Forum menu
I checked the certificate thing and we did about 3,000 miles in between the two MOTs.
Pfft, <800 miles here.
11,400 miles since November in my EV.
I checked the certificate thing and we did about 3,000 miles in between the two MOTs.
I did about the same in 2020. MOT runs January - January so I got a month or so of use before full lockdown in March 2020 then almost nothing until it eased slightly.
Reporting on panic buying only helps create more panic buying, explains why Shell was rammed this morning though. I did give the car a £30 splash and dash but only cos the missus runs it on fumes all the bloody time!
Unfortunately I'm not WFH and I kind of need to use the car this weekend (and probably on Monday), Trip computer says ~80 miles left, planned use just about matches that, I'd normally be putting half a tank in on the way home to cover the coming week...
Should I run it down to zero by Sunday or go an d sit in a pointless queue to lob £30 in the tank just to be "safe"?
I'd love a leccy car...
ordered a e-nero last week….arrives next Friday \o/
Chrispy finally lands on the right side of a government made crisis.
I woke up this am to find mine had been fully fuelled overnight
Have an electric car now. Was smug when it snowed and I had winter tyres fitted but this is new level of smugness.
Keep us updated on how brilliant it is when you renew your tarrifs or supplier goes bust, yeah?
Down to fumes in the car this morning, all three petrol stations in town all had massive queues at them, people are mornons. I couldn’t wait as I had to go to work.
Not quite that low but I'm not totally sure I have enough to get home. On the way in one petrol station had a massive queue, the other had sold out. Bit annoying as we only fill up about once a month, it just happens to be due this weekend.
Keep us updated on how brilliant it is when you renew your tarrifs or supplier goes bust, yeah?
Will do as I will still get electricity so I can post.
Keep us updated on how brilliant it is when you renew your tarrifs or supplier goes bust, yeah?
They’ll just pay a bit more. Not us much as those of us still buying petrol and diesel will be though.
Shirley, whilst everyone is queuing for fuel, it is the best time to go and buy all the bog rolls 🧐
Keep us updated on how brilliant it is when you renew your tarrifs or supplier goes bust, yeah?
You do realise that the electricity stays connected when a supplier goes bust, don't you? It's not like someone comes out with a pair of wire cutters.
It’s not like someone comes out with a pair of wire cutters.
Well that would be just silly wouldn't it? Unless there's an RCD fitted then it won't be a problem. I wouldn't recommend the same approach with the gas supply though.
As someone without a car now who rides everywhere on my bike, I can report a degree of schadenfreude on this matter. 😀
In a modern diesel doesn’t the fuel lubricate the pump? I think I’d be filling up a bit sooner.
The modern common rail diesels do run at very high pressures so yes, you don't want to have that pump unlubricated even if for a moment by running out of fuel.
To what extend different models of car offer any protection (in case of running dry) I'm not sure, however.
There's a low pressure pump to suck fuel out of the tank and a high pressure one to make the super high pressure. It might end up cutting out when it detects low pressure in the supply, but as soon as there's any air in the high pressure system it'll probably stop anyway. I wouldn't imagine it runs completely dry.
You're probably right @molgrips but it's not something I would advise testing. I imagine it would be very expensive to offer absolute protection, for example. This isn't aviation.
Surely won't this just play out in the same way as the 'great toilet roll crisis of 2020' and the 'COVID fuelled Past shortage' of the same epoch? That is a load of selfish nutters strip the pumps dry for a day or 2, then consumption of said product drops as no-ones going anywhere, stocks are re-plenished and everythign goes back to normal?
Drove past the gas guzzlers, in our EV, queueing at the petrol station- hard not to be just a little bit smug really 😜
Well a quick drive out over lunch to run a few errands I drove past a few petrol stations around me and I can report that reports of mass queuing and panic buying are much exaggerated. Hopefully things wont escalate, but for now at least things seem to be ticking over fairly normally. Certainly across all the main radio stations they were appealing for calm and for people not to panic buy which probably wont influence anything.
