Fuel price discussion thread (was ‘chaos’)

Fuel was £1.85 per litre for petrol and 1.94 per litre for diesel at Asda in Elgin this morning.

As for fuel economy my Ford B-Max 1.0 125bhp doesn't vary that much however I drive it. Driving normally with the odd bit of hard acceleration when overtaking I get 47.5mpg. Driving carefully the best I have managed so far is 53.7mpg and I can't see any way I am going to better that on our roads around here. Fords stated maximum is 57.3mpg but that must have been on a billiard table smooth surface with a tailwind while going downhill because I haven't heard of any B-Max owner getting anywhere near that.
 
Greebo said:
The fact it also is built into whether its running on electric or motor (hybrid car) and uses the gps and maps to know when its coming up to a bend
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hadn't considered the bend situation .. on an A road with >60 degree bend say, does acc apply the brakes then ... whereas as manually you might just lift off, and change down near apex, or none at all if the other side of the road is empty.
 
jpaul said:
hadn't considered the bend situation .. on an A road with >60 degree bend say, does acc apply the brakes then ... whereas as manually you might just lift off, and change down near apex, or none at all if the other side of the road is empty.
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no it actually just deaccelerates and uses the electric recharge to slow you down to the necessary speed it thinks for the bend. Probably just as good as I could have done manual if I was really thinking about it.

Reality for me manually is that I would be braking hard at the last minute :D
 
My local that i never go as tesco is normally 15p cheaper in current times, 204.9 for diesel :rolleyes:

I just laughed as i drove past. I'd have cried but that's a bit dangerous when driving.
 
There is no way driving at a fixed speed is most efficient on a motorway. You would be braking or going too fast on downhill parts.

That is why those with cruise control see people multiple times. Pulling hard at 75mph uphill is a waste of fuel. And if you did, then you may as well let the car roll downhill at a high speed.
 
muon said:
There is no way driving at a fixed speed is most efficient on a motorway. You would be braking or going too fast on downhill parts.

That is why those with cruise control see people multiple times. Pulling hard at 75mph uphill is a waste of fuel. And if you did, then you may as well let the car roll downhill at a high speed.
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Well I don’t think anyone brakes downhill. Cruise won’t do that
 
I guess technically what you should do if there is a incline followed by downhill is let the car slow when going up the hill so that you can then use gravity to accelerate down the hill without breaking the speed limit or wasting energy by using the brakes. If you reach the peak at 70 that's suboptimal because you'll then have to brake down the hill.
 
Simon said:
Ok. And you let it ?
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It depends. If I’m at 70, I’ll turn cruise off and moderate the speed myself by either leaving it in gear or changing to neutral


At 30 though, and in smaller towns, there are often speed cameras at the bottom of steep declines, so I let the cruise stick to 30 as it allows me to concentrate on the surroundings and not the speed.
 
HangTime said:
I guess technically what you should do if there is a incline followed by downhill is let the car slow when going up the hill so that you can then use gravity to accelerate down the hill without breaking the speed limit or wasting energy by using the brakes. If you reach the peak at 70 that's suboptimal because you'll then have to brake down the hill.
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It's also a waste because even if you don't brake downhill (and waste energy that way), you have much higher losses due to air resistance. It's why you avoid driving at >80mph unless you want to go through fuel quickly.

It is also more sympathetic to the car by not having a high engine load uphill. I'd say an appropriately fixed throttle position is better for fuel economy than a fixed speed.
 
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Simon said:
Well I don’t think anyone brakes downhill. Cruise won’t do that
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Erm thats exactly what most do as otherwise you'd be defeating the whole point of cruise control which is to remove speed decisions. People use them as speed limiters. They also aren't doing it to then turn it on and off as the motorway undulates.
 
Petrol 182.7p and diesel 188.7p at Asda this evening. There was a lady filling containers in her boot, I couldn't get a proper look as she kept covering them with a blanket.
 
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