What vehicle do you drive? how much on fuel?

Seeing what everyone spends on petrol weekly/fortnightly i.e. am I paying too much for the vehicle I drive etc. I drive a toyota camry V6 and spend around $100 fortnightly for full tank.

Irrelevant thread unless you say how far you drive in that fortnight and what sort of driving you do.

If you drive Auckland to Wellington and back each fortnight that's good going. If you just drive your car to church on Sunday, it's a bit thirsty.

My BMW 740ihas been doing about13-14litres per 100k mixed driving.

My Mazda B2200 utearound 11litres per 100k mixed driving.

Most of my driving is "run of the mill". Work, visit family, some short stops to shops, motorway driving.

The point I was trying to stress was larger cars need more fuel than small cars. *should I "downgrade" my car for a small one and spend less on fuel. Is my current car a gas hog!

What's the fuel tank capacity on a Camry V6!

There's been a few people in here lately talking about changing cars in order to save fuel. Just how much do they think they're going to save!

The reality is they want to change cars, and are using the fuel thing as a way to justify it to themselves, their partner, whoever. The math rarely stacks up.

How many k's a year do you do, what sized car could you live with, and what l/100km is the camry doing now!

50 litres

My 1995 RVR (4g63 dohc 2 litre 4wd engine) is having a fuel consumption issue (as i knew it may have when bought it - still suspect ecu needs that leaky capacitor replaced, or trans ecu needs adjusting) but it is serving me well and is ever so practical for my business and visiting daughter in Timaru etc

Round town the constant 4wd GUZZLES $50 = 200kms
On Open Road she goes better and 4wd $80 = 450-500kms

So all in all it's not bad, but is still awful when you compare to a Honda Civic or 2ltr non turbo suby wagon or similar

It's my eclectic (BAD) taste that makes me keep it - i just love the look of them (ewww i know what crap taste i must have lol)

Will be interesting to see the usage stats of others and see if we can get some REAL figures rather than the dreamt up ones that always seem to be posted on these types of threads lol

Last fuel fill up was $50 of 95 giving me 21.94 Ltr and will see me to 200-210kms (no mixed driving - all stop start Chch city driving) so @ 10km/L or 10L/100km

Seems unlikely.

That's why i am keeping my RVR - the extra money required now with the price of fuel efficient smaller cars means i will spend $xxx dollars upgrading so to speak and the saving of fuel over that period to recoup will make it the same as running my rvr for the next 12-14 months lol!hence keeping

Make sure you do ALL the maths in the equation i say - Insurance, Rego, WOF, Fuel, Maintenance, Repairs and cost of change over to new vehicle and sale of older vehicle difference

$20 per week saving on a smaller car at the pump will not make me change when over the course of 12 months i won't recover my $1500-$2000 extra needed to change vehicles for a newer better model (especially when i may need to hire trailers over the next 12 months too to shift things instead of putting them in the back of my current vehicle)

HJence why i was looking at the Funcargo as an alternative to Rvr (just couldn't justify the extra $$$ spending tbh)

Meh I get 3 weeks out of a tank in a Fairmont. Your Camry is thirsty.

Are you sure about that! Doesn't everyone drive exactly the same distance each week under identical conditions!

Oh, well that's much clearer.

Exactly. Better the devil you know too.

i put $40 bucks in my 67 falcon about 12 months ago and i still have some left.

Ef Fairmont 6 cylinder last longish trip from Te Aroha to Rotorua trip computer had it at 9.2 liters per 100kms the RVR (2L like ya milk comes in 4x4 auto)I picked up I filled up with 91 (now run it on 95) and with mainly open road it returned 10.8 Liters per 100km, 95 seams to return the same but it runs a lot nicer. About to take it for a good run up north so will be interesting to see what it does, not expecting it to be as good as the fairmont though.

FG Xr6 uses under 10l/100 km on open road. More round town. Also take into account who is driving and how are they driving it. Lead foot or light foot. We pay what it costs because we like the quality and comfort of the bigger car.

1995 Honda Odyssey, 2.2 litre, 4 cylinder, auto, fwd, uses 10L/100 km.
2001 Hyundai Trajet, 2.7 litre V6, auto, fwd, uses around 12L/100 km.

