What’s wrong with 0-60 in 11.4s? Not going to win a prize, but it’s fast enough.

Trail_rat

That’s true

Hora

wombat? How can you compare? Cars of all classes have grown insize and more importantly weight.

Perhaps I didn’t phrase it very well, I guess power to weight ratio is a better comparator

However, I think it’s a lot to do with expectation, nowadays we expect things like aircon or leccy windows that will add to the weight of the vehicle. We also seem to expect that our next car will be faster/more economical/quieter/comfortabler/prettier* than our current or last car but all these come at a price.

*delete as necessary

Whats wrong with it? I didn’t know it was still possible to do 0-60 in double figures.

What’s wrong with 0-60 in 11.4s? Not going to win a prize, but it’s fast enough.

The problem I find is that you have to spend a lot of time with the boot to the floor and then economy suffers. My wife’s Jazz is way better on fuel round town than my Merc (it does about twice as many miles to that gallon) but it needs booted when on the open road and the margin is much smaller. In fact I’ve found that at “normal” (for me!) motorway speeds there is surprisingly little in it.

Lols Skywalker you are correct of course, i mean how could anyone drive a car with 89bhp/t. It must struggle to get up to 40mph and no way could it drive along a road with more than 1 person in it.

PMSL

It has 89bhp per ton and does 0-60 in double figures (11.4sec), what a ridiculous statement. Clearly you have no ****** idea.

If you’re unable to drive safely with a car of that performance, you must be a very poor driver.

It has 89bhp per ton and does 0-60 in double figures (11.4sec), what a ridiculous statement. Clearly you have no ****** idea.

No idea about what?

I’ve just taken delivery of a year old BMW 320D M Sport, 185bhp so shifts but darting around the motorways of Northern England at 80ish it’s pulling 53mpg, I find that far more impressive than the current flock of super wheezy windscreen tax avoidance cars.

If it was a quick car, with economy and didn’t have to drive it like a driving examiner then i’m all ears, til then I’ll happily pay £30 road tax

The problem I find is that you have to spend a lot of time with the boot to the floor and then economy suffers.

Exactly. You have to rag the tits off it to get it moving which kills the mpg, and over time the engine.

A smaller engine is not necessarily more economical for this reason.

my mrs golf is like that – to and round town on 30/40mph roads regularly gives us 40mpg(which is why we bought it )

soon as i go near the dualer in it and take it to 70 it hemmorages fuel like a madun and has done as little as 25mpg.

my van gets 40mpg wether the foots flat on the floor or im pootling round town

we have moved house and no longer need a town car as everything we need is within cycle distance and if thinks work out as they currently are we will be returning to being a 1 car household – and it certainly wont be a 1litre wheeze bag as if i need to use a car itll be carrying loads

i like the engineering principles behind this engine – i like the idea but i cant help but think ford are shooting them selves in the foot putting it in a focus – needs to go in a fiesta and it would be a stonker !

Am I missing some thing here? Why would I buy a Focus with a 1.0 engine in it, when I can buy a Mondeo with more power etc that does better mpg?

“soon as i go near the dualer in it and take it to 70 it hemmorages fuel like a madun and has done as little as 25mpg.”

Got to be some thing wrong with that, a car should be more efficient on a motorway then around town.

In my Mondeo I get about 53 mpg at 80 on the motorway. This drops to about 47 mpg around town, but if I dont drive carefully around town it can drop to about 45 mpg.

Mrs FD is just looking at new cars and we don’t get these Eco models. They cost more, but are in reality not much greener and dont save you any cash!

“Why would I buy a Focus with a 1.0 engine in it, when I can buy a Mondeo with more power etc that does better mpg? “

probably pay 0 company car tax on it and low windscreen tax

PMSL people these days have no flecking idea, 125bhp it twice what the car needs to drive at perfectly repectabe speeds.

I drove an Aygo to South Germany and back. It all depends on how you drive a car however the Aygo literally weights half of most cars.

I still ring the knackers off of my C1 though. Partly because it sounds AWESOME and partly because you have to.

Lols Skywalker you are correct of course, i mean how could anyone drive a car with 89bhp/t. It must struggle to get up to 40mph and no way could it drive along a road with more than 1 person in it.

