebay, get it mapped out and leaned off (hondas nearly always run rich),
if its anything like the 600, itll get me another 10 miles outta each tankful easy enough.
do remember one week, horrid rain all week on the 600, stuck it in 6th gear all day and hit 135 mile mark before reserve came on, topped off the tank and could only get 14 and a bit litres in, so thats about 43 mpg. not great :whoops:
worst i had was reserve light on after 69 miles.... i was on a track day round snetterton so im not complaining :mutley:
I think Im going to start getting the number 58 bus into town, it was a clean and quiet bus the other day, so should be ok. I saw a advert on the bus, on their TV, for 1 weeks travel on the bus, which would get me to work and back itd cost £10. Compared to about £35 - £40 a week for petrol its a big saving for me.
I didn;t work out the mpg.... but I went to birmingham and back to see a girl... it cost me £120 in diesel..... my parents borrowed my car a week later and went to crufts (in birmingham) and back again.... cost them £45 :D
Quote from: knightyI didn;t work out the mpg.... but I went to birmingham and back to see a girl... it cost me £120 in diesel..... my parents borrowed my car a week later and went to crufts (in birmingham) and back again.... cost them £45 :D
Take the long way round?
Quote from: knightyI didn;t work out the mpg.... but I went to birmingham and back to see a girl... it cost me £120 in diesel..... my parents borrowed my car a week later and went to crufts (in birmingham) and back again.... cost them £45 :D
plenty of black reek out the back on that journey!!
Quote from: Clockd 0NeQuote from: sdpIf it goes over £2 in the next 12months I will personally piss through the letterbox of 10 Downing Street.
I like that idea. Ill just invoice a bit more out to cover my fuel costs for work commuting. But socially, at £2 per litre Ill be selling my <30mpg MX-5 and be looking for something frugal.
You sure you get 30mpg? My MK2.5 does 25mg if I drive it like a biddy. Granted I do screw the tits off my MX5!
I said under thirty :lol: I get around 20-25mpg if Im hammering the crap out of it (quite often). I can get just under 200 miles out of a tank if I drive very frugal (about 35 gallons is it?).
The engines run so rich it really doesnt matter how you drive them, you never break 30mpg. :(
Im not sure if Ive said this already (CBA looking back through the thread!)
If fuel was £5 a litre, the AX D would still do about 40 miles to a tenner
Quote from: madmaxpetrol is about 65% energy efficient (refinery energy costs)
diesel something like 80% ?
Its lower than that a diesel engine will be about 40-45% efficient and a petrol is closer to 30%
I think I will be going back to cycling to work soon. I wont be getting rid of my car but I will be trying to use it less and less.
Well I dont really have a choice with the matter. I need my car to work.
...and I like my car to much to easily give up driving.
Whining isn;t going to change anything, I just have to crack on with it.
Thats precisely the attitude that leaves the british people open for a shafting year on year.
Sit back and take it.
No actually, I just work towards a more achievable target with the same effort.
Job progression and pay rises.
Ive started to get the bus, I drove in today but I figure its easier to bus it in instead of driving around for 5 - 10 mins trying to find a parking space.
I love driving too, but I realise on my way to work and on the way home I just sit in traffic jams. To get the bus takes about the same amount of time, puts less miles onto my car and use much less fuel
Not to mention on the bus you can sleep, read and talk on your mobile!
yeah but buses are horrible. They take ages, theyre uncomfortable, you cant fart loudly (without disapproval), you cant sing out loud (without disapproval) and its full of people who smell and or have pissed themselves.
Quote from: Rivkidyeah but buses are horrible. They take ages, theyre uncomfortable, you cant fart loudly (without disapproval), you cant sing out loud (without disapproval) and its full of people who smell and or have pissed themselves.
You should be right at home then, TBH its easy enough to live with using the busses and trains if you need to.
Quote from: Rivkidyeah but buses are horrible. They take ages, theyre uncomfortable, you cant fart loudly (without disapproval), you cant sing out loud (without disapproval) and its full of people who smell and or have pissed themselves.
I got the bus Monday and tuesday, it wasnt that bad. The buses in Newcastle are quite clean, the ones I get on anyway and if I get a full zone bus pass it costs £15 per week, my car costs a min of that to get to and from work alone. Then I have maintenance costs, tyres, wear and tear. I have to also find a parking space which is a pain in the ass.
Ironically a year or so after the brought out the OAP Bus passes in my area, they pulled a large portion of bus routes & stops. Maybe it was due to the fact Ferndown is old codger central and OAPs made up 95% of the bus users...