What economy car for a 19 year old?

[HereBeMonsters]

Petrolhead95 said:

HereBeMonsters said:

You utter tool.

A whole thread with helpful suggestions, and it's entirely your fault in the first place. Do you really not see the correlation between your speed and lack of economy?

That's the last time I try to help someone on here, I tell you. Definitely.

A tad harsh.

I don't drive fast in any manner. When on the motorway I normally sit at 80 MPH which is hardly fast speeds. When on single roads I'm always changing gear early, flicking it into neutral and coasting downhills. I don't expect 90 MPG, but better than I currently do.

Er, whoosh. Definite whoosh.

[Defcon5]

[quote]

I have a 350 mile round trip on Saturday, I'll brim my car up completely and drive economically as possible and see how far I get. As I said, I'm no mechanic and didn't realise I'd use that much more fuel than at 70.
[/quote]

You will do that on one tank easily. Check type pressures before you go

[anonymous-user]

g3org3y said:

Seriously!? Seems a bit high.

I've just returned from a holiday in Cyprus where I had a Nissan Note hire car. I'm not sure what petrol engine it had (certainly small!) and that was around 3.5k at 70mph.

What use is that to someone who has a Corsa!? You're comparing different cars. The replies in this thread that reference completeing different cars' mpg, RPM etc. are hilarious.

[TheAllSeeingPie]

Petrolhead95 said:

I have a 350 mile round trip on Saturday, I'll brim my car up completely and drive economically as possible and see how far I get. As I said, I'm no mechanic and didn't realise I'd use that much more fuel than at 70.

As others have said, probably save your money changing the car as you can't make big savings on fuel alone. One thing that could help you save money if the car is quite old (5+ years) is to get the car in for a major service including an engine flush (coolant and oil), possibly even spark plugs. A well serviced car will always do better economy than a poorly serviced one, but the biggest contributing factor is a more relaxed driving style.

[HereBeMonsters]

Oh, and BTW - 80mph is actually quite fast, especially for a 1.2 engine. Just because it can do it doesn't mean it's happy cruising there.

But what I don't get is how 80mph is fine by you, but 70 is "mind-numbingly boring"?

[Mr SFJ]

On a recent trip to Birmingham I went up with a cruise set to 85 often going over 90 to overtake if needed. I was getting 35.7mpg.

On the return leg it was pissing down and generally miserable so I slowed to 60/70 respectively and got 47.3mpg. At 85 I was at about 4k RPM and 70 I was just under 3k. Slow down, coast, and look ahead is the general consensus on here.

[Schermerhorn]

Qwert1e said:

Petrolhead95 said:

When on the motorway I normally sit at 80 MPH which is hardly fast speeds.

Remember that aerodynamic drag increases with the SQUARE of speed. A car uses a lot more fuel at 80 than at 70.

Petrolhead95 said:

flicking it into neutral and coasting downhills.

Most fuel injected engines shut off the fuel completely when coasting or downhill in gear. If you put the car in neutral the engine has to burn fuel to keep itself turning. In other words, you will use MORE fuel in neutral than in gear.

I've never really understood that concept....how can a car shut off fuel when it is still running?

[otolith]

Schermerhorn said:

I've never really understood that concept....how can a car shut off fuel when it is still running?

The car drives the engine, which just pumps air. Why would it need fuel?

[Jakg]

ManOpener said:

You don't really need a diesel for 20k per year IMO. I'd probably get the tidiest 1.8 Zetec Mk1 Focus I'd find and keep the rest.

At 20k a year, the difference between a 46 MPG diesel and a 32 MPG petrol is £1,064 in fuel.

I'd call that a good reason to get a diesel - you could get something like a diesel Passat it'd pay for itself in fuel savings in a year.

EDIT - 46 & 32 MPG are the figures from my last diesel and petrol respectively. If you got 36 MPG from your petrol (as my girlfriend does in her MK4 Golf GTI 2.0), your still looking at a difference of £650 which is a fair chunk.

[Rovinghawk]

Jakg said:

At 20k a year, the difference between a 46 MPG diesel and a 32 MPG petrol is £1,064 in fuel.

I'd call that a good reason to get a diesel -

How much extra is the diesel car to buy & service? What's the risk of a very expensive repair compared with the equivalent petrol car?