Range...

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Xantidote
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Re: Range...

Post by Xantidote »

Citroenmad wrote:when you factor in the higher levels of concentration/stress required to maintain the higher speed, you may arrive 10 minutes earlier on a journey of say 80 miles but you then spend that gained time in de-stressing
This is exactly what my taxi driver said a month ago - he takes clients down to London, a 4 hr trip
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Re: Range...

Post by Citroenmad »

Xantidote wrote:
Citroenmad wrote:when you factor in the higher levels of concentration/stress required to maintain the higher speed, you may arrive 10 minutes earlier on a journey of say 80 miles but you then spend that gained time in de-stressing
This is exactly what my taxi driver said a month ago - he takes clients down to London, a 4 hr trip
Funny, I don't remember saying that ... :lol:
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Re: Range...

Post by Peter.N. »

The cars I have been driving for the past 15 years or more are 2.1 XMs which develop max torque it 2000 rpm and max torque generally equals max efficiency so I try to keep to that or less, the higher the revs the higher the friction losses. The 2.1 will pull from tickover although not very hard untill you reach about 1400 rpm, if you don't use much throttle the car will accelerate slowly but smoothly from those revs.

The Hdi although having good low speed torque is not as good but when you are driving at low revs the fuel computer says it all. while running at low revs you can put you foot down hard and the fuel consumption hardly increases purly because the engine is not turning fast enough to inject much more fuel. Another reason for the good economy of the 406 is that the throttle is very progressive, the car wont pull hard until you push the peddle well down so you tend to accelerate more slowly without really trying, the 2.2 in the C5 on the other hand is quite abrupt and you find yourself applying more throttle than you actually need.

A relaxed driving style is what primaraly gives good consumption, keep well behind the car in front so you don't have to brake hard, the heat dissapated by the brakes is wasted energy, when you see the traffic slowing keep well back and let the car slow down without braking, being alert to traffic conditions can save a lot of fuel.

If you practise this for as long as I have it becomes the automatic way to drive, I have been getting 50mpg+ on our Scotland trip for many years and as already mentioned 60+ from the 406 Hdi, in fact my average consumption on the 406 over 6,000 miles was shown by the display at 54.4 mpg and I have no reason to dispute that, even if due to errors all my readings are 10% out - tha's still pretty good.

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Re: Range...

Post by Xantidote »

Citroenmad wrote:Funny, I don't remember saying that ... :lol:
Sorry Chris - somehow got my wires crossed doing the "quote" :cry:

I was actually quoting DickieG
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Range...

Post by Rhothgar »

DickieG wrote:The key to achieving high mpg figurers is quite simple, use advanced driving techniques, lift vision, anticipate and plan for the road ahead.
Oh! Someone that agrees.

I didn't want to extol the virtues of advanced driving techniques for fear of seeming pious but at the end of the day if you care about your own driving and its effect on those around you the Skills for Life is the way to go. An increase in fuel economy should follow any change in attitude towards driving. As DickieG will know, the majority of drivers involved in RTA's are not responsible for the accident. The truth is the majority of accidents could be avoided if people drove in an advanced manner.

If someone is tailgating you or driving within one second, what should you do?

The correct answer is to allow an additional distance in front of you equal to the lack of distance that the driver behind is not allowing. It saves you shunting the vehicle in front when the idiot behind you fails to stop in time. Assuming of course that they are not sending a text which they probably will be.

God I hate other drivers. They're so damned careless.

I feel better now.

BTW, 1.9TD 2250rpm is max torque. 56mph is 2100rpm.

Not sure about HDi.

Steve. Basically, if you can get anywhere near manufacturer's figures then you're driving sensibly.

If you're not bothered getting s**t MPG because of your attitude to driving then that's fine too.

I thought you were bothered about MPG because that's why you changed from a petrol Xantia. You never got 36mpg from a petrol if you're only getting a miserable 40mpg from an HDi. Either that or there is something seriously wrong with your engine or tank.

You've not holed your tank in a Dartmoor car park, have you? :-o
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Re: Range...

Post by Xaccers »

Talking of other drivers, there's a roundabout just inside Cambridge on basically a T junction, that can be a pain because no one seems to understand how roundabouts work these days.
I was there on Wednesday, waiting to turn right from the tail of the T as there were cars coming from the right. A car from the left turned to leave past me which blocked the right hand traffic so I pulled out only to have an old biddy in a smart car drive straight across the top of the T without looking.
Had I not known what that roundabout was like and just floored it to get around as quick as possible I'd have slammed into the side of her, or had her hit me.
She was completely oblivious to the roundabout, staring straight ahead. Not once did I see her glance at her mirror either as I followed her off the roundabout.
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Re: Range...

