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Are diesels dead?
 

[Closed] Are diesels dead?

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IME, once you get into the provinces this is what happens here too.

Hurray, I live in the provinces.

I have a diesel. It has a manual gearbox. It's not dead and I don't expect it to be in the next 10 years.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 10:37 am
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In the main, Cars are owned and maintained for 10 years regardless of fuel, mileage, condition, make or model.

IME, once you get into the provinces this is what happens here too.  looking out my window over the car park here I’d say the majority of cars are 5-10 yrs old

This is surely the complete opposite. Implying your work colleagues/neighbours are within a socioeconmic group that buys 5 year old cars and keeps them for 5 years. (which is exactly what i do). Kryton's Spanish friends would see an average distribution over new to 10 years old.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 10:47 am
 Drac
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And you haven’t topped up the leccy in that time?

What are the figures on the right?

Errr! Of course have that’s the point of hybrid what a silly question.

Current range for each fuel.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 10:58 am
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Of course have that’s the point of hybrid what a silly question

Given the car is capable of running both with and without being topped up in any given scenario, it's not a silly question at all. 76 miles per gallon of petrol isn't a useful stat when it's not the only fuel being used.  I'm assuming then from those numbers that to travel 573 miles you've used 34.0l of petrol and 59.7kWh, is that right?


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 11:03 am
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At 2.3kg CO2 per litre of petrol and about 300g/kWh of leccy (current UK generation mix) that means Drac's trip produced about 96kg of CO2 directly from the car.  If it were petrol alone that would be equivalent to about 61mpg in CO2 terms.  Which is interesting, similar to what I might get from my non plug-in hybrid on long trips, but I suspect I'd get a bit less perhaps depending on roads and load.  If the car were diesel, that would be equivalent to doing about 72mpg.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 11:16 am
 Drac
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Molgrips it’s a hybrid of course it uses more than one fuel to get the results.

Not sure it shows total Kwh used but I’ll have a look on car net. It costs me £1 to charge from flat at home, free at wife’s work and pretty much everywhere else I charge v


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 11:17 am
 Drac
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Ah that’s where you’re going. My electric comes from a supplier using 100% renewable.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 11:28 am
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Ok as an update and to give a rough idea I had to refuel yesterday, first time since leaving Fort William 10 days previously. Here’s the results for that tank full.

When you say 'tank full' - how much fuel did it take? Did you brim it?

573 miles at 76.6mpg implies a 34 litre tank assuming it was running on fumes when you got to the petrol station.

The in car computer numbers can be quite a way off - my diesel Ibiza regularly tells me it is averaging >60mpg from the tank, but it's a 10 gallon tank & is always empty around 520-540 miles.....so it's not doing >60mpg.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 11:38 am
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Molgrips it’s a hybrid of course it uses more than one fuel to get the results

Only if you put more than one fuel in it...  Which you don't have to do, hence the question.

Just tried to check my calcs with a spreadsheet and got 48mpg equiv based on CO2, so I have no idea.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 11:51 am
 Drac
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573 miles at 76.6mpg implies a 34 litre tank assuming it was running on fumes when you got to the petrol station.

Yes it was full.

The in car computer numbers can be quite a way off – my diesel Ibiza regularly tells me it is averaging >60mpg from the tank, but it’s a 10 gallon tank & is always empty around 520-540 miles…..so it’s not doing >60mpg.

Can be these aren't though.

Only if you put more than one fuel in it…  Which you don’t have to do, hence the question.

Yeah hence why it's a silly question as no idea why you would think I hadn't used both.

To amuse you. Outward journey yesterday using both was 257mpg return using petrol was 54.3mpg.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 12:17 pm
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Yes it was full.

But how much did it take to fill it?

i.e. if the car is telling you it did 76.6 mpg and 573 miles, but then took 38 litres, it didn't actually do 76.6mpg.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 12:47 pm
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My electric comes from a supplier using 100% renewable.

Of course it does. Along a special ringfenced cable.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 1:15 pm
 Drac
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But how much did it take to fill it?

i.e. if the car is telling you it did 76.6 mpg and 573 miles, but then took 38 litres, it didn’t actually do 76.6mpg.

It 10 days ago I've no idea down to the last few 100mls. 🙄

Of course it does. Along a special ringfenced cable.

That took longer than I thought.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 1:19 pm
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no idea why you would think I hadn’t used both

You may not have had the opportunity.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 1:23 pm
 Drac
Posts: 50629
 

You may not have had the opportunity.

In 10 days. 😂🤷🏻‍♂️


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 1:24 pm
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Cool stats Drac.

I love this kinda thing.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 2:06 pm
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It 10 days ago I’ve no idea down to the last few 100mls.

Fair enough. Given that you seem quite interested/knowledgeable about how efficient your car is, I didn't think it was unreasonable that you might have known how much fuel you stuck in it.

Not trying to be a fastidious pain in the arse or anything, but if you don't know how much fuel you are sticking in, how do you know

Can be these aren’t though.

Genuine question....The easiest way to check is to brim the tank & compare how much the car says you done - X miles at Y mpg gives me Z litres of fuel, but I've just stuck in Z+5 so the computer can't be correct.

In your photo above, the distance driven & mpg gives you a fill-up quantity of 34 litres. But, if you had actually filled up with 38 litres (for example) then the mpg wouldn't be 76.6mpg; it would be a real figure of 68.5mpg, which is still bloody impressive but over 8mpg less than the computer is telling you your getting.

It's kind of irrelevant anyhow as you don't know how much fuel you have put in & know that the computer is bang-on correct.
I only bought it up because quite often when I hear people talk about how many mpg's their car does, they are only referring to the number that the car tells them & when they actually do the calculation themselves it turns out to be quite a bit less.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 2:07 pm
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New technology makes diesels clean.


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 2:49 pm
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I’d originally planned on looking at a new-ish car next May, just before the MOT on my Octavia, by which time it would be 17yo. Unfortunately that situation has changed because my car has been written off. Another driver, turning right on a roundabout in front of me changed her mind, swerved left and tried to barge in front of me at the exit, smashing my front wing and part of the door. It’s not economic to repair, so I have to find a new car soon, before I have to hand back the loan car. Which is a diesel Insignia, and I’m loving it. I was in two minds about staying with diesel, because of the limited mileage I was doing. However, my mileage has likely tripled, and fuel economy is now more important than it was, so it’s almost certain I’ll be sticking with it. Possibly a slightly smaller capacity in a smaller car, but I don’t think petrol will give me the economy I require, unless I drive like a molgrips... 😉

I had the Octavia for around thirteen years, the next one will be kept for at least as long, all things being equal. By which time I’ll be in my late 70’s!


 
Posted : 05/09/2018 8:47 pm
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