Indeed, that's a good question. Extreme turbo charging can be a pain because of the dreaded turbo lag. But Saab's LPT method of turbo charging provides better driveability at low revs, just what you need. It just fixes the weak point of petrol engines. Many 660cc City cars in Japan are turbo charged, that maintains reasonable performance with low engine weight. The new 1.4L kompressor&turbo VW Golf promises performance + economy + refinement. A turbo needs slightly more care than a NA engine, but if you stick to a few simple rules, it will last just as long.
therein lies the rub - with the limited amount of *power* low gears must be very low to allow overtaking and quick accelleration from rest. So you end up with huge gaps, or lots of gears. So I bought an auto...
Zathras wrote: ]> Except that you're not comparing like with like engines - cc and
Ahhhh but
Turbochargers. Sorry, failed comparison.
Turbochargers. Sorry, failed comparison.
Yes, and you're wrong. Very wrong.
Let's throw turbochargers into the equation.
BMW don't do petrol turbos - but there's a rumoured 335badged turbo petrol
3l tipped for 330bhp and 6s to 60. So lets look at... erm... Volvo S60 D5 180bhp 400Nm 2401cc diesel 0-62 8.2 top 143 T5 260bhp 350Nm 2401cc petrol 0-62 6.5 top 155 limited
Audi A4
2.0T FSi Petrol 0-60 7.2 200ps 280Nm top 149
2.0TDi 0-60 9.7, 140ps, 320Nm, top 131
or how about something older and more mundane Rover 620 ti 197bhp, 240Nm, 0-60 7.0, top 143 Rover 620 SDi 103bhp, 210 Nm, 0-60 10.8, top 115
London (central) on a clear day (such as a sunday) takes me 3-3 1/2 driving hours from Hull if I'm not on an out and out mission to get there as quick as possible. I've done times of this order in:
So in normal road conditions (ie driving in a manner unlikely to get you shot, jailed or killed) a 1.0 12v corsa is as quick as a BMW 540i.
There is no point whatsoever in buying a 335d if you drive like a nun all the time, a 320d will suit you better, in fact unless you crack 30k miles p/a to pay back the fuel cost a 318 would be better. And quieter. Because
99.9% of most peoples driving time is spent using less than 80% of the cars power.
As you can see from the list above - I've driven all sorts of stuff on the same run (just noticed, never taken a Zafira to London, probably never will as ours goes in December) and they can all do it in the same time - cruising to the end of the M1 at 90-95 then down the A5. Scarily the corsa averaged
33mpg, about the same as the 540i - which was far nicer.
Heh - you're torquing about the prodigious talk of the PD engine and the requirement not to change down - facilitated by the descending torque curve meaning power is constant over a certain rev range, unlike petrol engines that are normally tuned for power to increase with revs.
I seldom had to change down in my Volvo, but in the golf (130PS) you use
4th and 3rd a lot, and they run out quite early. Feels quick, but it isn't.
One question... given your lamenting going down to a smaller car from your Volvo, why didn't you get something like one of these, instead of the A-Class?
I had a certain amount of money, wanted an auto / cruise / climate, and was looking for a low miles car that would be /shedloads/ cheaper to run. Last diesel manual passat I drove wouldn't crack 39 mpg despite my colleague averaging 55 mpg when he drove us back...
The A class was just an off-the-wall choice, it was cheap, came with a years main dealer warranty, had cat1 alarm, is mega cheap to insure and service and will be replaced when I see a decent upturn in business and the economy in general - probably with something heavily turbocharged or a V8. It's been commented as "not as bad as I expected" by a couple of people who've tried it, even I'm pleasantly surprised how bad it isn't.
Part of me wishes I'd borrowed an extra 6 grand and bought either the A4 or the Signum I saw, trouble would be I could see me getting low 30s all the time in the signum (it was a 150 manual elite 1.9CDTI) and the A4 was already at 70k miles (although it had bose, leather, auto, changer, sunroof, computer, cruise etc...) , not a problem mechanically but it meant that it was about to become a depreciation risk. The A class can't lose more than
6000 quid no matter how many miles I put on it or how long I keep it. My Volvo lost 12000 quid in three years.
I've driven around in Micras and Jettas before when money's not been too good, an A class for a year to three years won't kill me...
