Although only 2 of us now, we have 3 cars between us.
However,
One is a JBA Falcon kit car with Rover V8 engine which has been in garage unused for 2 years plus.
A Rover 25 which is 8 years old and is only used for longish infrequent journeys.
An Elcat Citivan EV which is used for all local trips but unfortunately only has a very limited range.
Grid connected Proven 6kW Wind Turbine and 3.8kW Solar PV
Horizontal Top Bar Hives
Growing fruit, nuts, vegetables and a variety of trees for coppicing.
goslow wrote:
BTW Aurora, I have one guy in my biodiesel group happily running his skoda on biodiesel, at 50% blend or more. Its a complicated issue, depends precisely on what model of VAG engine you have. Pre-2003 makes are often reported as being ok at high blends.
VAG themselves have backed away from officially approving biodiesel use in their cars. Certainly the post-2003 ones are approved at no more than 5% blend (which you can manage in any diesel car anyway).
Thanks for the information goslow.
Mine's a 2007 model which I'm delighted with but I'd heard/read something about these engines being unsuitable for conversion to bio-diesel.
Hmmm. We've recently gone from one car to two. But that's because they have their different uses.
We used to have a Polo 1.4TDi, but we got rid of that and got an 18-year old ex-military Land Rover Defender for pulling trailers full of logs out of the woods in all weather. We tried to use that as our only car, but found there were too many journeys that were difficult or impossible to do by train or bike, so we were using the land rover for more on-road journeys than we'd like. Given the efficiency had dropped from 28 to 25mpg when we fitted chunky mud tyres, we decided this was no good and got a second car - a Toyota Aygo (with a working accelerator, before you ask!). Although it's petrol, it's band B for CO2, which is actually lower than our Polo TDi was!
Sometimes I look at cars and think there's some kind of arms race thing going on. I don't mean people want to pose, that's so last century (or to use the delightful Icelandic phrase, "so 2007"). I mean you're out there on the road in your Beetle running the gauntlet of all these nutters in their chelsea tractors, so eventually, because you want to feel safe, you surcombe(sp?) to the temptation and get one for yourself "because I want the kids to be safe" etc etc you get the idea.
With the huge disparity in wealth ("Fine me if you like" said the bird in the double-parked chelsea tractor, "I can afford it"), how do we get out of this??
If the government were serious about GW or even making the country more efficient, they would put up the road tax on 2ltr+ cars to £500 and then £1000 and then £5000. That would get the message across.
I suspect that there would be quite a few people who would still by a large car even at that taxation rate. the answer? Keep petting the rate up until the pips squeaked.
The Germans would probably complain to the EU about unfair trading. But who cares?
kenneal wrote:If the government were serious about GW or even making the country more efficient, they would put up the road tax on 2ltr+ cars to £500 and then £1000 and then £5000. That would get the message across.
Illogical. If the government were serious it would tax all cars off the road and invest in public transport. But why stop there? Tax cattle as they are big emitters. Tax energy bills heavily that will reduce Co2 hugely.
Remember, it is always ‘other people whom cause AGW’!
kenneal wrote:If the government were serious about GW or even making the country more efficient, they would put up the road tax on 2ltr+ cars to £500 and then £1000 and then £5000. That would get the message across.
Illogical. If the government were serious it would tax all cars off the road and invest in public transport. But why stop there? Tax cattle as they are big emitters. Tax energy bills heavily that will reduce Co2 hugely.
Remember, it is always ‘other people whom cause AGW’!
RenewableCandy wrote: the gauntlet of all these nutters in their chelsea tractors,
The same nutters that councils called on to deliver meals on wheels to the elderly and vulnerable during the recent frozen Britain event?
The very same. When I in my turn become "elderly and vulnerable", if I am lucky enough to live that long, I shall of course live out my final years alone in a delightful quiet location with a beautiful view over the hills and expect my lunch to be delivered to my 4-bedroom isolated ex-farm-house every day come hell or high water. Even if it makes our city streets unusable.
RenewableCandy wrote: the gauntlet of all these nutters in their chelsea tractors,
The same nutters that councils called on to deliver meals on wheels to the elderly and vulnerable during the recent frozen Britain event?
The very same. When I in my turn become "elderly and vulnerable", if I am lucky enough to live that long, I shall of course live out my final years alone in a delightful quiet location with a beautiful view over the hills and expect my lunch to be delivered to my 4-bedroom isolated ex-farm-house every day come hell or high water. Even if it makes our city streets unusable.
What? Tax cattle as they are big emitters? Never!
