What does TBCS drive?

[altec]

Friends wife went through brakes in about three months. I have no idea...

[slaveofconvention]

'02 Peugeot 306 Meridian Estate 1.9 Diesel - 80k miles.

100% practical - it's an estate (or stationwagon for some of you guys) because I have 60 kilo's of German Shepherd dog to lug around. It's a diesel because it's a hell of a lot cheaper to run - gets close to 45mpg around the doors (UK Gallon - around 40mpg US gallons).

The "Meridian" model is about as loaded as the Peugeot 306 gets - Air con, electric windows and mirrors all round, half-leather interior - nothing amazing but it works....

Does the 0-60 in a little OVER 20 seconds lol - but it gets there and will go up to just over 100 - as the speed limits here arent that high, that's fast enough for me :p

[altec]

Diesels in cars! Like peas, and carrots! It is a real shame you don't see more in the States. Volkswagen has one, and a few others.

[slaveofconvention]

You can get a diesel version of pretty much every car on the market over here - I'm sure there'll be exceptions, but I guarantee for every one that someone points out, I'll be able to point out 10 that you can get in a diesel version... It's one of the reasons the prius has died on its arse over here - we already have cars by the boatload which leave the prius in th dust in terms of both performance and efficiency....

[Omega]

Diesels in cars! Like peas, and carrots! It is a real shame you don't see more in the States. Volkswagen has one, and a few others.

Regulations on diesel cars are so much different here, and so is what exactly goes in our diesel.

not all diesel is created equal. I bet UK cars would hate US diesel and vice versa.

on the topic of Diesel, though...

Not my car, but I know the guy:

it's a 1.9l VW TDi engine in a volvo 240 station wagon. bonus points: his plates ate "sootwgn"

~300ft/lb, ~200hp (that's a lot, considering stock 240s make... about half that, the day they roll off the factory floor), 45mpg. now THAT's a car.

[Snowman]

Absolutely drooling at the last post. Bought my first vdub in April and I am absolutely in love. My very trustworthy vw mechanic proceeds to tell me when he gets done fixing it to drive it like your punishing it for what it did wrong, and the car proceeds to LIKE IT. I have been hard on cars in the past and was trying to be nice to this one but was getting crap for gas mileage. Mechanic told me to drive it like I stole it and voila car is getting great mileage and running better than before. It is also wonderful that when I have a problem just get out the laptop plug it in and it tells me exactly what is wrong not just oh its in this circuit. Will get pics up when it stops raining.

On a second note I was looking at a two passenger vdub this morning that is a hair shorter than the miata has a top speed of 140 a 0-60 of 6.2 seconds and gets 50 MPG out of a 2.0 tdi. As is often said in a vw forum I belong you never know what to expect out of a 2.0. Also the new r32 golf is smoking bmw's on the track.

[Crazy Buddhist]

I used to drive a 1996 Land Rover Discovery LWB 2.5 Ltr Tdi - turbo Diesel with 7 seats. Until I did this in it:

It ran beautifully on a mix of 2/3rds cooking oil (rape seed) + 1/3 diesel (both bought in the same supermarket ... cooking oil poured straight in the tank on top of the diesel then a good shimmy on the way out to mix em. As fuel taxes here are so high it cut my fuel cost by 70% .... you can run almost any diesel car on 2/3 rape seed oil to 1/3 diesel or on a pure rape seed oil mixed with 5% white spirit. Just be careful if you have Lucas carburettors .. they disolve in the rape seed oil.

She was a beaut car but I am a terrible driver. Before writing the car off in a two year period I totalled an £80K Mercedes (stationary + empty), brand new BMW (same), vintage Range Rover (also parked and empty) and took the side out of an Aston Martin (not my fault actually .... the guy drove into me).

Then did that ^ hitting a stationary flatbed truck. Luckily I was in a 4x4 or that truck would have come through my windscreen.

Nowadays I travel in these (unrelated to my awful driving) but I couldn't afford insurance even if I could drive. Gladly my awful driving never injured anyone:

CB

[slaveofconvention]

Mechanic told me to drive it like I stole it and voila car is getting great mileage and running better than before..

Never hurts to give a car a bit of stick - blasts the nasty buildup out of the engine - just got to be careful when you first get in 'em - don't need to be working it too hard before the oil has had time to heat up (learned that one the hard way)

[Snowman]

Never hurts to give a car a bit of stick - blasts the nasty buildup out of the engine - just got to be careful when you first get in 'em - don't need to be working it too hard before the oil has had time to heat up (learned that one the hard way)

VERY true. That's why I run thinner oil in the winter months and run 10w40 in the summer. A lot of people are shocked when they find out I am running that heavy of oil in a 4 cylinder. My father in law had a 3 cylinder metro that ran on 20w50, honestly didn't know it came that thick without being crank case oil.

[ZeD]