New car time needs loads of MPG

CYCLING, I HEAR THIS GIVES YOU THE BEST MPG. I THINK IT'S LIKE ∞ MPG AND THE ROAD TAX IS FREE. CHECK IT OUT.

Seriously, the prospect of doing this:

2.Going to be used 5 times a week for a 92 mile round trip to work , 99% of it dual carriage way at 75MPH .
Click to expand...

In A Golf GayMotion would seriously want to make me want to stick my head in an oven.
 
xyphox said:
Over 80 for sure
Click to expand...

Citation needed.

The Mk5 Bluemotion returns a combined mpg figure of 62mpg. During 'light use' when road tested by Autocar, they also acheived 60's to the gallon.

It is unlikely at best you'd see 'over 80' in the usage profile the OP has, I'd go so far as to say its 'impossible'.

What is it that makes you feel you are able to say it would average over 80mpg 'for sure'?
 
[TW]Fox;15817939 said:
Citation needed.

The Mk5 Bluemotion returns a combined mpg figure of 62mpg. During 'light use' when road tested by Autocar, they also acheived 60's to the gallon.

It is unlikely at best you'd see 'over 80' in the usage profile the OP has, I'd go so far as to say its 'impossible'.

What is it that makes you feel you are able to say it would average over 80mpg 'for sure'?
Click to expand...

Mine does low 60's on the 50 mile commute to work and back and last time we came back from the "North" it dit about 67mpg.Never seen 80's... not even close
 
Moeks said:
A 1.9TDi Altea saves you £1,500 in diesel costs per year over a 2.2D X-Trail ? ...I would not have thought that would be the case except in extreme mileage scenarios ...is the X-Trail that hard on fuel?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the X-trail was quoted at about 40 mpg combined cycle, but i averaged around 36mpg and believe me i do not have a heavy right when driving for work (for which I do over 30k pa plus personal mileage too) the Altea on the other hand is quoted at something like 53mpg and i average 58mpg and see over 60mpg on longer runs (not at 75-80mph though)

So working out very roughly
30000 miles @ 36mpg = 833.33 gallons
833.33 gallons = 3788.39 litres @ £1.1599 = £4394.15
30000 miles @ 58mpg = 517.24 gallons
517.24 gallons = 2351.42 litres @ £1.1599 = £2727.41

Which gives a saving of £1666.74 (Diesel has gone up since i last calculated it lol)

Now this is a quick calculation, so please dont flame me if its not exactly right :D
 
clv101 said:
I absolutely think I have a far superior grasp of life in that I've managed to organise things such that I don't waste hours each day driving A-B. My be amusing for you, but my value judgement is very clear in this area. Life's way too short to spend it on the road.
Click to expand...

I really am with you on this.

Fair enough if you are Chairman of ICI you probably cant live round the corner from work (but neither will you do 9-5 at your desk).

But the sheer number of people travelling mindboggling distances taking up hours of free time and costing them a hefty percentage of salary in order to earn an average wage is just... confusing. Even those who earn half decent money find most of the extra they get vanishes in car related costs - even the depreciation on an '09 plate Seat Leon Ecomotive' is going to be crippling if you put 100k on it every 4 years!

Just why?
 
Eddmac said:
Which gives a saving of £1666.74 (Diesel has gone up since i last calculated it lol)

Now this is a quick calculation, so please dont flame me if its not exactly right :D
Click to expand...

What was the value of your X-Trail at the point of switch and what was its projected value in 3 years?

How much was the Seat Leon and what is its projected value in 3 years?

I have a feeling that £1666 saving is a false saving...
 
[TW]Fox;15821662 said:
I really am with you on this.

Fair enough if you are Chairman of ICI you probably cant live round the corner from work (but neither will you do 9-5 at your desk).

But the sheer number of people travelling mindboggling distances taking up hours of free time and costing them a hefty percentage of salary in order to earn an average wage is just... confusing. Even those who earn half decent money find most of the extra they get vanishes in car related costs - even the depreciation on an '09 plate Seat Leon Ecomotive' is going to be crippling if you put 100k on it every 4 years!

Just why?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately Fox, sometimes you have to go where the work is. Unlike a lot of people, I enjoy my job, get many perks, and although the drive home is an hour, and sometimes an inconvenience, I find it helps me completely forget about work by the time I get home. I understand your point for certain employment, but I have helped build our company up right from the very start 15 years ago, so its a bit different for me, especially in the position I now hold. As said, we are currently discussing the future possibility of me working from home more, which obviously would be nice. Time will tell.

I would love to be able to walk to work or have a 10 minute drive, but Its not to be at the moment.

Don`t you dare have a go at my car :p
 
If you worked for the same company for 15 years surely you moved house at least once whilst there - did proximity to work not factor into your new property requirements?
 