Post by DickieG »

Xac wrote:Talking of other drivers, there's a roundabout just inside Cambridge on basically a T junction, that can be a pain because no one seems to understand how roundabouts work these days.
It never ceased to amaze me how much time I needed to spend training people (all of which had been driving for at least 2 years) how to deal with a mini roundabout as so many people simply stare right and mis gap after gap after gap where they could have entered as they fail to scan left to spot the car turning across the car coming from their right. As for getting them to straighten a roundabout or simply the entry or exit due to traffic was so lost on many whilst others would straighten with gay abandon and cause havoc :roll:

The main issue causing people to struggle with with advanced driving is low vision and/or staring/failing to scan vision quickly in order to be able to observe and then take in information to process and plan their drive. The simple reason behind this problem is that human beings are unique on this planet in that we are the only creature who travels faster than we were designed to do, be it a bird fish or land creature no other being travels faster than they were designed to do so.

Put a human in the driving seat of a car, boat, train or plane and you now have a problem with low vision, think for a moment where you tend to look when you are out walking or running, your natural instinct is to look just a few yards ahead of yourself as you're concerned with falling over a tree stump, crack in the pavement or doggie do do's. The problem when you get into the driving seat is the car/plane etc allow you to far outrun your vision, the result = failing to accelerate away from the hazard as quickly as you could do and more worrying failing to slow down in time approaching the next one as you've seen it so late. Being able to lift vision quickly takes a fair old bit of training for most people. When I compared my demonstration drives to the drives of my students in the early stages of the course, there was invariably one common factor, where I was quite happy at driving at say 80 mph they would struggle to get to 60 but where I didn't dare going faster than 20 they were quite happy to try and do 40, that is until I shouted "Brake" in their ear :lol:
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Re: Range...

Post by Xaccers »

Tell me about it, I'm always scanning right up the road ahead so for instance I can start slowing down when the the vehicle 3 cars ahead puts their brake lights on yet others will go right up the back of them and then anchor up.
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Re: Range...

Post by Peter.N. »

I wonder if you can explain this, when my son goes out the road is full of maniacs that are trying to kill him but when I go out I rarely see them. He does have a good accident free record though.

I think it must be something to do with testosterone - or blood sugar :-D

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Re: Range...

Post by Xaccers »

Perhaps his hazard perception is better? :D
Danielle's is great, when she did her theory test she scored very high in that.
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Re: Range...

Post by steelcityuk »

A great aid to driving economically is a Scangauge II. Sure it won't work on anything that isn't EOBD compliant but if you set it up as suggested, calibrate it's actual speed reading and on every fill up tell it how many litres of fuel it took it's pretty accurate. Then you can have the device show you 4 things at once that you select such as throttle position, current MPG, trip MPG, overall MPG, engine load (%), intake temperature, oil temp, water temp, boost pressure, etc. It really shows you how just having your foot that little bit further down uses more fuel without noticeable gain.

It really shocked me when I first used it. Infact according to winter can half your MPG on a short trip (about 5 miles or less). Driving without concentrating on the 'controls', that is to say just driving normally rather than paying real attention easily costs 10mpg upwards.

A recent test by an American Consumer group did actually confirm that sensible driving of 3 different vehicles was able to match the American figures given by the manufacturers, in fact in some cases better them.

It really does seem to come down to the driver (with environmental aspects playing a smaller part), I guess that's why some people get through clutches and brakes like they do.

As Top Gear 'proved' the Prius is dreadful, I only managed 57mpg 4 up with luggage on trip to Berkshire on Motorways and A roads at the speed limits. Terrible for a roomy, automatic car with A/C on all the way. On some down hill sections on the M1 the revs were just above 1200rpm.

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Re: Range...

Post by Peter.N. »

When I had my CX I only ever put the aircon on when I was going down hill, that saves a bit. When my wife drives the 406 she manages to get the consuption down to less that 50mpg, it starts to creep up again when I drive :-D

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Re: Range...

Post by Stepto1 »

When I drove the petrol Xantia I used to keep to about 70mph as anything more then that would result in sub 30mpg.

Now I've got the HDI I can happily drive at 80mph+ and STILL get much better mpg.

To be fair, a few mpg here and there doesn't really bother, I'm more interested in how comfortable and relaxed a drive the car can give. The HDI can hold its speed on any of the hills on the way down whereas the petrol would be in 4th with my foot on the floor just to keep up with traffic.

My driving style is simple. Keep up a good average speed and inconvenience nobody.

I keep to the left, (a dying art!), don't cause anyone to slow down and I keep my distance.

My pet hates are the morons who sit in the middle lane at 60mph and reduce the three lane motorway into a single carriageway. The t&)@s who overtake, pull in front and then slow down and lorries that think it's ok to spend 12 miles overtaking.

I also believe that only cars/drivers that can drive at 70 mph should be allowed on the motorway. Slow drivers are far more of a menace then fast drivers. ;-)
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Re: Range...

Post by Peter.N. »

Not if they sit in the n/s lane with the lorries :wink:

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Range...

Post by Rhothgar »

DickieG wrote:straighten with gay abandon
Isn't that an oxymoron?
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