OT (also "ish") Rising fuel costs

[dreadnought110]

Whats anyone doing to save money?? I've took the depressing step of buying a small motor to run work in My Land rover's doing 22mpg ish going into town and at 11 mile's either way it's getting dear as it's a gallon a day??

[muzaz]

I'm using my girlfriend's car to cut down on fuel costs....making sure she just topped it up.... 100% efficiency

[dreadnought110]

I'm using my girlfriend's car to cut down on fuel costs....making sure she just topped it up.... 100% efficiency

like your style!!

[geoffbeaumont]

Whats anyone doing to save money?? I've took the depressing step of buying a small motor to run work in My Land rover's doing 22mpg ish going into town and at 11 mile's either way it's getting dear as it's a gallon a day??

At the moment, using up the biodiesel that I had to syphon before christmas (still a bit sludgy, so I think it maybe was a dodgy batch and not just the cold, but I'm filtering it and only running 30% so hopefully it'll be okay).

After that, it'll be the same as you, though in my case the Land Rover is going to have to go to fund it No option though, with a 40mile round trip every day.

[reads90]

Useing my company car alot more then i used to. The disco only gets used for the wife to go to work and the 90 get used to take the dogs to the park or beach. (only use the 90 as after the last time i had the dogs in the toyota camry it took me ages to get the hair out , found a hover does not do it as well as a suit for removing hair form seats:rolleyes: ) But a tank in the 90 takes about 2 months to get though

[Philj]

Had to sell the Disco as I was putting £350+ of diesel in a month to get to work. Have bought a Punto 1.2 and an old series III to replace it, but SWMBO is already nagging me to get rid of the series(12mpg + no belts for the kids)

[SiWhite]

I stopped commuting in my LR about a year ago in favour of a 1.4 Golf. I had no choice as my current commute is a 50 mile round trip.

OH's car has just died so she's having the Golf - I'm back to the LR. Good news is I'm moving work which will only be 11 miles each way.... just do-able on the MTB in the summer. I may buy a road legal quad though - still fun but more frugal

[Pete Attryde]

I broke the Auto box and replaced it with a recon one and changed from the 1.2:1 transfer box to a 1.4:1 transfer box as the change in gearing suits the commute I do better (mostly B roads) and have found I'm using about 15 litres less fuel a week. .

I won't be selling up for a small car, but may well look into veg oil conversion.

[denviks]

fter the last time i had the dogs in the toyota camry it took me ages to get the hair out , found a hover does not do it as well as a suit for removing hair form seats

try using a marrigold rubber glove to remove dog hairs.............works a treat ( sorry for the side line shout in )

i have parked my 110 up for the moment and only use it when i really need to. the wife and i are sharing her freelander at the moment to try and save some money....something will have to change as this will bring the uk to its knee's in the end

[bill van snorkle]

With oil expected to reach US$200 a barrel before the end of the year, bank interest rates rising weekly, house rental costs expected to increase by 50% within 2 years, together with the soaring costs in lifes basic necessities I can no longer afford to register, insure and run both the LandRover as a daily driver/weekend toy and the Trooper as the wifes runabout/family wagon. Neither vehicle is worth much in monetary terms but one will have to fall into disuse, and unfortunately as much as it is a living breathing part of me it will have to be the LandRover.

The only possible alternative would be if I convert it to long wheelbase so that I will have space to fit some form of wood gas producer similar to what some people used to keep their cars running during the petrol rationing years of World War 2. I own a heavily timbered 44 acre block of land that is lying dormant and I am unable to sell due to high interest rates, so I might as well see if I can use it as a source of fuel. There was a bloke who started off the Australian Outback Roadtrain transport industry back in the 1950's that developed a reasonably efficient wood gas producer that he used on a large American station wagon when touring the remote regions of OZ. Might try to track down the blueprints for his design.

Bill.

[white90]

Swapped to a diesel Merc (old) C class

does 50mpg on my commute of 200miles one way

luckily only one week in a 5 week period.

on the brighter side Vals SLK does 30mpg whih I think is very good, her commute is only 8miles round trip luckily

[sgnas]

My daily commute is 80miles round trip

Currently use the wifes Focus TDCi (50-55mpg) 4 days a week instead of 3

Usually my 90 for the remainder day (22-25mpg)

and my wife still does 120-150miles a week in "little trips" gym, shops, toddler group etc

In total getting through ~300litre of diesel a month!

[MogLite]

I think the filling stations are less busy too.

It seems a lot of people are taking measures to use less fuel - myself included.

[uazvet]

According to CNN the americans are on their knees at 4usd a gallon! Ive heard only one reporter acknowledge that the Europeans may not hold too much sympathy for their plight! Those guys are paying less than I am here in Russia, albeit marginally:)

I would add to bill van snorkles list, the cost of banking aswell - another group of robbing swine...grrr.

[Turbocharger]

I bought an MG TF - 40mpg and it's fun too The Ninety is off the road to get some of the bigger jobs done that I couldn't when it was the daily drive.

Otherwise I'm using public transport (spit spit) where it makes sense, eg 1.5hrs to London on the train where I can sit and work instead of just steering to avoid the other motorway muppets.

It's no use crying "something should be done" - there are more people wanting oil (China, India) and the market corrects this by selling it to the richest groups. We can't really deny them development after our 200 years of mechanisation.

