if you dont use petrol ,obviously its not an issue for you,without a poll ithink most people it is an issue.on my own cant do a lot ,what about all transport stay at home one day ,say july 13 would be harmless protest.

The only problem with that mflyyn, and I'm not suggesting that you or your dad are in this category, is that a lot of drivers are taking this mantra far too seriously.

Hence the driving habit, spreading like a cancer in my experience, of drivers not stopping at junctions, pulling out in front of drivers who are already up to speed and not making any effort whatsoever to compensate for this bad driving by getting to speed in a timely fashion, thereby forcing the car behind to brake, (a) hitting their fuel consumption and (b) potentially causing an accident, meaning two new cars need to be built to replace the smashed ones.

Completely defeating the object, and exposing such drivers for the selfish cretins they really are.

If there was a way of legally killing these drivers I would happily engage.

If you work it out in gallons, a gallon of petrol now works out around £ 5.40. For you tenner you will be receiving less than 2 gallons. This probably explains why a lot of people think their car is less economical than it was due to rising fuel costs over the last 3 years and the fact some people think £ 10 still goes the same way it did in the nineties when petrol was less than half the price it is now.

I do mainly short distance mileage in a 1.6 Focus and I get around 35mpg even in those conditions. On a long run I can easily approach 50.

If I was prepared to go to a smaller car I could easily find something which will do 50+mpg around town. That's the kind of car/engine which wasn't available 30 or 40 years ago - unless you were prepared to tolerate something like a Reliant Regal

The biggest factor influencing fuel consumption is the variation in fuel consumption between drivers which can vary by up to 30%.

The main factors involved are driving techniques, optimising gear selection, and planning ahead & anticipating varying traffic conditions.

Our (petrol) Jazz just returned 52 MPG on a 120 mile trip.

It does about 45MPG round town.

Since diesels cost more to buy, and the fuel costs more, it seems hard to justify one unless:

1. You want to tow stuff - the torque is very useful

2. You do very high mileages

On the subject of the increasing efficiency of modern card it was interesting to read in the Autocar a month or so ago a comparison between the original 3.5litre V8 Range Rover and the modern TDV8 car.

The modern Range Rover had something like three times the power, weighed a good tonne more, could do 30mph more than the original, was many seconds quicker to sixty and yet returned half the fuel consumption.

(Don't recall the exact stats but they were close to the order of difference)

Edited by stackman on 03/08/2010 at 13:45

Energy should be free be it petrol diesel electricity gas etc.Wy should a minority charge the majority for energy which we need.I wonder how many inventions have been surpressed for not using oil.I know we can argue that people have to be paid who work in the energy industrie which is right we al need money to live or we end up in a cardboard box.There must be a better way to use energy or a different way there be somebody out there who knows the one with the little grey cells.Just a thought.