[TW]Fox;15821667 said:
What was the value of your X-Trail at the point of switch and what was its projected value in 3 years?

How much was the Seat Leon and what is its projected value in 3 years?

I have a feeling that £1666 saving is a false saving...
Click to expand...



Well, when you take insurance, servicing and tyres into account the total saving per year is around £2000, the X-Trail was older than the Altea and had much higher mileage (i'd had it for a couple of years and it had about 80K, Altea had 6K) values were similair at time of change at around £10K (I think it cost me £800 to change, but that included road tax for a year, a full tank of diesel and a service) The X-Trail was coming to the end of its warranty and the Altea has over two years left (a big deal for me as I am an on-call engineer and cant be left without a car) I couldnt have kept the X-Trail for another 3 years as the mileage would have been too much anyway (possibly up to about 200k if i kept it that long) I would say that due to mileage the Altea would be worth more than the X-Trail, due to mileage :) (I can do 30 to 40k per annum (counting personal mileage).
 
clv101,

The reality of life is that many people have long commutes to work. I'd bet that a huge proportion of the London workforce have a commute greater than around an hour.

To say you have a "better" grasp on life because you avoid it by travelling just 10mins to a low paid job is more than utter nonsense, you need to put a value on the commute time, a value on your office time, and work out if the "overtime" of the commute is worth it. You say avoiding 2 hours travel per day is worth a £20k pay cut? Well, it wouldnt for me, thats an hourly rate of £38.50 an hour for simply sitting in a car, VERY few people earn more than £38.50 an hour. Bravo to you to be "worth" more than this but you are in a small minority able to earn more than this so near to your home if that is the case.
 
Last edited:
Jez, the point is that it totally depends on the individual. It is better in my opinion which is why I do it, hardly "utter nonsense"! I have all the money I need so I value every minute of 'me' time incredibly highly - I wouldn't take any driving job for £38.50 an hour for example (certainly not a commute). I do spend some of my time working for less than that (and some more), but only because it's something I find very interesting so the pay back is far more than the actual money.
 
You are either not very ambitious, or extremely lucky to simply not require any more money, as that is exactly the same as refusing a promotion to a more demanding job requiring 2 extra hours of your time per day.

To say you have a better grasp of life, due to your lack of ambition and/or need for money, is not something that i nor many others would agree with and frankly is utter nonsense based on your personal situation.

Might as well trott around 95% of the UK workforce and laugh at all the staff there well we are at it, after all, its not worth working for such a pittance :)
 
Jez said:
You are either not very ambitious, or extremely lucky to simply not require any more money, as that is exactly the same as refusing a promotion to a more demanding job requiring 2 extra hours of your time per day.
Click to expand...

While I think that the majority of what clv is saying is utter tripe, and particularly the figures he's used to illustrate his point, I do see where he's coming from regarding placing value on free time etc.

I'm quite happy doing what I'm doing, climbing the ladder at an OK rate but not breaking my neck to get two steps ahead of where I would have been anyway. I don't think that makes me unambitious, but I won't sacrifice the happiness of me and my family for money when we don't need it.
 
Last edited:
Although this has now degenerated into nothing like the threads initial intent, I took a demotion and a paycut (intentionally) to be able to spend more time with my, at the time, newborn son. He will now be 4 in March :)
 
Jez said:
You are either not very ambitious, or extremely lucky to simply not require any more money, as that is exactly the same as refusing a promotion to a more demanding job requiring 2 extra hours of your time per day.

To say you have a better grasp of life, due to your lack of ambition and/or need for money, is not something that i nor many others would agree with and frankly is utter nonsense based on your personal situation.

Might as well trott around 95% of the UK workforce and laugh at all the staff there well we are at it, after all, its not worth working for such a pittance :)
Click to expand...
Generally I do think 95% of the UK workforce (include other rich nations too) have got it wrong. On the whole, many folk work long hours doing things they don't really want to do, in order to buy material things that don't make them happy - they say as much in surveys. It's been proved time and time again that money above a certain threshold doesn't improve happiness and quality of life. Why then, do so many people work so many hours doing things they don't like? Sure there are exceptions, but they are the minority.

I worked in a multinational for almost ten years, paid 40% tax for the last six, have flown to around Europe around 100 times in that time... but why? I've recently taken a ~60% pay cut but spend all day doing what I want to do, on my own schedule, working with amazing people I respect a great deal... and I can walk to the office. I may not be a 40% tax payer any more, but I've still comfortably above the threshold where extra money doesn't improve happiness and quality of life.

I guess our opinions of ambition are very different. It is not my ambition to spend time doing stuff I don't really want to do. After a few years of trying I've now got rid of pretty much all the things I don't want to do.

Is it not ambitious to want to claim one's life for oneself? Instead of having to do things you don't really want to do, for money?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom