"Julian" wrote in message
...

"Dave Baker" wrote in message
...



I think low tech cars are just as capable of doing that, maybe more so. I
had an old A reg 1.1 VW Polo briefly as a stop-gap car a few years .
Hardly a fireball but 50 mpg was a considerable compensation.


So, better than the Prius then? And I bet you didn't pay more for it than
2 months worth of depreciation for the P... I'm sure we live in a land of
make believe reference the 'green' hype surrounding these new vehicles.

I didn't even pay anything for it. It was a 20 year old Polo that a friend
had and although still totally rust free probably only worth a couple of
hundred quid so it sort of floated around as a handy spare car not worth
selling. He gave it to me when my 12 year old Fester XR2i turned out at MOT
time to have a floorpan resembling a colander more than a floorpan and I
needed wheels in a hurry. I used it for a few months until a nice 2.0 Mondeo
Ghia came along for a grand and then gave it back as someone else he knew
now wanted something small and reliable for his teenage daughter. It'll no
doubt still be pottering along somewhere in another 10 or even 20 years,
still rust free and still giving 50 mpg and being passed from person to
person FOC wherever it's needed. Actually the only thing on those old Polos
that ever does rust is the inside of the petrol tank if you don't use them
for a few months hence my fuel filter woes.

In terms of the environment I can't imagine a more effective or efficient
transportation device. Zero depreciation, zero use of new raw materials,
good economy and simple to fix in the unlikely event anything does break
which again on those old Polos it never does. FWIW, once I'd actually fixed
the conking out problem and could drive it for more than 5 miles at a time
my last three tanks of fuel gave me 50.1, 42.3 and 50.6 mpg. The average was
dragged down badly by the previous three tanks of intermittent use to 40 mpg
overall but high 40s would have been more representative. Even low 50s if
your mileage didn't include lots of very short runs with a stone cold engine
like mine does. Plus I caned it of course as it was dreadfully slow compared
to anything I'd had before.

Of course you couldn't build anything remotely similar today. By the time
you've fitted airbags, ABS, a cat and a complicated fuel injection system to
make that work, central locking, electric windows, modern standards of crash
protection you end up with a car that weighs 300 kg more and then needs a
diesel engine to give the same economy as a petrol engine did 20 years
previously.