Ive had two subs thats good milage and its $2.07 for91
smac,
Jul 26, 2:52am
OK that's changes it to 12l per 100km. Still surprisingly high! Or am I being overly generous in my assessment of subies!!
hamishcookie,
Jul 26, 2:56am
20K for a new car! what sort of fuel savings are you looking for to recoup the cost of spending that much on a car!
splinter67,
Jul 26, 2:56am
Yes you are they are quick and handle like a dream but as soon as you make themeven slightly annoyed they drink gas like a uni student drinks tui at mangatanoka
richardmayes,
Jul 26, 3:10am
My wife's workmate has a V4 STI wagon as his sensible, economical, reliable daily driver car. But that's because his other car is a blown smallblock chev that makes about 900brake on a good day.
Fast and reliable isn't cheap. Fast and cheap isn't reliable. Cheap and reliable isn't fast. The lady here clearly wants all the good things that a 4WD Jap turbo offers, but without the fuel bill that comes with all that.I wish you gentlemen luck.
bill-robinson,
Jul 26, 3:42am
stick with the subaru and run it on 95 or 98 (preferred). Keep the filters clean and the tyres at the correct pressures. keep the boost down if possible and the economy will return. Turn the aircon of unless needed. My non turbo manual gives me 10.4 km per litre. To check your fuel use fill up with fuel set the trip meter on the speedo to zero. Next time you fill read off the trip meter and divide that number by the amount of fuel in litres on the receipt.Easy
splinter67,
Jul 26, 4:02am
Pity bellky isnt here his xr8 would beat it now thats a good tui add
morrisman1,
Jul 26, 5:42am
And old workmate got 9L/100km from a turbo forester automatic, pretty good and to be honest, there aren't going to me many cars better than something like this for what you want.
skiff1,
Jul 26, 6:14am
If you want to save gas, keep your current car and drive slowe. As for feeling safe, if you cant drive a gutless colt safely, I would worry about you driving anything with a bit of power.
vtecnet,
Jul 26, 7:53am
It would be hard parting with the STi, however they do use a good 10-11L/100k even cruising open road speeds, you could get a non STi model, these do actually use less fuel. (I have owned both types) but grew out of these types of cars now, both were year 2000 WRX turbo Wagons, I also had the older shape models, which were more raw to drive.
I found VW Golf's nice on the open road, a manual 2005 model would be a good choice, but ideally a GTi, this would still net about 20% - 30% better economy.
I prefer BMW's, you could get a 328i or 330i in E46 shape, at open road speeds these should still be at least 20% more economical when you what you have now, although perhaps not the best choice for gravel driving. .
The Mazda 3 / Alexia MPS is nice, but will use just as much fuel as your current car, you would have to settle for the normal non turbo model to obtain decent economy and they seem pricey.
I'm moving out of town soon and will be doing a bit of a commute, however I'm sticking to my manual 1989 BMW 325i, it does 7L/100k on the open road and still has plenty of power for "real world" driving.
splinter67,
Jul 26, 7:59am
Having owned both turbo and non turbo they both use about the same you just have to push the non turbo a bit harder thats where you loose the economy
fordcrzy,
Jul 26, 8:29am
i think the mazda suspension would be a bit delicate for rural roads
serf407,
Jul 26, 9:48pm
Any vehicle you are going to drive to work is going to use fuel and have maintenance costs. Go to a workshop (find out where a non excessively over charge place is) with a good engine analyser etc and see where your car engine is at after a new set of spark plugs etc. http://www.diseno-art.com/products/tools/engine_analyzer.html When was the last time injector cleaner was tipped in the petrol tank ! Sometimes a cold air box $100 and good tyre pressure gauge help. Is the car not carry too much ! e.g three umbrellas, 5 gumboots etc Even polishing/ waxing might help. A flexible front air skirt to reduce air flow under the front of the car.
missmuppett,
Jul 26, 10:35pm
Hey there all.Thank for your input. I run the STi on 95/98 fuel - so not sure what that equates too $$ wises per KM or whatnot.
The gravel we are potentially moving too is knarly, about 10km extra that usual (I already do 5km on gravel) and it's all on hills/steep drop offs and rough big grade gravel (ie shytty roads) - so I need something that handles as well as my current car.
So basically keepmy current car, keep it well looked after and drive it nana styles will help my fuel economy.
We do keep it in good nick, as my man is a mechanic and I'm also a bit of a car person.
Vtecnet, thanks for your post, it made alot of sense to me, yes it will be hard to part with her should I choose to do so. I quite like the idea of a little golf. Hmmm.
smac,
Jul 26, 11:43pm
OK now we're down to 11.4 l/100km, which seems to be within the norm of what these guys are saying your car should do.
SO your call - say you sell yours for a good price and get what is being suggested here, you're going to lose what.$12k! $15k in the change over!
Even at a best case scenario you only lose $10k (seems unlikely), and manage to HALVE your fuel bill (cool!), you're still behind for the next 3-4 years.longer if you factor in the depreciation on the new car (which you should).
By all means change cars.but nobody should kid themselves they're doing it solely for economy reasons.
tazcsv,
Jul 27, 12:18am
Problem is for the money your subi is hard to beat as far as awd and handling,iv got the same problem as i want to upgrade my car but what the hell do i buy that will be as good or better than my gtb. I just cant go back to a fwd or rwd now that i have owned awd with power. I would say keep or upgrade your subi they are hard to beat if you have a good one.
serf407,
Jul 27, 3:17am
The 'bug' WRX sedan 2001 onwards bodyshell is 185% better for twist resistance and a 250 % improvement for bending resistance. Therefore a sedan is likely to be preferable long term on a corrugated gravel road than an older bodyshell hatchback.
missmuppett,
Jul 27, 8:28pm
I'm starting to think you guys are right - in keeping the WRX smac and tas.It's going to deteriorate by being on these gravel roads anyways over the years, I've had it ages now - so whats a few more years.I don't think I'd like to have a brand new car on the gravel getting hammered.That ford is niiiiice 3tomany.
3tomany,
Jul 27, 9:38pm
i live on a gravel road 6kms of it. 46kms from dargaville and our fleet consists of a ranger for the farm fg falcon xr6 which averages 10.5 ltrs per hundred so is to me very economical especialy since our farm is 500 meters above sea level and darg is sea level, our roads are rough winding and some steep. the only problem with the falcon on gravel is stones keep getting around the diff. the other car in our fleet is dads suzuki sx4 awd that car has been awesome but it is a lot thirstier than the falcon. so to me unless you go to a small car there is no real gain otherwise you may as well have a big aussie http://dealer.autotrader.co.nz/View/Used/Listing/917576.aspx!AdvertiserReference=5049015
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