Tarptent and coming economic doom

Huh?

Last I checked, miles per gallon was not affected by whether or not you pay fuel taxes.

So what's the point? Are you alleging that WVO is artificially cheap because of the ability to dodge fuel taxes?

I think that it is unfair to blame Henry for the economic downturn. It is true that he hasn't added much to the range in 07 but the new version of the Contrail and the two Sublites along with whatever else is designing now should give you more than enough choice to spend the Bush rebate on something that you really want whithin the next few months.
Franco

"40mpg is almost as good as the latest little 1.5l renault diesel. What make/model and engine is it?"

Actually the Renault Scenic we've been looking at can do 4.5 l / 100 km in the country sitting on 100km – that's 52.27 mpg (on US gallons which are apparently different to UK gallons). With the standard 60 l tank that's 1300 km per tank …. The Citroen Picasso we test drove is a bigger car but still gets 6.0 l / 100 km in the country, which is 39 mpg – so what Sarah's getting.

My old car – which my parents pinched when I moved overseas and are still driving – had a 660 cc engine. I used to get about 6 l / 100 km at highway speeds but it did much better than that when being driven at slower speeds.

nm

Those are what people are getting.

The Australian government official figure (based on ADR 81/01) is 7.1 l/100km for the Renault Scenic. That's a composite figure for a country cycle and a city cycle. City would be higher than that, country lower. The Australian ADR is a little more real-world than, for example, the Japanese one which is hopelessly optimistic.

As for real-world figures, check out this article:

http://www.autoweb.com.au/cms/A_109237/title_Diesel-or-Hybrid-or-Petrol/article.html

and this one:

http://www.autoweb.com.au/cms/A_2036/title_Toyota-Prius-Across-a-Continent/article.html

Note that the author was averaging 4.5 l/100 km in CITY driving where the regenerative braking came into effect, which it doesn't when driving for hours on flat roads. By all accounts the Prius' petrol engine is not that sophisticated, so the economy on the highway can only improve …

I'm betting Sarah was exaggerating a bit – but not a huge bit. The only Mercedes ever sold in the U.S. that comes close to that is the manual transmission 190D from the mid-80s (I had one, and got 35-38 mpg highway if I drove carefully).

I have a 99 300D turbodiesel now, and the best I ever saw with it was 34 mpg, on an entire tank driven 55-60 mph. Driving faster, and driving in the city, cause a big hit on that. On a daily commute of mixed city/75 mph highway driving, I was getting a little over 27.

Still, all in all, pretty good figures for a bigger car, though particulate emissions are way out of line with what the hybrids do.

Bill – I wasn't aware of a fuel tax on waste oil; if you pick up waste oil from a restaurant and later have to filter and process it for use in a car, where is it written that you have to pay a fuel tax?

Not at all….here we go:

Taxes: In Washington State you pay tax on every drop of gas or diesel. No matter where you buy it (well, unless you are loading up in the back of someone's barn!) Bio is taxed here the same. Be it B5, B20 or B99.

Our in town MPG is NOT as good, but that is normal. Around 30 in city. Open her up on a highway and she pushes high 30's to 40 on average.

Now having said that when we got her we got her into her best shape possible. We also drive like old people in her. And my lead footed friends, oh, you can really oomph your MPG if you lay off the old metal foot.
I NEVER peel out (cause, oh, diesel cars SUCK at that!) and let her warm up gently.
If you drive like you have no guts and no brakes you can increase your mileage.

On the other hand, even if we DO drive fast (like at 80-90) we can still expect 35 mpg on highway.

So even in an SUV, start driving like you have no brakes. Slowing down and then hitting the gas is wasteful! Ok, people will tailgate you. I just turn up the radio and realize I have better insurance than they do most likely if they hit me ;-P

nm