PMSL

Have you ever driven a car with more power than the equivalent of a hamster turning a wheel? Maybe you should try it one day and report back, it won’t take you many miles to realise what I’m on about.

Saying that I’ve also driven a few quite nippy cars. You don’t have to strain yourself in the slightest.

When I can afford a decent car again it’ll start with an S as a manufacturer 8)

Got to be some thing wrong with that, a car should be more efficient on a motorway then around town.

To a point. My wife’s Jazz is good on fuel at 70mph (and a bit better than it is around town) but drops a fair bit when driven at more normal motorway speeds e.g. it’ll do 40-45mg round town but can drop to the mid 30’s on the motorway. My 2.5 Merc does very low 20’s round town but gives about the same fuel consumption as the Jazz at normal motorway speeds.

it is alot less stressful to drive a car with some power – that doesnt mean you have to use it all the time but driving my parents 3.5 V6 diesel is a pleasurable experiance. minimal distance on the other side of the road when over taking, dont have to hope the car coming up to the junction im pulling out of isnt infact doing 80 instead of 60 ……

Have you ever driven a car with more power than the equivalent of a hamster turning a wheel? Maybe you should try it one day and report back, it won’t take you many miles to realise what I’m on about.

I have, thanks. I don’t know what you’re on about.

“Got to be some thing wrong with that, a car should be more efficient on a motorway then around town.”

Not when its doing a million RPM constantly to keep it at 70.

t is alot less stressful to drive a car with some power – that doesnt mean you have to use it all the time but driving my parents 3.5 V6 diesel is a pleasurable experiance. minimal distance on the other side of the road when over taking, dont have to hope the car coming up to the junction im pulling out of isnt infact doing 80 instead of 60 ……

The other weekend I went to overtake a transit in a NSL and as I pulled alongside he decided to floor it to stop me pulling back in.

I had a choice – slam on and swing back in (couldn’t though as a car had closed up behind the Transit), have a head on or play with the Transit. I chose the later but when you have any sort of power in a car you don’t have to worry about a cock in a van.

When I can afford a decent car again it’ll start with an S as a manufacturer

Seat, Ssanyong and Suzuki have come a long way in the last few years, but even so, I’m not sure I’d aspire to any of them…….Saab are dead so you can’t mean them, Smart have mouldered, and Subaru have gone backwards with their range.

So it’s down to Skoda.

Wow. Worthy, I agree, but there are so many other cars that I’d go for ahead of them.

Have you ever driven a car with more power than the equivalent of a hamster turning a wheel? Maybe you should try it one day and report back, it won’t take you many miles to realise what I’m on about.

Yep I have, still don’t know what your talking about. In fact unless you completely burried the accelerator into the carpet it was absolutely no diferent as the ECU was presumably programed by someone sensible who knew you didn’t actualy want 200bhp and half throttle so untill you floored it, it felt just the same.

It was fun for a few seconds watching the world go a bit blurry when you did floor it though, but it’s didn’t make the car any more practical.

Bessides, I’ve got a midget (which if 100bhp is a hamster, the midget has a geriatric field mouse) for having fun in 🙂

Yep I have, still don’t know what your talking about. In fact unless you completely burried the accelerator into the carpet it was absolutely no diferent as the ECU was presumably programed by someone sensible who knew you didn’t actualy want 200bhp and half throttle so untill you floored it, it felt just the same.

So a 125bhp car at half throttle will be as quick as a 200bhp car at half throttle?

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuullshit.

No wonder you don’t know what I’m on about, you don’t even know what you are on about!

so you agree then tinas —- sitting with an engine at 2000 RPM at 60/70mph is much nicer than sitting at 5000rpm from a comfort point of view in terms of both noise and fuel economy.

used to be that to get this you had to have a huge engines and thus heavy as hell cars

with advances in turbos and the like you can have the mid weight , high power and high mpg IF you can show some restraint with your go foot- how ever you are taxed quite hard on these as at max RPM they tend to have hefty emission outputs compared to the hamsters farting

so you agree then tinas —- sitting with an engine at 2000 RPM at 60/70mph is much nicer than sitting at 5000rpm from a comfort point of view in terms of both noise and fuel economy.

No, because my focus sits at 3000rpm quite happily on the motorway, apparenly despite it’s woefully indaequate 100bhp and double figure 0-60.

