Fuel Tax approaches

[lol-lol]

Drive slower, change car?

With over 50K miles on the Octy now (1.8 TSI - 42 mpg) time to shift to a more economical car so Fabia VRS (petrol) (ex-demo) ordered today.

Did not go for diesel but was tempted by the 1.6D DSG as I sit at 78 mph on the motorway most the time, or crawl on the M25 etc but the Fabia was just too attractive so will be bouncing between the Octy TSI VRS and the Fabia TSI VRS.

It may use less petrol (45 mpg?) but it suppose to use the higher Octane stuff. Read the various threads and articles but what is best ie pure 98 octane, alternate tanks, 98 octane only every forth?

When do the engine pink more, hot weather, cold weather high pressure, when engine cold or hot?

People (most) still seem to be driving at the legal limits ie not the economical double nickel ie 55 mph.

Petrol was less than £1 a litre two years ago!

Edited 3 March, 2012 by lol

[jrw]

You really make me laugh.

One day you will work out what MPG you get and it will be no where near 42MPG. Is that an average over the 50k in the glorious TSI? I think not.

Then even more laughably you have bought a Fabia VRS to be more economical......Literally

Have you not read the VRS MPG threads in the Fabia II section? No doubt though, yours will be amazing and be double what everyone else with a VRS gets.

The way you would have to drive the VRS to get 45MPG you may as well have bought a 1.6CR Monte which you would get 65-70MPG easy granny'ing it and 45mpg caning it. Looking at the threads, people who get 45 or more are doing 55-60 on the motorway on mile after mile of mind numbing boredom, hardly why you buy a VRS is it really? Reality check, driving it normally (ie enjoying the car and driving to the speed limits and conditions) will see 35-40mpg if you are lucky. Thats without the oil consumption problem that a few people have.

How about you set up a fuelly account in prep for getting the VRS and put to bed the couple of years of lies from the 1.8TSI and wipe the slate clean?

Edited 3 March, 2012 by jrw

[D15VRS]

What makes me Chuckle is the way people say they are changing their Car for a more economical one. It costs £1.38 for Petrol and more for Derv, but another Car could cost a few Thousand Pounds more. There is a lot of Fuel in the cost of swapping the car. But most importantly would it not be more cost effective to join some group and stand up and be counted. Or be forever Shat on from a high.

Some people are not affected because they have a BOB or two others are not as well off, but all you get is I'm alright Jack **** you

[karlbar2k]

duty on LPG is being held a while longer?

[lol-lol]

You really make me laugh. One day you will work out what MPG you get and it will be no where near 42MPG. Is that an average over the 50k in the glorious TSI? I think not. Then even more laughably you have bought a Fabia VRS to be more economical......Literally Have you not read the VRS MPG threads in the Fabia II section? No doubt though, yours will be amazing and be double what everyone else with a VRS gets. The way you would have to drive the VRS to get 45MPG you may as well have bought a 1.6CR Monte which you would get 65-70MPG easy granny'ing it and 45mpg caning it. Looking at the threads, people who get 45 or more are doing 55-60 on the motorway on mile after mile of mind numbing boredom, hardly why you buy a VRS is it really? Reality check, driving it normally (ie enjoying the car and driving to the speed limits and conditions) will see 35-40mpg if you are lucky. Thats without the oil consumption problem that a few people have. How about you set up a fuelly account in prep for getting the VRS and put to bed the couple of years of lies from the 1.8TSI and wipe the slate clean?

Well the Fabia VRS is suppose to be about 5% more economical than my 1.8 TSI DSG ie does 46 mpg combined against my 43 mpg and 54 mpg against my current 52 mpg Extra urban not that I would expect to get 54 mpg and as I barely got 50 mpg really out of my 1.8 TSI even when tottling when the computer was corrected to actual. Need to figure out how to do this filling of the expansion tank to 54 litres as the 45 litre normal tank is even more annoying than the small 55 litre in the Octy.

I am confident I can get the Fabia VRS up to the 500 mile range with my hyper-miling techniques. Maybe 600 mile if I can do the exp tank filling before long journeys!

I did set up a fuelly but seemed to miss a couple of fill up details and my admin dept seem to be too busy to pass me back the details but I am reasonably confident the MDI is quite accurate if the 5% over-read is taken in to account.

