Can you still do things?

[JPG]

a little less than 7% a year if my math is correct ----about 2x rate of inflation

If ya think it is bad here, Do not go near Europe.

[pennview]

They do have pricey gasoline in the UK, but you can get a small Ford there that get 85.6 MPG on the highway there and that would be the equivalent of 71.3 MPG highway to the U.S. gallon. Seems that our government prevents these cars from being sold here in the U.S.

[STB]

They do have pricey gasoline in the UK, but you can get a small Ford there that get 85.6 MPG on the highway there and that would be the equivalent of 71.3 MPG highway to the U.S. gallon. Seems that our government prevents these cars from being sold here in the U.S.

Interesting]17405[/ATTACH]

[pennview]

Well, below are the web pages from Ford and VW in the UK that show the Miles Per Gallon that there cars achieve. And, there is nothing "urban legend" about these numbers.

They are in fact diesel engines on the Imperial gallon which is 1.2 times larger than the U.S. gallon. Nevertheless, these are impressive statistics -- 85.6 MPG on an Imperial gallon (71.3 MPG on a U.S. gallon) with a Ford Fiesta, or getting 83.1 MPG Imperial (69.25 MPG on a U.S. gallon) on a VW Golf.

You can see for yourself these numbers if you go to this page -- http://www.ford.co.uk/Cars/Fiesta/Perfo ... efficiency -- and then click on "Performance and efficiency" (along the left side of the page), you'll see the MPG numbers for a Ford Fiesta. You can buy a Fiesta at your local Ford dealer, but not one that gets this kind of MPG. By the way, this Fiesta has a top speed of 111 miles per hour.

If you go to this page -- http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/#/new/golf- ... nsumption/ -- you'll see the MPG number for the Volkswagen that gets 83.1 MPG Imperial.

I was at the dealership this morning getting my pick-up inspected and having the oil changed. The Ford Fiestas on the lot got 38-40 MPG depending on which model you were looking at. And there's no "urban legend" about those numbers either. (While there, I also noticed that you can pay $53,000 for an F150 Harley edition.)

So, if it isn't the government that is preventing us from buying a Fiesta that gets 71.3 MPG here in the U.S., who is it?

By the way, here is the url for the guy who vacationed in the UK and rented a VW there, and came home to the U.S. and wondered why he couldn't get a car like that here -- http://video.staged.com/localshops/vw_p ... _in_the_uk

You can draw you own conclusions about the veracity of his comments. But in my view, he got it right.

[greitz]

From Wikipedia:

"EU fuel consumption numbers tend to be considerably lower than corresponding US EPA test results for the same vehicle. For example, the 2011 Honda CR-Z with a six-speed manual transmission is rated 6.1/4.4 l/100 km in Europe and 7.6/6.4 l/100 km in the United States."

(That's liters of fuel per 100 km, which would be inversely proportional to mpg. The first number is the "city" fuel consumption, the second is the "highway" fuel consumption.)

As stumpbuster said, comparing the UK numbers to the EPA numbers seems to be comparing apples to oranges, since the UK testing protocol is considerably different from the US test.

Just curious- is there any reason someone could not travel to the UK, buy a car there, and ship it to the US and drive it here? Assuming that it passes US emissions tests?

Gary

[swampgator]

Had a 1985 Peugot turbodiesel 4 cylinder of about 90 hp. You could cruise all day near top speed of 80 mph and get 32 - 33 mpg. Comfortable, roomy, heavy and no parts. After putting on 140K miles, some guy wanted it so much I let him have for taking it off my hands. My wife would love to have the car back. I asked why when you can't get parts for it. She just liked the car. I guess I could have put it on blocks in the front yard.

[pennview]

I hate to be in disagreement with such a reliable source as Wikipedia because we all know how that information gets posted there (don't we?), but in any event one really can do their own research given this marvelous tool called Google.