Thankfully I the wife has half a tank in her super efficient SUV (yes such things do exist) so that will do us for a good week and a half, and I have a full tank in my no so efficient small, but sporty mid-life crisis car. I'm sure we'll ride out the storm just like we did the bog roll debacle.
If I must I'll bob out at midnight or something to fill up when needed. I'm sure alot of the silly panic buyers will be tucked up in bed at that time.
There is nothing super-efficient about vehicles the size and weight of SUVs.
Drove past gas guzzlers - shouldn't you be cycling past them. No smugness points having an EV - you only get them if you are on your bike.
Off to Wales next week, but not planning on riding the MTB 150 miles round trip, we did that on road bikes last weekend.
If I must I’ll bob out at midnight or something to fill up when needed. I’m sure alot of the silly panic buyers will be tucked up in bed at that time
They'll probably all be drink driving back from the pub
It seems that press coverage has made a non-story a real thing. My fuel light came on this morning so I ended up queuing for 5-10 mins to get to a pump today. I filled up (as I usually would) and it'll last me 2 weeks or so, it'll either have blown over by then, or a fancy I'll be back to WFH.
Mrs is more worried, she's a community nurse and they don't give them bicycles with baskets anymore.
There is nothing super-efficient about vehicles the size and weight of SUVs.
I dunno, I can comfortably get 50+ mpg on a run and around 35mpg around town out of mine despite it being 250bhp so whilst it's not exactly a Nissan Leaf, it's certainly better than many smaller cars and infinitely better than our 15 year old Mazda 3 that has never, ever got over 40mpg on a run and normally gets around 22mpg around town.
So I'd say that's pretty efficient for the size and weight of the vehicle.
super efficient SUV (yes such things do exist)
No they don't. Whatever efficient technolgoy is in an SUV, it'd be more efficient still if it were in a car shaped vehicle.
We don't need petrol to make flames on STW do we? 🙂
I dunno, I can comfortably get 50+ mpg on a run and around 35mpg around town
That's crap though! It makes me laugh when people say "oh my SUV's really efficient" and then they quote rubbish figures. It's as if they don't know what an efficient car actually is.
So I’d say that’s pretty efficient for the size and weight of the vehicle.
Yes but thats the point. Now imagine it was the same tech but not hauling around the same size and weight.
I happened to be out moving some gear in my car today and it needed its bi-monthly fill up (I think I filled it up in July, maybe...). I wasn't aware of this. They guy at the till said that supply's basically the same as it has been for the last two months, but the media happen to have found out the supply is low and now he was expecting to run out of fuel by 3pm. Nice early finish for the lad but I don't think there's a problem.
I dunno, I can comfortably get 50+ mpg on a run and around 35mpg around town out of mine despite it being 250bhp so whilst it’s not exactly a Nissan Leaf, it’s certainly better than many smaller cars and infinitely better than our 15 year old Mazda 3 that has never, ever got over 40mpg on a run and normally gets around 22mpg around town.
A smaller car with the same engine will always be more efficient, and I can pretty much guarantee you don't actually need a car that big. We went through all this in the "Why are people buying SUVs when there's a climate crisis" thread last year. In addition, the bulk of your CO2 cost in any car is when it's built. In SUVs that's higher than cars with an equivalent load space because there's more materials. So while you say your Mazda is worse, it isn't really. Taking the figures from the Guardian yesterday, 13t of CO2 is used to make and SUV. 5.5t for a hatchback like a Mazda 3. So you'd have to do 55,000 miles in the Mazda just to match the SUV for CO2 footprint. Keeping the old Mazda going is the better thing to do for the environment, even if its CO2 g/km is worse. So, yeah, don't buy SUVs.
Now imagine it was the same tech but not hauling around the same size and weight.
I agree that would be the case, but for a vehicle of that size and weight it's very impressive and it's not far away from most mid to large ICE cars and significantly better than lots.
I didn't say “oh my SUV’s really efficient” , I said that’s pretty efficient for the size and weight of the vehicle. (A Mercedes GLC BTW)
How does it compare to your Merc?
it is an amazing co-incidence that literally everyone I have spoken to spoken to today was planning on filling up anyway and is definitely 100% not panic buying (that would be everybody else 🤣)I happened to be out moving some gear in my car today and it needed its bi-monthly fill up (I think I filled it up in July, maybe…)
I have an EV and a 26 yr old diesel Toyota Hilux so I'm prepared for whichever way this latest apocalypse goes.
