Gustavo Almeida from Portugal (Rover 216 Coupe)

[Gustavo.Almeida]

Hello everyone.

My name is Gustavo, I'm 25 and I'm from Portugal.

I had an Honda Concerto 1.6i-16 for about 3 years until it was destroyed in on the 16th of February 2007. The car had been bought new in 1992 by my father and he gave it to me when he bought the Accord diesel. I was 8 at that time and I grew up in that car.






After the Honda was gone, I bought a Rover 216 Coupe. It uses the same platform and engine, but the bodyshell had some modifications... one of it is that it no longer is a 5 door hatbachback or a 4 door saloon... but a 2 door beautiful Coupe. Since I was a child I loved that car... it was a Coupe version of my Concerto but with a british suit. I was sure I'd never have one because I wouldn't trade my loved Concerto.







The first time I calculated my fuel efficiency with the Honda Concerto I got... 16L/100 kms. True! I was barely getting 400 kms out of a fuel tank. In a few months time I was squeezing about 7 L/100 kms, although it became an habit to do almost 8L/100kms. I got this car in April 2004 and this was on that summer. By that time I kept a record of my fuel usage in my computer... only much later I knew about Spritmonitor.

I not only changed my driving habits but I only read and researched a lot on how to make my engine more efficiently without modifications... only with proper maintenance, beyond what most people would do.

For those of you who are familiar with Honda's, the Concerto had a D16A9... the Coupe has a D16A8, which adds a catalyst converter and a O2/Lambda Sensor... yes, it's more efficient. The exhaust manifold in the D16A9 was 4-2-1, but the D16A8 uses 4-1. I think it probably gets better figures on exhaust emissions.


I live in Coimbra, where I study Management. My hometown is about 100 kms away. I usually spend the week at Coimbra and go back to Viseu in the weekend. The speed limite between these two cities is of 100 km/h and I usually drive between 90-100 km/h.

During the week I don't need the car to attend class as I live very close to the university.

50-60% percent of my driving is travelling and the rest in town. These will vary a lot... some weeks I'll do 50 kms, others I'll do 200 kms.

I only use A/C in the summer time... in winter it will be pretty rare.

I rapidly got my fuel efficiency to double... going from 16 to 8L/100 kms in about two months.

After that I tried to recover lost efficiency of my engine. My car had about 160.000 kms so I believed it couldn't be at 100% efficiency. I heard about carbon build-up and stuff...

I started trying fuel additives (injector cleaners, for example), carb cleaners, and I got a OEM replacement K&N air intake filter. I also raised the pressure on my tires. This was still with the Concerto.

I repeated everything with the Rover and went even further:
- I changed my PCV valve;
- thermostat (my thermostat was cooling in excess... in fact, so was the one in the Concerto.... only some months ago I was sure about that);
- changed rotor and distributor cap;
- new spark plugs.

Besides the air intake filter, all other changed parts are original.

To my big surprise, some weeks ago I achieved 6,02 L/100 kms over 1700 kms. With all these changes it gets easier to make a fuel tank last longer.


I hope I can learn a bit more here about fuel efficiency and I'm always glad to help.

[101mpg]

Welcome! Your story is fascinating - always nice to see visitors outside the US as well!

[theholycow]

Welcome, Gustavo. That coupe is pretty.

We can't get the Accord diesel here; in fact, there are very few diesels available. We also can't get any cars from Rover -- in fact, I had no idea they made any. I do vaguely remember reading about Ford buying the Land Rover SUV line but the rest of the company being bought by someone else; but I forgot about it after that, and only remember now because I read the wiki on it.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Hi Gustavo, nice work on getting your "gas mileage" down.

I think we had Rovers over in North America for only 2 or 3 years, there was a "Sterling" model which I think was the Rover 827. It also got badged as an Acura I think. We didn't see any of the smaller models.

[bobc455]

I wonder if anyone calls it "gas kilometerage"...

Welcome aboard!

-Bob C.

[Gustavo.Almeida]

Originally Posted by 101mpg

Welcome! Your story is fascinating - always nice to see visitors outside the US as well!

Thank you very much.

Originally Posted by theholycow

Welcome, Gustavo. That coupe is pretty.

We can't get the Accord diesel here; in fact, there are very few diesels available. We also can't get any cars from Rover -- in fact, I had no idea they made any. I do vaguely remember reading about Ford buying the Land Rover SUV line but the rest of the company being bought by someone else; but I forgot about it after that, and only remember now because I read the wiki on it.

Thank you.

Yes, this coupe is very beautiful.

I know it isn't easy to get diesel in the states. I think Honda just took a step back because of their new i-DTEC. It seems that it would be ok for the manual version but the automatic version would not meet the requirements, and Honda thinks that the automatic gearbox is a "must" for Acura. I think they shouldn't have gone for a 5-speed auto... but for a 7-speed.... 6 should be the minimum these days.

