Motors What do you drive? - The Photo Gallery

Had:
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2007 1.4i Polo Hatchback (silver)
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2005 Golf Mk V GTI (2.0 TFSI) ins white, stock standard (that means mad leather seats, 17" alloys, manual, no MP3 player, etc)
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Have now:
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2005 Volvo S40 2.4i (also white, also pretty much standard... even though it's got the 6-speaker setup in it for what it's worth - and YES, it is a better car than the GTI - even though not quite as fast...)

 

You can in a focus/astra though, and still get about 35mpg fully loaded, and giving it some (well moderately), swap that for a diesel and you're laughing.

If thats not big enough, then a Mondeo perhaps, something of that size. Hatch backs are the answer, saloon's definitely are a drawback.

I'm 6'2" and drive a skoda fabia vrs, whilst admittedly I can't have anyone tall behind me, I can easily fir 4 people in relative comfort in there, and thats a small car!

Also, you don't need a hybrid to get good mpg and low emissions, that's just a myth of epic proportions. Just look at VAG's 1.4 TFSI - 40mpg, performance of a 1.8, brilliant.

 

Aye, the Renault Laguna 1.9 120 DCI 02-reg I drive stretches it's legs on long dual carraigeway driving, hitting over 47MPG. Dips to 40-42 on home to work and back driving. It's able to shift itself pretty well.

 

The thing is, diesels are not really available in the US, unless you're looking at a truck, or some Volkswagens.

Cars that were never sold in the United States are often difficult to find cheaply as well.

The majority of cars available for $800-1000 (that's less than most of you spent on your computers) are either Japanese compacts in poor condition, or big inefficient American 'boats'.

 

Well you could go jap and get >25mpg for the same price as your 1980's American car. The jap car would probably go faster as well... (what I would do).

I am aware that the condition of used cars in America is pretty poor... My cousin's first car was an Eldorado, and DAAMMN was that a pile of trash...

 

80s American cars tend to be owned by older people, and therefore tend to have lower mileage and are in all-around better condition. The Jap might be faster, but it might break its transmission at 135k, and donated to charity for a very small tax write-off (aka my first car, my '89 Mazda).

 

Don't you have smallish diesel cars over there?

 

Nope. As far as I have seen, the only two companies to offer diesel passenger cars in the US are Volkswagen and Mercedes, who each offer 1 or 2 diesel models. Diesel cars are a rarity, many gas stations don't have it, and the ones that do charge 25-30% more per gallon than for 87 octane gasoline.

Most of the big automakers have plans to introduce new clean diesels into the US market, but none have arrived yet.

 

87 Octane... that's what in european measures? 93 or something, right?
But the guys are right. You don't need a hybrid to be fuel efficient... a bit of coasting, clever switching, etc... just stay away from automatics, and stay away from cruise control.

 

93 is the high octane stuff like Shell V-Power, 87 is the normal stuff over here.

 

Yeah pretty much.

 

Or just use a bike?


Mine's a 'Rhino' Dual Suspension bike
Yeah, big pimpin' baby!

 

I have to say, in comparison to the '90s Accord that we see in Canada, yours is exceptionally well-kept. Looks great!

Fuel economy (and fuel cost) doesn't mean much, if anything, if you don't drive longer distances than a few km to/from school or work. If somebody is driving a 7L/100km Civic 120km a weekday, while I am driving a 12L/100km (20mpg U.S.) sedan less than 30km a weekday, who's using more fuel? Sure, the debate of economy is still up in the air, but the Civic is still refueling--and paying for it--two or three times as much as I am. Although you can achieve 50mpg+ in, well, whatever you drive, the majority of the time, you'll just never get economy that high for more than a few hours because, firstly, the commute of most people is prolonged by probably 200% by traffic and, secondly, if you have family, your car isn't always with one driver with no cargo or passengers going from back and forth between only two places. Of course, I can probably buy a beater 15-year-old Honda compact sedan now and save some money by achieving fuel economy as ridiculous as yours. But, let's consider a few realities: that I don't drive very long distances; it's outright too small for the family; and the money spent on such a car would pay off, in ways of barely cheaper insurance and better economy, in a time of over 2 years and of an amount less than $1,500 whence. So would I really be saving money? But is it really about saving money? What about environmentalism? Even on that front, my LS 400 is still polluting less than the vast majority of the most efficient gasoline Civic available--again, it's a function of distance traveled and not what you drive. It's like an analogy Jim Kenzie once said: someone drives a Hummer 10,000km a year, while somebody else drives a Civic 100,000km a year... who's spewing more pollution into the atmosphere?

 

you need to fix that part

 

12L/100km is 20mpg, not 12mpg.

 

My maths is shot today. I even still have MS Calculator open from yesterday with the calculation and continued to type it wrong.

 

It's official. Today was delivery day for the new MINI! Just a couple of teaser shots and will follow with some nicer daylight ones as I can.





Some mods for the car are already in the planning. Likely a black honeycomb John Cooper Works grill and some custom graphics. As money allows, a rear sway bar (Alta 19mm), different wheels and who knows what else. It is so fun to drive!

 

very very cool car you have buddy, I love that COVER, It's cool. I think it's cool without any mods so It will look hot after mods Good job

 

Very nice - I can see why you want a honeycomb grill though, there's so much chrome! We don't get that much over here.

Are you planning on getting the ECU remapped to the Cooper level? It's a simple upgrade since they're the same engine.

 

Maybe eventually, although I don't think there's one for the regular Cooper out yet there, at least not for the R56 model. As far as the grill, I'm not big on lots of chrome. Since I opted for the black roof and mirrors, I think the JCW grill looks more like it "means business" if you know what I mean. Plus it is more free flowing for the engine. Here's a photo of it:



@ComputerKing - Thanks!