The 1.8 TSI seems to use quite a lot of engine oil so I am use to that and it goes on the fuel card too reducing the pain. I will miss the 1.8 TSI DSG. I hope Skoda get some of the great technology the Audi have started to use ie cylinder shut down and the VVT 1.8 TSI which can further improve consumption by about 10%!

[D15VRS]

I remember when the price of LPG was 17pence, the Goverment soon caught up with all the people who had Conversions done. A Thousand for conversion and you are still getting ripped off. When will people learn there is no such thing as a good thing, they will catch up with you and treat you the same as everybody else. TAX is the most inportant thing, no free rides here.

[lol-lol]

What makes me Chuckle is the way people say they are changing their Car for a more economical one. It costs £1.38 for Petrol and more for Derv, but another Car could cost a few Thousand Pounds more. There is a lot of Fuel in the cost of swapping the car. But most importantly would it not be more cost effective to join some group and stand up and be counted. Or be forever Shat on from a high.

Some people are not affected because they have a BOB or two others are not as well off, but all you get is I'm alright Jack **** you

I tend to change my car as it approached the warranty end as it is a work car and I cannot have something unrealible and I am worried that the TSIs and CRs are such complex engines that a big blow up could cost two or three grand or more. Happened in my A3 1.9D at 63K miles but Audi did pay up thankfully.

I wish VAG would more to 100K warranty like other car companies, worrying they have not, shows a lack of belief or something.

[lol-lol]

I remember when the price of LPG was 17pence, the Goverment soon caught up with all the people who had Conversions done. A Thousand for conversion and you are still getting ripped off. When will people learn there is no such thing as a good thing, they will catch up with you and treat you the same as everybody else. TAX is the most inportant thing, no free rides here.

It is an interesting history to read and study ie that of tax. Going back to the Magna Carta and the French Brandy taxes. I looked after than artifact in one of the Custom Houses for a while including the biulding which was also a military barrack to house marines who would ride out with the Excise Officer, some amazing battles, swords and all, many dead.

Not quite that bad yet but I feel we are at a turning point and could see fuel depot problems again soon.

[gadgetman]

The first rule is to always take 10% off manufacturer mpg "claims".

Not everyone will reach them due to so many factors including how your engine wears in which is all down to when it was made.

[mannyo]

I did the opposite to save money, went from a 3 year old 2.0 Diesel to an 11 year old 3.7 Litre Petrol V8. The money I recovered buying the car for next to nothing will buy enough fuel to keep the car going for years. So I still have the smiles, and the price of fuel going in for now at least is not an issue for me. Put £105 of petrol in this morning, and I'll get around 450 miles and it will be needing more.

[lol-lol]

The first rule is to always take 10% off manufacturer mpg "claims".

Not everyone will reach them due to so many factors including how your engine wears in which is all down to when it was made.

I find it is where you live and drive makes a huge difference. When I drive in the SE of England I get 5-10% worse fuel consumption due to the start-stop driving compared to out here Way out West where you can get close to manufacturers figures.

I do quite a bit of neutral coasting, mainly in the DSGs which it is so easy to do and that helps up the Mpg by one or two MPG I reckon.

[Paul007]

"as I sit at 78 mph on the motorway most the time"

Isn't that illegal ? Get 12 points and you might not need your new car which will save you even more money...

[lol-lol]

I did the opposite to save money, went from a 3 year old 2.0 Diesel to an 11 year old 3.7 Litre Petrol V8. The money I recovered buying the car for next to nothing will buy enough fuel to keep the car going for years. So I still have the smiles, and the price of fuel going in for now at least is not an issue for me. Put £105 of petrol in this morning, and I'll get around 450 miles and it will be needing more.

The UK Government seems to either look to milk diesel for as much as possible making it more expensive than petrol unlike virtually every other EU country or dis-courage it as diesel has to be imported as we do not have the refining capacity for it and North Sea oil is manily petrol so they do not get extraction tax. This is, despite the fact than our CO2 as a nation would drop several percentage points if diesel was 5 or 10% cheaper than petrol to ofset its higher vehicle buy price.

Agree that petrol vehicles tend to be more fun to drive with a few exceptions when you get those diesel engine with 6 or more cylinders. My company is doing a big operaion a Le Mans so hope to see the R18s in full howl though the Toyota should be an interesting addition to replace the year on year failure that has been Peugeot.

