Should I change car (Fuel Costs)?

iii Stevo iii

Driving a 02 corsa 5dr 1 ltr.
90% of my driving done in town, low gears.
Car eats petrol.
30 euro gets me about 5days driving @ 20 mpg.
It seems like every time I switch on the ignition the car has lost petrol from when I last switched it off.


Im heavy, so its like the car is always carrying 2 small women.
I heard that the 1 ltr corsa has to work harder than lets say a 1.3 ltr starlet,
added to this the car is effectively carrying a passenger aswel.
Making the starlet more fuel efficient.

Thinking of getting rid of the corsa and buying a more fuel efficient car for around 2-2.5k, in or around 2002.

Suggestions? I heard a fiesta might be a good option?

Also what should I advertise the corsa at?
Cars in very good condition, 80k miles. NCT'd until September 2012 and taxed until August 2012.

wonski

Friend of mine had one of those 1.0 corsas, and complained about almost everything, but mpg was really good. If you get 20mpg, then something must be wrong with the car.
If you want to change the car for any other reason, go for it, but financially - you will be better off with corsa (cheap road tax, around 50/quarter).

kerten

Corsa 1.0 lt is a fuel efficient car unless it has a problem.

20 mpg is too low unless you do 2 miles trips in 1st gear with cold engine every time. If this is the case, changing car won't save you petrol.

My 1.0 lt yaris automatic averages 40-45 mpg with heavy body of mine on daily 20 miles commuting.

Anan1

iii Stevo iii wrote: »

Car eats petrol.
30 euro gets me about 5days driving @ 20 mpg.
It seems like every time I switch on the ignition the car has lost petrol from when I last switched it off.

First thing to do is to calculate exactly how much fuel the car is using. Brim the tank, zero the trip meter, drive till the light comes on, make a note of the mileage covered and how many litres the car took and calculate it from that. Once you've done that you'll at least have a starting point for comparisons.

CiniO

20 MPG seems to be shocking.

My father has corsa 1.0, and the most petrol it could use was about 7.5 l/100km which was only city driving short runs in the middle of cold winter (temp down to -20 degrees).

7.5 l/100km is about 38MPG.
That was the worst figure i've ever seen in that car.

Maybe your petrol tank is leaking, as you say it's less petrol every time you drive.

shawnee

Seems everyone thinks their car is really heavy on petrol at present. This is often because the cost of petrol has increased by almost 50 percent in the last twelve months. Do a real calculation on how much petrol your car is using. Fill the car , drive 400 miles or so and refill and calculate how many litres/gallons it takes to refill. Then when you have that information you can make an informed decision. A 1.0 litre Corsa would tow an elephant in a horsebox and still do around 30 mpg

Atlantic Dawn

I'd forget about changing the car to save money, you are not doing the miles to justify this.

It may be relatively cheap to increase your current mpg, when was the last time you checked your tyre pressure? When was the car last serviced? These simple things may increase the mpg by 10-15%.

C4Kid

shawnee wrote: »

Seems everyone thinks their car is really heavy on petrol at present. This is often because the cost of petrol has increased by almost 50 percent in the last twelve months.

Thats a good point and it's probably true, mainly because the average person seems to measure fuel purchased in monetary amounts and disregard everything else!:P

The usual, I put €20 in last week and it didn't get me very far, the more fuel go ups the less distance you will get for your €20.

shawnee

C4Kid wrote: »

Thats a good point and it's probably true, mainly because the average person seems to measure fuel purchased in monetary amounts and disregard everything else!:P

The usual, I put €20 in last week and it didn't get me very far, the more fuel go ups the less distance you will get for your €20.

Took my lawnmower gallon to the pumps lately , a while back it would take just over 5 euro , I was more than a little surprised when it took ten euro to fill

wonski

shawnee wrote: »

Took my lawnmower gallon to the pumps lately , a while back it would take just over 5 euro , I was more than a little surprised when it took ten euro to fill

I've been there... Started in little 1.1 seicento when the petrol was 1E/L (not so long ago). Now driving underpowered 1.4 Scenic makes me mad at the pumps, but can get 36mpg with let's say heavy foot (I dont mean speeding, just dynamic driving), and over 50mpg on long motorway journeys at 100km/h.
20mpg for 1.0 corsa is just not right. Large hole in the tank it has to be.
I remember driving on 3 cylinders(as the OP does) when one of the coils failed, and still managed 25-30 on motorway/dual carriageway. 20 is just a madness for such a small car.