Built like a Mercedes (?)

Individual anecdotes may be interesting but don't help with a conclusion about driving habits overall.

With all this to-ing and fro-ing I have become almost interested in the subject, i.e. whether North Americans really do drive more p.a. than Brits or, indeed, other western Europeans.

Many British "secondary" (non-motorway, if that is what you mean) roads are actually dual carriageway and pretty 'fast'. They are just not quite at motorway standards (different and fewer access points, no small motorbicycles or pushbikes, e.g.) for a variety of reasons.

Would Germans have a higher average mileage? More motorways, no physical borders (except a small one with the North Sea and Baltic in the north)...

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Actually, its a little further than that to go from San Diego, CA to Crescent City CA on Interstate 5... but don't let any Californians know that I admitted this :-)

Sounds like AMTRAK. A friend of mine travelled by AMTRAK last year, and told me that they were 20 hours late arriving on the way to their destination, but only 18 hours late on the return trip :-/

I seriously doubt those US numbers. Maybe if that is an average for ALL citizens, including the vast number in New York, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco that don't even own cars... But I don't know. It just feels wrong, based on the fact that my annual mileage is between 20k and

How on earth can you run a railway like that ?

Graham

Listen, if you don't believe the numbers, find your own and cite them or STFU.

FloydR

I discovered that the US EPA uses a figure of 12,500 mi per annum for cars. UK average mileage is certainly ~ 12,000 mi ( commonly accepted figure )

It seems that those who seek to find huge differences are simply mistaken.

I would expect those in the US living 'out in the wilds' to have higher figures but statistically they are presumably a small insignificant minority.

Graham

Here are the figures for the USA which actually shows only 11400 miles per car overall with midwestern states actually posting lower mileage at 10700 miles which goes very much against what has been implied by some posters here, particularly Steve and Clare from Canada. Of course Canada might be at variance but I doubt it. I have always assumed that mileage would not vary greatly from one country to another because it is primarily governed by the amount of *time* people feel comfortable devoting to what is essentially a waste of time.

Here is a reference to a comprehensive and authoritative source

I have always assumed that mileage would not vary

I should say that I always like to quote machinery use, even cars, by hours of use rather than mileage. I would guess that 'average' use doesn't vary much outside of between 350 to 400 hours per year wherever you are. Now let's see, 400 hours times say an average of 30mph is........ yes 12000 miles which sounds about right. Hell, I should be a transport planner or something, my talents are wasted here LOL. My Land Rover has done 150,000 miles at an average [which I worked out with care some time ago] of 15mph is 10,000 hours over 21 years or 475 hours per year which looks to be about right at about an hour and a third a day, every day. To complete the same 10,000 hours of use my Land Cruiser will average

10,000 hours is 50 weeks of a full 40 hours solid for five years. Yeeeek!

Huw

If anyone was running it, it wouldn't be like that.

Only one problen, Huw - your "comprehensive and authorative" source is

.These farmers need to drive

You think only the US have more than 1 vehicle per houshold? You know I can easily get the figures for you if you insist. But first........... Latest US figures for 2001 can be found here. It is easy to work out that the average has risen to around 11850 miles per vehicle Cars average 11400,SUV's 13200, PUtrucks 12100, RV's 5900.

Huw

Here we are. In the UK 25% of all housholds have two cars and a further 5% have three or more. That is over 30% of all housholds with two cars or more while 26% have no cars at all. I suspect that the greater number of 0 car housholds are in cities where there is no room to park.

Huw

Hell, if you must bullshit, might as well get 2006 figures if you're going to call it "the latest figures."

Not in this newsgroup... they all seem to live in the middle of nowhere, have multi-car garages and drive 100 miles to get a newspaper...and are proud of it...

;-) DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

I hope you think interesting thoughts to entertain yourself, Huwie...

As I have quite a nice car (and drive very little, 5K mi p.a. tops) I sometimes look forward to a longer trip, e.g. to Manchester or to the Continent. However, after about two hours the pleasure fades...

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

YOU dig 'em out if you disagree with the best facts available so far. As I said elsewhere, personal anecdotes may be interesting but they are useless for arriving at general conclusions.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

You wanted facts. You got them. Either you post more up to date facts or stick with your fairy stories. One day you might get good at it.

Huw

Same here. Although I do not dislike driving, like you about two hours is as much as I would like to limit myself per day. Also a different car is nice now and again. I'm lucky in that respect. I have just returned from an 85 mile journey with the Panda and broke 90mpg overall. I wasn't even trying for the first half where I noticed the average tantalisingly close to 70 mpg, so on the return journey I went all out for economy and actually averaged 90mpg and rising as I arrived home.

Huw

A question people have been asking for a LONG time.... :-/

Amtrak is a running late-night talk show monologue joke.