We use around $50 a week (on average) on fuel between both cars, we live in a small town and everything is within walking distance from our house. We mainly use our cars to go to Palmerston North every fortnight for shopping and once every three months to Wellington to visit family.

2007 Turbo Territory - 440km to tank cost appox $135 to fill, lasts a week if I'm lucky. 68 litre tank (I think)

Most of the Camry's are particularly inefficient for their size/power (with the exception of some of the very new ones).

The technology used was very old when the car was new and Toyota (with the exception of the marketing gimmck hybrids) made zero effort to implement any fuel saving measures. While other manufacturers were paying careful attention to new ideas in aerodynamics and fuel saving items like electric power steering.

Where most people go wrong though with changing a vehicle for economy is in the following ways:

1. They don't do the math properly to see if its worthwhile for their particular kind and amount of milage.

2. They usually only consider inefficient Japanese automatic cars. (Cars from countries that have had expensive fuel for decades are often the best option). There are some exceptions though, like certain Honda's which are good on fuel.

3. They go about buying and selling the wrong way so they lose money in the change. This is things like buying the new vehicle from a dealer at extortionate markup. Not presenting their car nicely for sale or trading it in.

4. They "upgrade" the car at the same time and pre-spend their fuel savings on purchase price. Its fine though if you want to upgrade, but that is a separate cost and should be considered as such.

To give you an idea of what you could be paying in a similar sized car. Good European Diesels like the Passat, Skoda etc will cost you around $13 per 100km including RUC for that sort of typical mixed running. Many will also be some of the very best buys in terms of expected depreciation which is your next biggest cost to consider.

You need to allow a budget of at least 8K to get into something like that though. Performance is excellent with good power delivery for passing etc and a surprisingly sporty drive from many of them. There is an exception to the 8K rule, that is if you don't mind the looks of the Fiat Multipla. Its a brilliantly versatile vehicle with loads of space and the fantastic common rail diesel. You can pick them up from just $3500.

In petrol and a cheaper to buy, I usually pay around $16.50 per 100km to run a Fiat Multipla Petrol, or Fiat Marea 1.6 Station wagon for similar running. The Marea won't tow as well as a V6 Camry but gets along well and certainly has plenty of space. Reliability is also excellent.

In a smaller car you can't go past a $4000 Fiat Punto (2000 or newer). I used to pay around $12 per 100km to run one of those with very little difference between automatic and manual versions as they have the brilliantly clever CVT transmission.

Certainly there are many more options out there. Its well worth doing the math and possibly making the change. Just make sure you go about it the right way, search for the "real" information and not just hearsay and guess's from people who should know better. (You would be amazed how many myths and half truths exist around this kind of stuff, barely anyone every bothers to do the proper math).

Oh and the "larger cars use more gas" is just too simplistic to be of use. As you can see with the likes of the Passat/Skoda etc you can have still have a good sized car with plenty of power yet your running costs are almost cut in half compared to the Camry.

Also. it dosn't just have to be Diesels, the clever technology in the likes of the 2.0 FSI Turbo Passat's will give you significant fuel savings over a typical V6 Camry without sacrificing the power.

The best thing you can do is fill us in on what year/milage the Camry is and whether you would want to add any money to what its worth. Then we could give you some proper answers that would suit your price range etc.

Also, take the time to work out what exact fuel milage you are getting from the Camry as that will help you decide whether its worthwhile.

Best of luck with it.

My AE92 4AF Corolla I just got rid of (horrible car) was managing just over 7L/100km all round driving. Was cheaper to run than my current bike.
Mind you, I drive somewhat conservatively (cars like that bore me to death)

The Camry V6's have always been heavy on petrol and for no actual performance worth noting. Rubbish car IMHO.

V8 ss commie gives around 55liters for 640 k's and my 2.5 suzuki vatara uses about 50 liters for the same amount of mixed driving in a fortnight for me. Open hi-way driving on a trip the V8 beats it and passes a lot better. Answer to your question its about $5 per week different for me to drive the medium suzuki over the V8. To change to a smaller vehicle , and possibly spending thousands of dollars extra to do so, is not a great option.

My golf GTI costs $120 to fill from empty, and gets 500 kms around town, my mazda bongo diesel van costs $55 to fill from empty and gets 450 kms around town + RUC $15 extra per tank.

$80 to fill tank, 500 k's city driving out of it (integra type r).
on the open road i get 650km's to a tank