[lol-lol]

Isn't that illegal ? Get 12 points and you might not need your new car which will save you even more money...

Well the norm has been for speed "traps" to be set (in the UK) a minimum of 10% plus 2 mph ie 79 mph geniune but often more like 10% plus 4 mph ie 81 mph genuine ie not what is shown on the speedo but say are your GPS which is likely to be accurate to 1 or 2% rather than 5-8% over read which tend to be the case with both analogue and digitial speedo (how digital speedos can be so far out I find very strange).

All that said I have heard recently traps being set at exactly the 10% and prosecuting at that level!

The new nominal 80 mph is due to come in next year which would logically mean a tolerance to 88 or even 90 mph geniune or about 95 on most speedos.

[gadgetman]

78mph is hardly a fuel efficient speed....

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

Here in MK it's 70mph road for 1km, roundabout, 70mph for 1km. . . Results in awful mpg.

As for buying a fabia vrs to be economical, you could just admit you wanted a quick sporty car lol, the whole "saving fuel" argument doesn't work when the new car is barely anymore economical that the old one

[AnotherGareth]

The UK Government seems to either look to milk diesel for as much as possible making it more expensive than petrol unlike virtually every other EU country

Don't let facts get in the way of your argument; fuel duty is the same for diesel and petrol so diesel car users are getting a better deal so far as fuel duty is concerned because the energy density of diesel is greater.

[lol-lol]

78mph is hardly a fuel efficient speed....

True but it is a business efficient speed as ones hourly rate is much higher than the fuel cost rate ie £60 ph time agaist about £15 ph fuel.

[lol-lol]

Don't let facts get in the way of your argument; fuel duty is the same for diesel and petrol so diesel car users are getting a better deal so far as fuel duty is concerned because the energy density of diesel is greater.

Quite correct the two rates are the same for low sulphur petrol and diesel but most European countries choose to have a lower tax on diesel to promote a lower carbon usage for the country which the UK does not I suspect for the reason mentioned above.

There is a proposal to change the taxation based on energy content within the EU per litre which could widen the gap.

[jrw]

PMSL at the range. 350miles if you're lucky. Diesel owners struggle to get that.

Your claims just get more outrageous.

[lol-lol]

Here in MK it's 70mph road for 1km, roundabout, 70mph for 1km. . . Results in awful mpg.

As for buying a fabia vrs to be economical, you could just admit you wanted a quick sporty car lol, the whole "saving fuel" argument doesn't work when the new car is barely anymore economical that the old one

Well the Fabia is supposed to be about 20% more economical in an urban enviroment than the 1.8 TSI DSG but yes only about 5% more economical on the extra urban and combined so not a huge amount in it but the fact that it is also half a scond quicker to 100 kph is also not a fact that has passed me by.

The 10K servicing is a bit of a pain compared to variable. I will be using the Octy TSI VRS for longer trips I expect and the Fabia for local and Heathrow etc where the traffic is bad as the auto certainly is preferable than the manual Octy VRS.

[lol-lol]

PMSL at the range. 350miles if you're lucky. Diesel owners struggle to get that.

Your claims just get more outrageous.

Just saying what I see ie best range on Octy TSI VRS 570 miles, 1.8 TSI DSG 630 miles.

Take 5% off for the inaccuracy of the MDI and over 500 miles from the Octy TSI VRS and close to 600 real miles from the 1.8 TSI have been managed on a few occasions. Do admit though usually get bored and then blow off a few 4 cylinder diesel Audi, VWs etc which ruins the consumption for that run, will be even easier in the Fabia TSI VRS, too easy and hence not much fun, have choose something else, cannot think what as not quite in the league of the 3 litre diesels as standard but quicker than 2.5 and 2.7l I guess.

Edited 3 March, 2012 by lol

[gadgetman]

I would start manually calculating using fuely or similar.

You may be in for a surprise!

[jrw]

I would start manually calculating using fuely or similar.

You may be in for a surprise!

+1

back in the real world...

I could probably see 800miles on my range after a fill up at the top of snowdon and an illegal coast down to the bottom. Rofl.

[jrw]

Also seeing a figure on the range for a minute or 2 doesn't actually mean you will get that many miles.

Wake up to the real world.