My brother-in-law Frank – the retired professor who lives in Pittsburgh PA – with my sister visited the UK a few months ago, and was quite taken, nay surprised with my Skoda Octavia with the VAG Group 1.9 ltr turbodiesel engine.
From what I gather, Diesel has not taken-off as a car fuel in the USA in the manner that it has over in Europe; there was a time here some years ago when diesel fuel was much cheaper than petrol (gasoline) but no longer, in the UK at least the two are almost at parity.
The engine is (apparently) bombproof – the service interval is in the order of 25,000 +/- 5,000, and it sips oil exceedingly sparingly after having been run-in.
It accelerates quite linearly from 50 to 100, and is very quick off-the-mark so long as you are not scared of revving it quite close to the line; the effect of deploying such torque can quite shock drivers of hot-hatchbacks who have to change gear to keep up with your one long pull.
Some statistics from my recent trip up north according to my trip computer and/or some basic maths:
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Total Distance | 830 mi (2x 340 + 150 touring) |
| Average MPH | 48 (return route average only) |
| Average MPG | 59.2 |
| Fuel | 14.0 br.gal. == 63.6 ltr |
| Cost | 64 ltr * £0.89; == £57-ish |
So, there you have it. 57 quid to go from Reading to Northumberland, loop round southern Scotland, and drive back; an average of 48MPH is pretty good for motorway+urban driving, which I generally reckon to be 30MPH average on my 125cc bike, and a little under 40MPH on the Suzuki.
What amazed Frank was the MPG figure – these are British gallons which are 20% larger than American gallons (there are 20 fl.oz per Pint, in the UK, 8 pints to the Gallon), so that’s the other bit of maths:
| British | Metric | American |
|---|---|---|
| 1 UK Gallon | 4.546 ltr | 1.2 US Gallon |
| 59.2 MPG | 4.8l/100km | 49.3 MPG |
This is probably the point where someone will say that fuel mileage gallons are normalised around the world to some standard, but I don’t know if that’s true; the figure of 49MPG is still pretty impressive in anyone’s book, especially important when you realise the price of a US gallon bought with US money in the UK:
(£0.89/ltr) * (3.785 ltr/USgal) * ($1.86/£) = $6.27/USgal
Yep – six bucks and twenty seven cents per US gallon – and you wonder why the rest of the world laughs when you complain about filling your SUV?
ps: Yes, engine aside, my car is basically the same as the VW Jetta.
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