So the oils starting to run out - buy a big engined monster now then?

mike65

Anyone watching Future Shock on RTE on monday will have been alterted to the peak oil issue, the stuff ain't going to get any cheaper than it is now. So with that cheery thought in mind is now the time to go for the "big one" sod the planet for a few years (not to mention the road tax bills) and just go out and splurge some cash on a V8 machine that says "Its the end of the world as we know and I feel fine"?

Or would I be better off buying a 1.2 DI diesel and enjoy the warm glow of planet saving smuggnes?

Mike.

peasant

For the ultimate planet saving smugness, this is what you need:

http://www.twike.com/

Human Power Hybrid

mike65

Pah, one good Atlantic gust of wind and you're toast!

Mike.

peasant

No ...you'll be even more smug in the knowledge that that gust just turned your windmill at home that bit faster, supplying more power to your charger, so your "Human Power Hybrid" will charge that bit quicker tonight

Borzoi

If you were to listen to George Lee, I think the best thing to do would be Build a huge underground diesel storage facility, and buy some guns to defend it and your from when society collapses.:rolleyes:

spank_inferno

By the time the sweet sweet crude runs out vegtable oil converters will be €19.99 in Harvey Normans.

Besides Mike using a hybrid now will just increase levels of poisonous smug.

siralfalot

meh.... by the time the oil is gone, I will have perfected the design of my flux capacitor, then I can nip back to 1985 and refuel my V8 anytime I want

Mitch Connor

"Yes, its a hybrid.............. thhhhhhhhhaaaaaannnnnnnnkkkkkkkksssssss"

peasant

Didn't see the programme, so I don't know if this was covered ...

Everybody automatically associates oil with cars, but there are so many more things that oil is essential for.

Creating electricity/heat, fertilisers and plastics. Lacking those three (or making them ridiculously expensive) will have a massive impact on the economy all over the world.

It would be a good idea to reduce oil consumption in traffic drastically now, to make it last longer for all the other purposes.
But the oil industry is all about sales and turnover, so they'll keep on selling it comparatively cheaply and in high quantities until it finally all runs out ...for all applications.

And as long as it is comparatively cheap people will keep driving the big engined cars and just make it disapper quicker.

there are lots of alternatives to oil out there to power traffic, there are also lots of other solutions like car pooling, cycling, public transport etc ...but so far private transport using oil is still far too affordable for people to consider the alternatives.

That funny looking yoke in my first link could take a large percentage of people in and out of work every day and out of their "gaz guzzlers"....but its around 20k all in to buy at the moment.

Unless somebody (or circumstances) forces you to buy and use it, you won't.

daedalus2097

That's it, just like recycling. While it's still cheaper to use oil burners it's still preferable, just like while it's more effort and money recycling, people and companies will still dump everything to the cheaper landfill.

My take however is that it's still no problem to have a larger car - I've said it before and I'll say it again, driving with a big engine doesn't necessarily use more fuel, it just has the potential to use more fuel. I constantly get over 30 miles to the gallon out of my 2-litre GTI, and that's about the same as I got from the Fiesta, purely because the roads I drive mean the Fiesta was flat out trying to cope with hills whereas the GTI barely breaks a sweat.

Having said that, if you do decide to use the potential, you can get the economy down to 16-20 MGP if you really want

daedalus2097

mike65 wrote:

Or would I be better off buying a 1.2 DI diesel and enjoy the warm glow of planet saving smuggnes?

And you'll have loads of time to enjoy the glow too while you're waiting to get up to speed

craichoe

daedalus2097 wrote:

That's it, just like recycling. While it's still cheaper to use oil burners it's still preferable, just like while it's more effort and money recycling, people and companies will still dump everything to the cheaper landfill.

My take however is that it's still no problem to have a larger car - I've said it before and I'll say it again, driving with a big engine doesn't necessarily use more fuel, it just has the potential to use more fuel. I constantly get over 30 miles to the gallon out of my 2-litre GTI, and that's about the same as I got from the Fiesta, purely because the roads I drive mean the Fiesta was flat out trying to cope with hills whereas the GTI barely breaks a sweat.

Having said that, if you do decide to use the potential, you can get the economy down to 16-20 MGP if you really want

30mpg is atrocious

For Fiesta
Approx fuel consumption (all figures are for guidance only).
Urban 32.5 mpg
Extra urban 48.4 mpg
Combined 40.8 mpg
Fuel tank 8.8 gallons ( 40 litres).

And Ireland doesn't have any Hills, their more like humps.. Go to Norway and have a look at some 'Hills'

Its about driving style too, theres those freaks called hypermilers in the U.S. who have competitions to see who can go the furthest on the least amount of fuel. If you tear the ass out of a 1 Litre engine what do you expect.

Consequently i get 40MPG City and 55MPG Long distance on my TDI

prospect

daedalus2097 wrote:

That's it, just like recycling. While it's still cheaper to use oil burners it's still preferable, just like while it's more effort and money recycling, people and companies will still dump everything to the cheaper landfill.

My take however is that it's still no problem to have a larger car - I've said it before and I'll say it again, driving with a big engine doesn't necessarily use more fuel, it just has the potential to use more fuel. I constantly get over 30 miles to the gallon out of my 2-litre GTI, and that's about the same as I got from the Fiesta, purely because the roads I drive mean the Fiesta was flat out trying to cope with hills whereas the GTI barely breaks a sweat.

Having said that, if you do decide to use the potential, you can get the economy down to 16-20 MGP if you really want

Two points on this:

1. I would not consider 30mpg to be good.

2. I would not consider 2.0L to be a big engined car, I would guess it is the average size for the UK.

zilog_jones

2. I would not consider 2.0L to be a big engined car, I would guess it is the average size for the UK.

They have pretty much the same size engines over there as we do here TBH - it's just they tend not to buy larger cars with underpowered engines (e.g. 1.4 Octavias/Golfs, BMW 316s, etc.). I also get about 30 MPG in my Fiesta, but only in city traffic where I'm not moving half the time. At any traffic lights where I know I'll be waiting more than 2 minutes I turn off the engine.

daedalus2097

Yeah, 2L isn't that big agreed, I'm just making the point that the two give similar mpg under similar conditions. Right about the hills too I've been over the Swiss Alps and back in a car so I know about them too. It's a while since I had the Fiesta, but it wasn't a Zetec, was a 1.3 HCS and I'd be carrying tools and people a lot, either around Wicklow (for the humps) or around Dublin City (for the heavy traffic). I can't remember the exact figures I calculated but it was in the mid 30s (note the use of the word "over" in my previous post). I know it's not great mileage, I probably do work my cars hard and if I tried or was doing long motorway runs I'm sure it would be much better. I do know the Golf gets over 40 on a long motorway run, but I'd imagine my normal day-to-day driving would come in at closer to urban than combined rates.