The problem I find is that you have to spend a lot of time with the boot to the floor and then economy suffers

You don’t have to spend a lot of time, just some. That is, unless you are insisting on 90mph.

As above there are some cars that are aimed at city driving and have low gears, but not all the eco ones are. VW Bluemotion cars actually have higher gears than the normal ones, for instance.

Or rather, they used to. All normal diesel VWs are bluemotion now. The only ones that aren’t labelled as such are the hotter ones.

The Clio I hired was underpowered even for me, and under-geared, but even that was 3,200 rpm at 110kph.

you’ll never ever get a car that’s all things to all men. These newer eco boost and TFSI engines are a complete gimmick. If I HAD to have a golf the 1.4 or even 1.2 TFSI would be great if I only pootled about town, as they are small engined and are built for economy and the cost conscious brain dead consumer who is now being drilled relentlessly by the media that the tax on the windscreen dictates the economy.

If I wanted the same Golf for doing long journeys, say as a rep then the 2.0Tdi would be a far far better choice. My mate has a far heavier 2.0Tdi Passatt estate and is posting up pictures every day of getting 71mpg in total comfort without the noise of a hairdryer blowing away under the bonnet.

I had a A3 Tfsi for a weekend and couldn’t wait to get rid of it, whining and wheezy POS

Yeah come on what nice car begins with an ‘S’ ?

Geordiemick – petrol for short journeys, diesel for long motorway ones. Seems fair no?

The TFSI are economical under powered petrol cars with a boost function activated by depressing the accelerator more 🙂

Yeah come on what nice car begins with an ‘S’ ?

SAudi?? 😆

i have a 1.4 turbo bravo with 150bhp and when i first got it i drove it like my old almera 1.5 16 valve twin cam. I got no where near the stated mpg until i changed the way i drove it. The almera didnt move until you really revved it but with the bravo because of the slight turbo lag its best if you press the accellerator down a little a fraction of a second before you press down further. Driving this way you use the torque of the engine to gain speed not revs just like a diesel.
I have had the mpg over 20% higher than the stated mpg by not letting the engine rev any higher 3000rpm.

tinas – dont you have a 1.6 TDCI ?

the 1.4 focus is at least 4000 RPM at 70 on a flat road IME of the near new hire one i had

the 1.6 is a much nicer car to drive.

Talking of power/performance, i’ve just got a 105hp passat estate tdi and you’d think it couldn’t pull the skin off rice pudding. It is actually pretty ok and seems quicker than my previous 125hp petrol mondeo. However, unlike in the 2.0 tdi, you have to change down a gear or two if you drop to 50mph.

Molgrips – there are the full fat Bluemotion stand alone model and the normal models but with added BlueMotion Technology. I drove the BlueMotion Golf recently and even with a tight engine it was giving an impressive indicated 64mpg

scamper – thats torque your benifiting from there 😉

My camper has about 40bhp/tonne, I’m amazed my entire family hasn’t died.

My camper has about 40bhp/tonne, I’m amazed my entire family hasn’t died

Does it even move? I imagine it breaks down all the time.

Talking of power/performance, i’ve just got a 105hp passat estate tdi

I had a 105 (or 110?) 1.9 Seat Altea TDI. It was awesome for overtaking- you just rode the torque.

tinas – dont you have a 1.6 TDCI ?

1.6 petrol (100ps)

the 1.4 focus is at least 4000 RPM at 70 on a flat road IME of the near new hire one i had

It’ll be the same on a hill too unless the clutch is shagged! 😛

i think in a few years when the new F1 engine tech moves down to regular cars its going to be amazing. v6 1.3 with 600bhp woop woop…
i do wish that cars manufacturers would try to lighten their cars a bit more. i feel there should be a bigger version of the aygo. cut most of the dash away, slim down the seats, use more composites, smaller engines with big turbos, remove carpets minimize the amount of windows (as glass is pretty heavy) and maybe get rid of electric everything as motors are pretty heavy too. maybe a golf at under a ton?

One of these begining with S?

Running out of ideas now…

My camper has about 40bhp/tonne, I’m amazed my entire family hasn’t died.

My old motorhome had 90bhp (2.0TDi Fiat based) and at 3500kg was very slow. My new one has 145bhp (2.4TDi Ford based) and at 3800kg is much nicer to drive than the old one and feels a lot safer when overtaking etc.