Fuel prices.

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Samray · #1 Post by **Samray** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:36 am

Just two months ago, gasoline prices were at $2.18 per gallon in Florida. Prices now stand at $2.57 per gallon. Such wild price fluctuations need to end so that average American citizens can properly plan for their financial future.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/02/Herna ... olut.shtml

Gio · #2 Post by **Gio** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:43 am

Sign me up for $2.57 a gallon

Falken · #3 Post by **Falken** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:04 pm

I reckon it will be around £1 litre by spring bank holiday.

Gio · #4 Post by **Gio** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:06 pm

Falken wrote:
I reckon it will be around £1 litre by spring bank holiday.

I've just filled our car up £58

Falcoholic · #5 Post by **Falcoholic** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:18 pm

Falken wrote:
I reckon it will be around £1 litre by spring bank holiday.

Visit the West Highlands of Scotland. It's been a quid a litre up there for months already and even higher in some places.

And there's not many places where you can fill up on a Sunday

D-Rider · #6 Post by **D-Rider** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:26 pm

Falcoholic wrote:
Falken wrote:
I reckon it will be around £1 litre by spring bank holiday.
Visit the West Highlands of Scotland. It's been a quid a litre up there for months already and even higher in some places.

And there's not many places where you can fill up on a Sunday

That's the trouble with Scotland - no oil reserves of your own ......

(not since we nicked them all at any rate)

....... quick ...... run for cover ........

lazarus · #7 Post by **lazarus** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:28 pm

Got a gas guzzler - literally. LPG powered 39.9p/litre but it does about 25 mpg on the stuff, so it works out at about 7.5p / mile.

Same power output as on petrol, and Yes, there are plenty of gas outlets around.

So financially it makes sense, but its BORING! As are most sensible decisions.

#8 Post by **Kwackerz** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:43 pm

I just downgraded from a 3 litre Volvo to a 1.4 sports shopping trolly.

Quid a litre? Pah! a fiver lasts me a week normally!

HowardQ · #9 Post by **HowardQ** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:06 pm

lazarus wrote:Got a gas guzzler - literally. LPG powered 39.9p/litre but it does about 25 mpg on the stuff, so it works out at about 7.5p / mile.

Same power output as on petrol, and Yes, there are plenty of gas outlets around.

So financially it makes sense, but its BORING! As are most sensible decisions.

I have hated diesels all my life but 15 months ago, after 7 years with V6 Vectras (sad I know), I bought something very special and have been totally converted and utterly amazed ever since. Bought an Alfa 156 JTD 20 valve Multijet. It's a 5 cylinder 2.4 litre diesel with common rail multijet injection. Hadn't got a clue what that was, but shit it works incredibly well. Now know it injects multiple short bursts over the normal injection time period rather than one big squirt.
It has 175bhp and 284ft lbs of torque, (2 more than a standard 911).
It certainly ain't boring. (Can also be chipped up to 200bhp using the standard 159 chip or 220bhp with the ECU chip from the new Spider!).
This torque figure is at 2000 revs. It has a top whack of 140, 0 - 60 of 8 secs, but this is nothing compared with mid range, which is phenominal, almost feels like I'm still on the Falco. Over last 1200 miles through winter it has averaged 46mpg, mainly on the commute to work, or 8.9p per mile. In warmer weather I will often get up to around 52mpg commuting, (7.87 per mile).
I try to drive for economy commuting, but use the power whenever needed, we all need to have fun, even in a tin box. On a long steady run out, but still having serious fun at times, have had it up towards 60 mpg average, how the hell does it do this.

Thrash the balls off it, and still gets 35mpg, but no need to.
Not had much interest in cars since this most recent return to bikes, but now have two gorgeous Italians in my life, one with two wheels and one with four and I love em both.

Sorry for the boring car chat, but I didn't start the thread!

lazarus · #10 Post by **lazarus** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:14 pm

Can quite understand what you say - I tried a BMW 120 diesel auto and was genuinely surprised by how it went. But at over 20k it was a silly price for that size of car so I bought the Volvo at auction ( 3 years old exactly, 40k miles and one third of the new price. spotless with all the bells and whistles inc TV).

Wont buy Italian - had a nasty experience with Italian cars some years ago, and the stats still show them down with the French in reliability. Pity since the Alfas look good and (by the sound of it) go well too.

Saw some of the touring car championship on TV last weekend, and I'm sure they said that some of the cars on the grid were diesels!

fastasfcuk · #11 Post by **fastasfcuk** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:59 pm

hi howard,with common rail the injection pump delivers presurised fuel to a common rail which then injects the fuel to each cylinder in turn, where as before the injection pump had four feeds and delivered presurised fuel to each cylinder.

HowardQ · #12 Post by **HowardQ** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:20 pm

Yeh but with this new multijet system evidently it also delivers in multiple small bursts rather than one big squirt. Probably have 5 short squirts over a few mille seconds, (micro seconds or whatever) and actually delivers less than in one big shot, hence the improved economy. That's how I understood it, but never bothered trying to understand them in the past as hated diesels.
All I know now is this Alfa 156 is seriously quick and incredibly economical.
Not two things I had ever thought would come together so well in the past.
As for unreliability, what are we doing riding Falcos if Italian stuff is unreliable? Italian vehicles in general are probably not up to German standard but have moved on a lot. Alfa invented common rail injection anyway.
OK old Alfa's were crap, rotted away on the drive in front of you, but always had character.
On the other side, German stuff is now nothing like as good as they were. C class Mercs are junk. BMW have had massive problems with the special long life bore linings, nearly all 6 pot engines have suffered but all got dealt with by excellent warranty work and a brilliant cover up.
Wife's also had a old R reg Punto for years, had very few problems and loves it, so there's 3 Italians in our garge.
Best news is they all came with very low mileage for very silly prices, much lower than any German options.
If/when I get bitten I'll re-think, but happy to be different for now.

Myrkk · #13 Post by **Myrkk** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:40 pm

Personally I don't understand the love affair with deisels......... my petrol car get 47mpg and produces far less toxic emissions than a diesel....... it's a honda 1.6 civic 5dr and is a nice drive too, plenty gutty. From the research I've done it seems diesels have had their day and a lot of modern petrol cars are just as efficient and certainly more eco-friendly

fastasfcuk · #14 Post by **fastasfcuk** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 10:11 pm

got to agree, you might get better mpg but your fuel cost more, then compare the price of a starter motor for a diesel to that of a petrol or any other part you might need. your fuel economy is wiped out.

lazarus · #15 Post by **lazarus** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:47 pm

HowardQ wrote:. Alfa invented common rail injection anyway.

per Wikipedia "The common rail system prototype was developed in the late 1960s by Robert Huber of Switzerland. After that, Ganser of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology developed the common rail technology further. In the mid-nineties, Dr. Shohei Itoh and Masahiko Miyaki, of the Denso Corporation, a Japanese automotive parts manufacturer, developed the Common Rail Fuel System for Heavy Duty Vehicles and finally turned into its first practical use on their ECD-U2 Common Rail system,"