Since Ford sells Fiestas here and in the UK, one can look up mileage estimates in both countries by looking at a few sites. If you go back to the Ford UK site I mentioned in my earlier post, you'll see that the Fiesta with the 1.6 Liter Ti-VCT Duratec I-4 gasoline engine gets 47.9 or 48.7 MPG on an Imperial gallon of gasoline. Here in the U.S. the Fiesta with the same engine gets 40 MPG on a U.S. gallon of gasoline with a 6 speed automatic. Go here -- http://www.ford.com/cars/fiesta/ -- and click on 1.6L Duratec engine.

So, putting all the apples to oranges, protocols, and inversely proportional ratios aside, my math indicates that 48 divided by 1.2 equals 40. If you get 48 MPG in the UK on their gallon, you'll get 40 MPG in the U.S., and that's what the two Ford sites say. So perhaps rethinking of Wikipedia as a valid source is in order.

[Ed in Tampa]

Another thing is some of these mileage numbers are talking Diesel and others are gas engines.

None mention the common method used in Europe to control emissions on a diesel, is to inject UREA into the exhaust. Incidentally yes you do have to refill the UREA tank from time to time and while I don't the exact cost I will say it is a lot higher than a gallon of gas/diesel.

In the 70's and 80's car manufactures did a half a$$ attempt to bring the American public diesel engines. Most were a total disaster and the public learned to put diesels on the don't go there list.

There has been significant improvement with diesels lately but the car buying public is not real receptive to them.

VW builds the Jetta TDI which is a very nice car. In fact VW's Jetta TDI is used in a closed racing circuit for amateurs that have shown promise in other racing venues. The cars are identical and are maintained by VW mechanics to insure no one cheats. I think there are 6 - 8 races in the series. The guy in charge of fuel made a point of saying he had to do it two times for each car, BUT FOR THE WHOLE RACING SERIES. In other words they are racing 6-8 races on 2 tanks of fuel.

Compared to NASCAR which has multible refueling stops per race.

That point aside until the public changes it's thinking on diesels manufactures are going to be real reluctant to bring them to market. It is almost a catch 22 diesels don't sell because people don't buy them but people don't buy them because manufactures don't offer them because people don't buy them (was that right???)

Right now the buying public are jumping all over hybreds. I tried to look at the new Prius V (which is very very very nice) and it was hard. They are selling as fast as they come off the truck. Customers are having bidding wars.
I did manage to drive one and it is sweet. If it had a power height adjustment on the drivers seat I would be driving one. My wife needs the height adj and can not use the pump that is now used instead of a electric power height adj.

I wanted to look at the Jetta TDI but my wife nixed that with "they stink" talking of her experience with diesels. I told her that has changed and she assured me she was never going to fuel her car using the same pump a trucker that washes his hands in diesel used to fuel his truck. It was either fuel her car for her every time she needed fuel or buy something else.

I bought something else.

[Gene Howe]

My son supervises a facility that services several dozen tank trucks. They all have the urea injectors. In fact, all the new trucks (2010 and later) already have the injectors installed. He pays $8.00 per gallon and his trucks use a gallon every 80-100 miles. He says a typical truck will use between 8 and 10 gallon per shift.
I'm sure that sooner or later, the same will be required for diesel powered passenger vehicles, city buses and school buses.
That will negate any mileage $$ savings we see with diesels, now.

[sawmill]

Last fall I went to Germany and gas was around 8.00 a gallon. We picked up the car at the airport and had a mid size car. There mid size car will seat 4 people but is the size of our smaller cars over here. We were given a new Opal car with a 5 speed manual transmission and it had 8 KM on it. In the time spent over there we put over 2300 miles on it using my GPS to change from km to miles. We never got below 45 miles to the gallon and on the Autoban it got over 50 miles to the gallon. The transmissons are differnt over there. Going at highway speeds in 5 gear when you stepped on it to pass it took off right now. Another thing I think helps with the millage is there roads are built better than some of the new ones we have over here. Not once did we go down a rough road so there was no stop and go for rough roads. Most all of the cars and trucks over there are desel. I saw a VW bug that was desel. My friends over there said they will never buy a gas engine again as the desel gets much better mileage than gas