27.6mpg....

It is when the ficticious manufacturers combined figure of 29 (normally optimistic because it is done down hill with an empty tank, driven by a one legged midget) is beaten by a week of real time driving involving a fat bloke and a lot of rush hour commuting.

And yes it is about smoothness, and clocks but not Lexus "Style" lights.

And despite the additional 365kgs and slushbox!

If he isn't using the brakes, that means that he's doing the opposite, and easing off well back from slow traffic, which does help with flow, generally.

No that means you should've changed gear a split second ago - unless it's a rental/courtesy car, then, yes bouncing off the limiter in all the gears it's capable of is pretty fun, along with optimistic downchanges forcing it to throw a fit because it's kind've over the limiter. Must admit I don't recall ever hitting the limiter on the motorway (excluding slip roads) though.

To be fair, I never bounced it off the limiter in the 156.

Mostly because Sillyspeed forces an upchange bang on the redline.

I think you should get Corsa or Saxo style rear lights for it - show those boy racers a thing or two about class :-)

Didn't have a revcounter, if it did I reckon it would have broken.

So you've managed to drive even more boringly than a sponsored dullard?

I'd still have taken the Passat and the money in my pocket. However, I'm not you and my perversions are no doubt darker and involve more pairs of tights and tins of baked beans than yours.

Like I've said elsewhere, I still don't understand what you actually want from a car. (c:

Hehehe. (c:

Spot on. Welcome to the world of, "look, what I say, well I'm a driving god, I can make a 1100cc Cinquecento go faaasssssst, so you'd better watch out, what I say goes around here, okay? Or do you want me to throw a sheep at you?"

No, that's making you out to be something of a clueless c*ck.

What you don't seem to realise is that squeezing better mileage from a car isn't all that different from squeezing better performance from a car. Both use a similar discipline: the conservation of energy. Holding a better line on an open corner, or lifting off slightly earlier for a junction, it's all about judgement.

On the other hand, punching the accelerator all the way down until the car jerks about, then changing up, well that doesn't involve any judgement at all.

Actually, no, it's the chump behind trying to use cruise control, unable to check their mirrors until think they need to, discovering they can't pull out and braking to bleed off more speed than they need.

I thought you used motorways a lot?

Varying speed by up to 20mph in the interests of economy is driving like a nobber.

It has the same effect on traffic flow as trucks overtaking each other.

It also makes it difficult for the traffic around you to anticipate what's going on if you're losing speed on every incline and often leaves other drivers stranded out in the 3rd lane as you then pick up speed over the crest of a hill.

I agree.

I think so. It is daft. Three lanes. My cruise at 65, or shoot, 56. Overtaking a truck on a slight uphill gradient, he's at 53. Monkey behind is in the second land. Nothing behind for a few minutes of driving. Does he or she use lane three?

Nooooo. They dribble on the steering wheel a few feet behind waiting for me to move over.

You are both utterly clueless.

Try buying cars you can afford to fuel.

No, not me, SteveH.

Oh, you mean the car. Heh.

Ya, I agree, but there are usually two sides to nobby driving. One doing it. The other reacting to it, even if it's frustration later on.

And you know - sorry that I tried to wind you up.

"I am looking for a new commute" might sum it up... ;-)

Nah. It's possible that I see more of the "I use motorways every day but still can't drive on them" because people in Yorkshire are like this. Dunno.

Lack of anticipation, lack of planning, even if it's planning for the unexpected, causes as much of a problem as truckers overtaking - depending on the road conditions. Idiots pulling out to overtake a truck in lane two without looking causes all sorts of problems for the rep in a 320d doing 90 in the outside lane a quarter mile back.

You're such a gypsy Steve.