The MPG Generation..

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
19,578
Location
Somewhere in the middle.
Its quite depressing that most of the young blokes I work with seem to be more keen on MPG than MPH. I remember when I was 17 and everyone seemed to want the fastest/sportiest little motor they could afford.

Now it seems Economy is something they all consider.

One of them posted a pic on facebook of his new Fabia VRs Mpg.He sold his Civic Sport which was a much nicer car, because even though hes sinking £8,000 on the Fabia, he thinks its worth it because of the Economy.

Living on an RAF base half of the lads here barely do any mileage. I know 2 people who bought Fiestas on finance for their first cars. One of them worked out about £14,000... he has done about 7,000 miles in 1 year. But because its cheap to run he seems to overlook the massive payments.

Maybe this is an isolated case but Boy Racers dont seem so prominent these days.
 
in years to come cars will have massive MPG displays and traffic light grandprixs will consist of who can pull away the most effeciently - extra points are awarded if you don't get your hybird's petrol engine to kick in

engine didn't kick in, yo
 
in years to come cars will have massive MPG displays and traffic light grandprixs will consist of who can pull away the most effeciently - extra points are awarded if you don't get your hybird's petrol engine to kick in

engine didn't kick in, yo

Are you allowed to use the switch in the new Auris to turn the petrol engine off or is tht considered cheating? ^^
 
Erm.... the price of fuel is extremely high. It will keep rising. Insurance is high for young drivers. Can you blame them? I'm not sure what this thread aims to achieve other than casual moaning about people who want high MPG cars. Just let them love their MPG and you go love your thirsty XYZ? Yes they overlook paying a vast some on a newer car outright. This has been happening for years.
 
Erm.... the price of fuel is extremely high. It will keep rising. Insurance is high for young drivers. Can you blame them? I'm not sure what this thread aims to achieve other than casual moaning about people who want high MPG cars. Just let them love their MPG and you go love your thirsty XYZ? Yes they overlook paying a vast some on a newer car outright. This has been happening for years.

I just think its a shame that fast cars, which have been the interest of men ever since they were created, arent getting the same attention any more.

It is just casual moaning yes :). Bragging about how fast your car can get to 100mph is a lot more interesting than how far you can get on a tank.
 
I still try and go for the cars that spew out the most crap, and get the lowest MPG figures, if it does more than 25mpg im not interested.
 
Simply put: price.

When I started driving 8 years ago petrol was 72p a litre, now it's over £1.30 so that's about an 80% increase!

To insure my first car (1.3 Corolla @ 12k a year) it cost ~£1,500. Nowadays it would probably be double that for an 17/18 year old male.

Road Tax for decent metal has also gone stupid. £450 odd a year just to keep a nice car on the road because it puts out a few more carbondioxides. :rolleyes:

We're also in the middle of a economic crisis which is making everyone count the pennies.

I'd much rather have a flashy, high-bhp gas guzzler but it just doesn't make sense at the moment.
 
Only if you are a Guardian reader, and I like to upset them as much as possible ;)

Thing is though

Its not

How many "i must have diesel MPG" morons do you have in your non car friends ?

Its at every level, not just the trendy lefty guardian readers. Unleaded reaching near £1.50 a litre did that.
 
MPG doesn't bother me too much nor does fuel price, afterall the higher it climbs the more work i have to do. At the end of the day i'd perfer to spend more on fuel than get 80mpg in a hatefull tin ecobox.
 
thing is we enjoy our cars

Spending money on petrol is no different to us than the morons who drink their entire wage in town on a friday / saturday night.

But for those that only use the car as a tool,the same way we use a washing machine. They aren't happy. And thats where the whole MPG generation thing is coming from.

Our youngest generation of car owners are going to be skint anyway, either in uni with debts, or just in a new job out of college at the bottom of the salary ladder, they are the ones who can least afford the high fuel costs.
 
Fast used to be cool, now green is.

Just do what makes you happy and leave the cool kids to it.

You see I don't think green is cool. At all.

Fast is still cool to me - but I try and drive more ecconomically purely owing to necessity rather than actual wanting to.
 
I think using the 1.4 TSFI is a bad example, theres nothing wrong with performance and economy in a petrol motor its the way forward for petrol heads who dont want to drive a car with the characteristics of a diesel

I find it more of a shame that manufacturers arent interested in performance petrols anymore and are trying to merge low perfomance with MPG and sporty suspension and looks and refering to the car as a sports model
 
I think using the 1.4 TSFI is a bad example, theres nothing wrong with performance and economy in a petrol motor its the way forward for petrol heads who dont want to drive a car with the characteristics of a diesel

At £8k I would assume he is using the 1.9 TDi as an example ;)

It is difficult because I like quick cars. My car is about as far as I can push it in terms of performance / economy / practicality and I swing from thinking that it is the perfect balance for me to thinking that for what essentially is something to get me from A to B it costs too much to run.
 
Thing is though

Its not

How many "i must have diesel MPG" morons do you have in your non car friends ?

One friend has bought a V6 diesel Discovery to tow his rally car, but his 400bhp MG ZT V8 was returning about 14mpg when towing and didn't have a lot of room for tools etc, so I don't think that counts.

Apart from that I can't think of one single person either in my family or anyone I'd count as a friend that has spent a fortune on a diesel car that they are never going to recover in fuel and tax costs. They either have petrol cars, a couple have old diesels (Golfs, 306 etc.) or diesel company cars which at least make some sense.
 
Back
Top Bottom