Hyundai i20 Blue drive 1.1 diesel - mpg !!

[Bluebox]

Originally Posted by Matt715

How does the road fund tax work in the UK? The older the car, the higher the tax?

Not quite - there is a 3 tier system (This is VERY approx , dates may be a little out)

First the old cars : Anything Pre 1974 Manufacture ... Zero cost ! (Great - I have a 1973 Porsche 911 ... 16mpg on a good day .... Nothing to pay in Tax each year !!)

Next group : Post 1974 up to about 2001 ? - Several Bands , based on Fuel type and cc of engine... about 4 different rates , not toooooo expensive.

Final group newer cars 2002 to new. Rates based on emissions - so very expensive for gas guzzlers , and free for likes of little Hyundai i20 that we are talking about here ! (About 20 or so different bands , or so it feels !)

[Draigflag]

Originally Posted by cburb88

Hopefully its a better deal overseas then here... because here, if you actually know better with how the system works and can work on cars yourself buying an older car saves you tons of money and time, plus the fact that parts are easy to find, replace, not expensive not to mention alot of select older cars are just way more reliable period.

Almost everything new these days is not made of quality, why would car manufactures make something with quality when they can spend far less money and make something just "good enough" but market it right and hype it up to be something its actually not. These days making anything of quality will lose a company money compared to the money they save with making crap.

Regardless of how nice a new car is anyway. These things will never change for the better... Cost of parts. Ease and ability of self maintenance and repair tasks. Resale value ( thats a huge one, soon as a car comes off the lot its worth way less, by the time its payed off you already lost a ton of money by the time you sell or trade in afterwards). Quality of a select number of different parts. The fact that it being new you have no idea what kind of track record or reputation it has since its brand new you arent going to get an idea of how well the car will hold up, compared to older cars there is years and years.

The whole "new car" smell and feel is bleh, id rather make an older car just as nice of shape as a new one if anything then you can have the same feel just better. I also have never re sold a vehicle ive had for less then what i have paid. For example im about to sell a truck i have had for 8 years i paid 650 and im about to sell for 800. For the most part anything newer then late 90s early 2000s i wont own.

True, but every car out there was once new remember, some has to buy them. I disagree about the quality of new cars, these days the test cars are driven millions of miles during development to test how durable certain components are. Anything not up to the job is changed accordingly. New cars are far more better made than cars 20 or 30 years ago. Rust is a big problem in the Uk, our Nanny state cakes the roads is masses of salt and grit in the winter which over the years can really ruin a car. Once a car gets to the stage when it needs welding every year, it can be costly to repair. Also we have a strict MOT test here in the UK to keep our cars road worthy every year. Everything is tested from emission to seatbelts, even a stone chip in the windscreen, or a split wiper blade can class the car as unroadworthy, and if its more expensive to replace parts than buy a different car, people will juzt do the latter.

Also, the road tax car be high on older cars too as the emissions are higher, so if a car is $300 to tax a year, but is only worth $600, is it worth it? I do like old cars, I had a 24 year old fiat in mint condition for three years with just 16,000 miles on the clock, and I made £1750 profit on that, so you win some you lose some. My last car I bought new cost me a total of $40,000 in 5 years, thats everything, tax, depreciation, insurance, fuel, repairs etc but only $15,000 was depreciation, not as much as you might think. I can think of worse things to lose money on such as alcahol and cigarettes, I worked it out if my brother carries on smoking the way he is, by the time he reaches 84, he would have spent $414,000 on cigarettes, and thats assuming the price stays the same. You could buy a few nice cars for that .

[Draigflag]

There's also a "first year rate" or showroom tax based on emissions too, to try and encourage peopke to drive low emission cars. So if you were yo buy your Chrokee new, there would be a $1600 price hike, then the road tax would cost $830 a year every year after that. More info here:

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables

[steevyg]

i believe being a smaller engine it would do better mpg at something like 40 mph.
i use cruise control as much as possible (in my 1.3 litre car) and can see a big difference in the mpg figures between 40, 50 and 60 mph.
my 2.2 litre deisel vectra did better mpg at a higher average speed than the 1.3 because it had more torque therefore the engine did'nt have to work as hard as the smaller engined 1.3.
all manufacture's are salesman and so will manipulate figures so we all buy there product.

[Bluebox]

Originally Posted by steevyg

i believe being a smaller engine it would do better mpg at something like 40 mph.
i use cruise control as much as possible (in my 1.3 litre car) and can see a big difference in the mpg figures between 40, 50 and 60 mph.
my 2.2 litre deisel vectra did better mpg at a higher average speed than the 1.3 because it had more torque therefore the engine did'nt have to work as hard as the smaller engined 1.3.
all manufacture's are salesman and so will manipulate figures so we all buy there product.

Ohps - can't agree again ....
The car has a 6 speed gearbox , In top gear, on a flat road the minimum speed the car will maintain "happily" is about 50mph .... 40 mph - no chance , you would be down in 5th , and possibly 4th if you wanted to accelerate at any reasonable (read safe) speed.
The car SHOULD be best , in top gear , at the minimum speed it can hold (typically where the torque is good , and the turbo is doing the "right" ammount of work ... labouring along with very low revs , typically with a more open throttle , is not the way to go . Yes , wind resistance (drag) is critical .. but there are limits (would mpg be better at 30 mph ?? ... I would say not !). Try it yourself - long flat road , resetting trip mpg computer and holding a certain speed for at least 10 or 15 miles .... note the results , and experiment again (needless to say I have done all this... even graphed it , and for every car there will be a "sweet" cruising speed ... and it won't be the slowest one.

[steevyg]

ooops ! I believe you've misunderstood me.
I agree with draigflag nice attitude !

[Bluebox]

Which bit of the "i believe being a smaller engine it would do better mpg at something like 40 mph."
did I misunderstand ?

[itripper]

(Basically the conditions under which I expect the car to perform best (mpg wise) - which is : warm engine , long run - 200 miles + , top gear , flat road , 55mph - right on top torque curve ... is exactly when mpg is at it's worst ... average on the inaccurate trip computer just drops and drops.)
2nd observation : Car is less economical when engine is warm ... sort of linked to first issue , but again , exact opposite of what my engineering mind says should happen.

Maybe emissions equipment is set differently while in the warm up stage. I think emission tests are based on a warmed up vehicle.

My Honda Insight the torque peak is a 2000 rpm but the engine feels much more powerful at 3000 rpm due to the VTEC setup. I also get 2-3 mph better at 80 mph (2800 rpm) than I do at 65 mph (2300 rpm or so), I think 5th gear is lugging too hard at the lower speed. Some cars are quirky at certain speeds.

My TD truck the higher the engine RPMS the worse mileage I get, it goes down fast in the small band of 1800 rpm (ideal 21 mpg/60 mph) to 2400 rpm (15 mpg/75mph)

BTW I love small diesels, I really hope to own one in the US some day

[Bluebox]

Overall average now up to 66.8mpg , during just over 10,000 miles ... so it's getting closer to my expectation of 70 . Still needs a remap .... to be continued !

[Draigflag]

I used mine for a steady 100+ mile journey for the firat time on a motorway at the weekend. Averaged 73 MPG which I thought was good as I only have a 5 speed, and set the cruise at 70 MPH. After covering 500+ miles, it has dropped to 62.7 MPG for the trip, I don't think i'll ever average over 70 MPG as most of my trips are rural, hilly roads.