Land Rover is a brand created by Rover to sell off road vehicles. Now Rover, Land Rover and Jaguar were bought by Tata. By the way, the MG-Rover group went bankrupt in 2005. MG is now a chinese company.

As RoadWarrior says, Rover were sold as Sterling in the states.

Originally Posted by RoadWarrior

Hi Gustavo, nice work on getting your "gas mileage" down.

I think we had Rovers over in North America for only 2 or 3 years, there was a "Sterling" model which I think was the Rover 827. It also got badged as an Acura I think. We didn't see any of the smaller models.

Thank you.

Yes, as it seems, those Rover's weren't very reliable in the states and that ended their presence in the US sooner than expected.

Rover 800:


Sterling:


Story about sterling (and links to all other Rover models): http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?sterlingf.htm

The Rover 800 was based on the Honda Legend. In fact, the 827 uses a 2.7 V6... which is from Honda. It was later replaced by Rover's own K-series V6. The K-Series (4 cyl) was also used in Lotus and Caterham.

Originally Posted by bobc455

I wonder if anyone calls it "gas kilometerage"...

Welcome aboard!

-Bob C.

Thanks Bob. I don't think anyone calls it that...

[theholycow]

The automatic is definitely a "must" to sell any car in the US. Most folks in the US don't even know how to operate a manual transmission. There are a lot who do, but even most of them don't own or drive one.

6 speed automatics are getting more common, but I'm not sure what gain there is to be had by continuing to add more speeds. Are they increasing the total ratio range of the transmissions, or are they just making the gears more closely spaced?

I have seen that second Sterling model before.

[Gustavo.Almeida]

Originally Posted by theholycow

The automatic is definitely a "must" to sell any car in the US. Most folks in the US don't even know how to operate a manual transmission. There are a lot who do, but even most of them don't own or drive one.

6 speed automatics are getting more common, but I'm not sure what gain there is to be had by continuing to add more speeds. Are they increasing the total ratio range of the transmissions, or are they just making the gears more closely spaced?

I have seen that second Sterling model before.

Take notice that the first Sterling is... well, it's a Rover 820 Sterling... while the one you saw is a Sterling 820. Underneath that, everything is more or less the same.

I do believe that more gears increase efficiency. In my country the speed limit for an highway is 120 km/h (about 70mph), but there are people who travel at 90mph or more. For those, it would be nice to have more gears... even if they can only be used on levelled ground... being an auto gearbox, and if it works fast and efficiently enough, it will reduce as soon as you get to an uphill.

I haven't tried any, but VW now have a DSG gearbox, which features two clutches. They have one for 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th gear... and another clutch for 2nd, 4th, 6th and rear. This gearbox changes gear in an instant of a second.

And don't take just these case. BMW's M5 and M6 use a 7 speed gearbox... but Lexus IS-F uses and 8-speed gearbox. ZF has just made a 8-speed gearbox for BMW and Audi.

Yes, I do believe that more gears get better mileage and better performance, not only because of having shorter gears but also of having top longer gears. If you have a slow gearbox and that it seems to change exactly when you don't want it, it might be a problem... but there are many superb gearbox's out there.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by Gustavo.Almeida

there are people who travel at 90mph or more. For those, it would be nice to have more gears... even if they can only be used on levelled ground...

I agree. However, when they add gears, it seems that the top gear doesn't get any taller; instead, they just make the gears closer to eachother.

I haven't tried any, but VW now have a DSG gearbox, which features two clutches. They have one for 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th gear... and another clutch for 2nd, 4th, 6th and rear. This gearbox changes gear in an instant of a second.

The DSG is very impressive indeed. I don't know about the 7 speed DSG, but the 6 speed DSG has the same 1st gear as my VW's 5 speed manual, and the same 6th as my 5th. I suppose that it helps shave a fraction of a second off of a drag race but I don't think it helps fuel economy at all. Maybe with the 7 speed they added a taller gear after 6th instead of adding another gear in-between.

If you have a slow gearbox and that it seems to change exactly when you don't want it, it might be a problem... but there are many superb gearbox's out there.

There definitely are. My 2002 GMC's automatic behaves almost exactly the way I want, unlike others which will run up to high RPM before shifting or downshift with just a very small amount of pedal input. If I'm in a hurry I can press a button and change its behavior to downshift quickly and wait longer before upshifting. Even though it's only got 4 gears, 4th is very tall, running 2100rpm at 70mph (2700@90mph if my math is correct). My VW, and the more expensive GTI with the 6 speed DSG, runs 3000rpm@70mph, even though there's definitely enough torque to turn a taller gear. I get up to 35mph and wish I had more gears...