I get 55 - 60mpg on a long 80ish run... more if I plod along a bit slower.
When I've cruised it along at around 55 - 60 one leisurely afternoon drive, as I've said before, it reckoned it was doing 69mpg. I reckon on fill up, it was about 5% optimistic in fuel computer terms.
What I do find, is, like the Golf TDI before it, it's quite laid back - which means it's no real effort, to drive it
business
I bought the Passat with 87k on it, for £3k - S reg (but hidden by a private reg that came with the car), never had any bodywork, 16" Audi alloys (with VW centre badges - they actually look like they're meant to be on the car), and SE spec, so climate, electric windows, remote locking etc., and it came with a half decent stereo too, although I've now put my MP3 HU in.
The plan is to, unless I have another dumbass episode where I consider selling it to get something like a VTS, keep it three years - it should still be worth around £2k min., if we then decide to get something newer - the point is, I looked for about a month with the money just sitting in the account burning a hole in my pocket, making sure I got the right car - 'buy to sell', as they say, and I don't reckon given the nice comments we've had about it since we got it, that we'll have any trouble parting with it for sensible money when the time to say goodbye comes.
As it stands, looks like I might have something decidedly hairdresserish to play with as of tomorrow, in need of a little TLC, and no, it's not an MR2 or MX5. :-)
I liked my Micra K11s... I just found them juicy for a supposed economy car.
"Taxi" .. "Dad, can you take us all to the pictures ... oh and pick us up please.. ". I'd rather that than have her on the bus late at night .. even with her mates ..
I like the logic ;-)
Don't get me wrong .. I *like* mechanical engineering / engines / technology etc (even built a kit car and have always maintained all my own vehicles) but have never lusted after anything remotely 'sporty', no pictures of cars on the wall etc (offshore powerboats / girls maybe). Something to so with living in London maybe? ;-(
By brother in law and I (and respective kids) recently did some off-road (in his old Disco) and watched one of the rounds of the WTC at Silverstone and Drag racing at 'The Pod'. It was all 'ok' as a day out and something new for the kids but the best day was a round of the British Superbikes at Brands .. (and it got a 10:10 vote by my 15yr old daughter in spite of it pi$$ing down with rain most the day and one of the riders getting killed) ;-(
Further to my reply. Maybe it has something to do with marketing. A petrol turbo is expected to be 'sporty', hence higher insurance class. In particular if the car has a 'Turbo' badge. Petrol engines already have enough power, so many see a turbo as an unnecessary complication. Only Saab has seen the light with a comprehensive petrol turbo range; all turbos bar one entry level car; and there are no 'Turbo' badges. Even this might have hurt their marketing as many expect more than 4cyl engines in this class of cars. But with fuel prices rising...
If it were that simple! Son plays ice hockey and training is 22 miles away. At the same time youngest daughter is swimming., near home so 2 cars required. Field hockey also plays a part, and both these sports have weekend games which can involve 30-mile trips, even when a bus is provided! Plus other daughter is a singer/guitarist so some of her taxi trips involve carrying an obscene amount of sound equipment (if "2.4k rig" means anything to you you'll understand!)
My 2k rig fitted nicely in the boot of the volvo, without seat folding, that was a saloon. My 3.6k (plus monitors) fits in the Zafira (18" subs) but needs seats down - not tried getting it in the A class, reckon it won't go, but looking at a smaller higher output system based on 15" subs anyhow.
The 2k is the one I travel with mostly though - halve it for smaller gigs and it'll fit in the back of the A class.
Are you not a little apprehensive re. speeding fines / points when cruising faster than the "un-official" motorway speed limit?
Since I am but a poor pensioner, c/w with 3 points on't licence, I prefer to stay at / under 80 mph where feasible, since I'm not convinced that the cost of cruising 10 mph faster for 120? miles is worth the minimal time saving. ( 10 minutes for 80 or 90 mph cruising for 120 miles ).
(Doesn't the inverse square law apply when calculating time savings & speed increases?)
Tim S Kemp ( snipped-for-privacy@timkemp.karoo.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
I can do 500miles plus without stopping for fuel - in a petrol auto.
Hell, I managed about 450 miles out of a tank over the weekend - with a loaded car trailer on the back AND 30 or so miles of narrow steep hills through North Yorks.
I came DOWN Sutton Bank, not up... Bit steep, that.
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