[Godlykepower]

I'm quite lucky actually. I can walk to work & back, and the 90 is only for pleasure anyway.

The only money saving measure I am taking, is that I have stopped the 20 Marlboro's a day, in favour of roll-up fags. Works out to a £150 p/m saving.

[v8bertha]

When we picked up the Camel after shipping it back from the USA, I had to fill it up with juice. Bear in mind before we left I could brim the tank for a little over 60quid. Our first fill up in January cost over 75quid!! This massive jump is over 5 months!

So I went out and got a Freelander... little 2ltr diesel job as the runabout, does mid-30s MPG, so can't really complain . I do approx 30miles round trip every day and am considering using my bike for the whole journey now as it now costs nearly £70 to fill the tank on the Freelander. Train fares are ridiculously expensive (by my calculations its still cheaper to use the Freelander than to get the train every day).

The Camel only comes out on special occasions now or when I'm feeling like I need cheering up

And things are set to get worse, so brace yourselves!

[Gromit]

My commute is 140 miles, every 2 days, the rest of the time I work from home.

Is still expensive, as 1/2 the journey is spent chugging along in low range in traffic.

I've a veg oil conversion kit sitting here in front of me that arrived yesterday. At the current price of diesel and veg, I calculated it'll take me 280 days to make the cost of the conversion back.

[FridgeFreezer]

Freelander 1.8 - 27mpg and a decent drive. The 109 only goes out on "business" now at 15mpg, mind you it's about to do about 2000 miles albeit using some of the lovely Russian petrol at 40p/l :wub:

Mind you, my commute to work is from the bed to the study, usually via the kettle, so I don't use much fuel there

[green110]

My 1998 300 Tdi 110 is on 265 Mud Terrains and weighs about 2.7t. I filled up at Leicester Forest last week, and drove M69-M6-M42-M5 to Bridgewater and filled up again. I was lucky with traffic and spent as much time as possible hiding behind large lorries (closer than I normally drive, but obviously not stupidly close). The combination of driving at a steady 56mph and slipstreaming meant that I got 39 mpg. I estimate that this is nearly a 50% improvement over driving at 70 mph+, so I now intend to trundle along in the slow lane whenever time permits! (I spent £700 on fuel last month so every little helps).

Gus

[Michele]

I've a veg oil conversion kit sitting here in front of me that arrived yesterday

Care to tell more?

Plantdrive bit?

It's growing on me and I'm waiting for all details (parts/installation/does it really work?) via web

and hope to see one in the metal in Sept. while being in US.

[nicks90]

i only do short journeys to work and back in my 90 - so it still works out cheaper than using the bus, just.......

and sara gets her fuel paid for by her company, so we dont care about the mileage on her disco2. But i think it does about 28-30mpg on average.

In the news today, it was saying that Gordon "I'm a theiving scum" Brown could reduce fuel prices by 12p a litre if he wanted to - because thats the extra revenue in duty and vat he is making from the increased price of oil.

one thing we do as a money saving venture is to use a cashback credit card - for EVERYTHING.

just add up how much you spend each month on fixed rate expenses + standing orders, eg mortgage, gas, leccy, insurance, council tax, water rates, loans etcetcetc

we set up all these onto a cashback credit card and then set up a monthly debit from our account into the credit card to cover it. Costs nothing to do, as you never get charged interest due to paying the full amount off each month! Some cashback credit cards are offering 5% cashback initially and then 1.5% after that. Not a huge amount - but it does save a significant wedge over a year.

[edited to add link - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/cashback-credit-cards ]

[Ryan]

When I change my Discovery for a Defender, I'm hoping to have enough money left over to take my bike test and get a motorbike to commute to work. I don't have the option of buses, trains or car sharing due to working shifts. I'm not fit enough to cycle to work, and I'd have to get up at 4am for an early shift if I was.

When I first picked up my Discovery almost 2 years ago now, the tank was almost empty and it took about £75 to fill it. It now cost almost that to fill it from the halfway mark.

[Gromit]

Care to tell more?

Plantdrive bit?

It's growing on me and I'm waiting for all details (parts/installation/does it really work?) via web

and hope to see one in the metal in Sept. while being in US.

I've been researching it for about a year, and waiting to have some cash available to buy the kit.

By all accounts, from people running veg/diesel mix in an unmodified 200tdi, to people using a 2 tank system, it seems to be pretty proven. I guess the proof will be in the pudding if all is still going well in a year or two.

I'll be keeping a close eye on the oil, as my 200tdi has a fair few miles on it.

I just got back from France where diesel was 1.55 a litre. That combined with oil hitting $135 a barrel was the deciding factor.

I ordered the kit from dieselveg

Rather than a small startup diesel tank, I've a second 55L tank that i'll use for veg. the reason being that I've a night heater that will only run on diesel and, in case I can't source veg for some reason, I still have a full capacity diesel tank.

Will write up the install when it's done.

[freeagent]

I've been trying to keep the usage down a bit where I can, but I do a 40 mile round trip to work every day, so minimum of 200 miles per week in my 300Tdi disco...

i'm running on 40% SVO - 60% diesel at the moment, cheapest I can get SVO for is 95p per litre... diesel is £1.22 per litre upwards around here now... so every little helps...