molgrips – Member

Passat 2.0 TDI auto gives 55-60 on a motorway run solo, 28-32 towing.

Does nobody care about the environment? Not even a tinsy bit?

You could get a tent 😉

I use my focus 1.6 tdci estate.. never had a problem even on steep hills. Hammers the fuel economy mind but even towing it does more than my old Terrano 4×4 did 24/7.

Couple of old pics here – before we changed cars. Annoyingly, haven’t got a pic of the new outfit yet!

Invercoe campsite, looking up towards Glencoe – March 2011, last day or two of a two week trip round all five scottish ski centres. moving too much to contemplate using an awning (and we saw more than one collapse under the weight of new snow in Avemore!)

Presthope, near the Long Mynd, on a bikey / birding trip

Sat in mine at Glenmore near Aviemore. Lovely day out there – may have a pootle around the loch 8)

Does nobody care about the environment? Not even a tinsy bit?

I doubt the few hundred miles a year I do towing my van has much environmental impact in relation to the other 40,000 I do not towing my van.

Right, the environment and my car.

My car is a 4×4, it weighs 3.08 metric tons. It does about 6 – 6.5 miles to a litre. It doesn’t seem to matter whether I tow or not, the only thing that makes the fuel consumption drop is going very fast.

Before anyone gets excited… I live in my caravan, it takes up less space than a house, uses less resources to heat/cool it, build it, repair it, clean it, plus it was second hand. I travel to work by bicycle, sometimes on foot/train. I buy local food, locally, where possible and I don’t eat meat, I recycle, I wear a jumper when it’s cold (rather than banging the heating up full blast), I have flown on an aeroplane once since 1990, and in fact in my whole life (57 years old this month) eight times. I don’t buy sugarsnap peas airlifted from Lagos in January, or strawberries flown in from wherever in December. I buy second hand if feasible, I do not throw things away because they are unfashionable, I either use them until they die then recycle or give them to charity.

The government of this country, wishing to increase their tax revenue, has exaggerated the impact of car emissions on the environment. Cars are not solely, or even mostly, responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer.

RANT OVER 🙂

Karin, I do most of those things PLUS I drive a more economical car. They aren’t exclusive!

Top #1 fail in environmental justification. The environment doesn’t care what else you. Or whether or not you can justify it. Cut everywhere you can. Every kg of CO2 is the same, makes no difference if it’s the only one you emit that day.

RANT OVER!

(Please not, this is an objective post not a personal one, I am not claiming to be greener than anyone else, I’m about middling at best.)