Wednesday, November 26, 2008

1000 real-world miles on a tank.

Top Gear was interesting this week. They did a hyper-miling race from Basel in Switzerland to Blackpool in England. Three diesel cars - a VW Polo Bluemotion, a Subaru Legacy TDI wagon and a Jag twin-turbo TDI sedan. The VW and the Subaru were driven carefully with an eye on gas mileage, and the Jag (driven by Clarkson) was driven taking no account of range and fuel consumption.
All three made it to Blackpool - between 750 and 860 miles depending on their chosen routes - and all on a single tank of diesel. All three had zero on their miles-to-empty displays, and fuel gauges buried on "E" a good 40 miles before reaching the finish. Yet the Jag had another 120 miles-worth of diesel left in it.
Think about it for a moment - that's a 1000 mile range on a luxury car on a single tank. The VW is a practical runabout that can do 800 miles on a tank, and the Subaru is a wagon that can do 750 miles on a tank.
I ask again : why do the manufacturers not import and sell diesel vehicles in America? They're cheaper than any hybrid, they're cleaner than most petrol cars now, and they have high torque, very driveable engines that deliver astonishing gas mileage - 80mpg or more (imperial) which is 67mpg US.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

A worrying trend

Maverick have been doing this for ages, and it looks like Chevron have now cottoned on to the idea: screw over motorists who want to pay for petrol with credit or debit cards. This week, the Chevron nearest us changed it's sign. There's now two prices for each grade of petrol. The cash or Chevron Card price, and the credit/debit/pay at the pump price.
Of course the credit/debit price is 5¢ a gallon more.
So let me get this straight.
Because we pump the petrol ourselves, and don't have to interact with their staff, and don't give them the cost and potential fraud of cash-counting, we have to pay more?
Surely paying cash should cost more? After all, that involves infrastructure and employees which cost a lot more than a petrol pump calling up my bank and just taking the money.
Of course Chevron will argue that the credit/debit fees are so expensive they have to charge more. But wait - if you use the Chevron-branded card, apparently the fees aren't as expensive.
Here's the bottom line. If you can sell petrol for one price to people with cash, you can bloody well sell it for the same price to people who are absolving you of the cost of dealing with cash. Until that happens, may I politely suggest we all boycott Chevron.