That is a load of selfish nutters strip the pumps dry for a day or 2, then consumption of said product drops as no-ones going anywhere, stocks are re-plenished and everythign goes back to normal?
That is my thinking. If a petrol station was set to get fuel on Monday it will run out by Saturday due to panic buying but then be refilled on Monday. All the panic buyers will have bought over the weekend so won't be needing any more fuel.
Would be very different if the fuel supply had actually run out rather than a delivery issue but that is not the case.
Just went out to get bread and passed 3 stations on way home. First was shut as they had run out, second and third both had 20+ car queues
but for a vehicle of that size and weight it’s very impressive and it’s not far away from most mid to large ICE cars and significantly better than lots.
Yes, for a big SUV, but that's the point - it might be more efficient than many SUVs but it's still inefficient!
And it's not that much better than smaller cars. My old Passat comfortably beat that and it's 15 years old. My even older Seat Ibiza TDI was much better. Don't kid yourself.
Re my Merc, it's about the same, maybe a bit worse depending on what sort of town driving you are doing, but I admit it's shit!
I guess so, unlike bog roll it's not as easy to massively overbuy more than you need!That is my thinking. If a petrol station was set to get fuel on Monday it will run out by Saturday due to panic buying but then be refilled on Monday. All the panic buyers will have bought over the weekend so won’t be needing any more fuel.
Looking at Merc's numbers here https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/vehicles/wltp/wltp-fuel-consumption-and-emission-values/ the GLC 220d coupé uses 13% more fuel than the E-Class estate 220d. It's not as if an E-class estate is any kind of hardship, is it? The SUV body shape is just vanity, and it wastes fuel.
Saw a few cars queuing at the first petrol station I went past today. Car was just below 100 miles range, which is when I'd usually fill up anyway, so filled up at the supermarket after I'd done the shopping, as there was no one at the pumps. So MrsMC can go to work next week anyway.
I think we can all agree that SUV's are terrible cars and the owners are complete bell-ends 😀
I think we can all agree that SUV’s are terrible cars and the owners are complete bell-ends
I don't agree that SUVs are terrible cars but I can be a bell-end, most definitely. In fact I really like my SUV as it suits family life. Saying that, when the Mazda dies I'll be replacing it with something much smaller and significantly more efficient.
@kayak23
Just wanted to unreservedly apologise for my arsey reply to your post in the thread mate.
Totally unwarranted.
I should know better than to post when I'm in a bad mood.
Sainsbury's garage queued 8 deep at a station you'd normally always find a free pump at when I was there for some non fossil fuel related purchasing. To an old kodger they were silver haired drivers of yari/jazz/old person mobiles. That's what the nation needs right now; half the UK's available fuel safely locked away in brimmed up oldsmobiles in the garages of our geriatric fearless Brexit voters who use their cars for 5 miles every fortnight to go dogging. Sorry, to take Betty to the bingo.
Tools.
I got the Missus to fill up her car today as we need to be in Inverness next week for her chemo and I wasn't going to risk missing that.
@kayak23
Just wanted to unreservedly apologise for my arsey reply to your post in the thread mate.
Hey, ain't no thang 😊🙏👊
I’m trying to work out whether it’s a good weekend to go to the coast or somewhere touristy. Will the great unhosed be staying home to conserve fuel? Or all off to the usual places with freshly brimmed fuel tanks, plus Jerry can/Tupperware…
^^ Thanks for understanding bud. I hate throwing my dummy out of the pram.
I'm 52 and 3/4 for God's sake.😉
Update to earlier post
Local Esso is no out of fuel
Next nearest 2 now have even bigger queues as the panicers move to a different garage
Std uk gammon bellendery
Meanwhile,
Over in mainland Europe, whilst watching the UK eat itself, they're facing an imminent tea and Hob-Nob crisis.