Dave Gorman - America Unchained

toasterman

I watched Dave Gorman's new documentary last night - "America Unchained", where he attempts to drive from one side of America to the other without using any chain-garages, chain-supermarkets, chain-hotels, etc.. along the way.

I don't know why this bothers me, but I'm sure they said the car he was driving (big American estate car, wood paneling on outside.. really ugly it was) had around a 20 gallon tank, and did about 18 miles to the gallon. But being as it's America, is this an English gallon or an American gallon?
An English gallon seems more likely, as 20 gallon (American) tank, would be...well..huge. But then, American cars are huge.

Either way, next time you hear an American complaining about the price of their fuel (and they do), tell them to stop buying such rubbish cars.
An episode of Reaper recently was going on about this hybrid car they had (it was a Prius) that did 42mpg overall...how rubbish is that? You can get better in most modern diesels.

harveybobbles

And most modern petrols too...

toasterman

Yeah thats very true actually.
A quick Google search finds owners saying they get 40-50mpg average overall. Thats rubbish really. You can get more than that out of a good diesel.

I wish I'd known that when Friends Of The Earth came round my house a few months ago trying to get me to give them money (door to door chuggers).
During the "awareness" section of the conversation that chuggers offer for free, she askied me if I'd considered buying a hybrid (my job requires a car). I just told her they were too expensive (my 12-year old Rover was £575). I think I'm doing the world a favour because:
a) I'm keeping an old car on the road, rather than contributing to junking/building of new cars all the time
and
b) If I'm driving an old Rover, it means there's one less in the world that you might end up having to drive :rotfl:

goldspanners

american gallons are smaller than british gallons. so why would a british gallon be more likely?
the benefits from a hybrid car is more to do with emissions,the engine is powering a generator at a fairly constant speed,its under very little load compared to a conventional cars engine,it still has to rev up,but for shorter periods.
the best benfits will be when they are running on electricity at slow speeds, i.e city and around town driving,but switches to engine power when on the motorway,this is where the fuel consumption gets better.

balsingh

why are US and UK gallons different anyway? Doesnt make sense!!

Thomas99

balsingh wrote: »

why are US and UK gallons different anyway? Doesnt make sense!!

None of these gallons make sense, should be litres every where

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

There are very stringent emissions regulations in the USA regarding diesels. For instance, you can't import a diesel that isn't certified in the USA. You just can't, full stop.

Frankly if I was paying what they're paying for petrol, I wouldn't have a diesel either. I'd have a nice big V12.

Hintza

8 pints in a gallon US and UK but 16oz in US Pint and 20oz in UK pint. So quite a difference.

Or

US = 3.785 litres
UK = 4.561 litres

Biggles

Thomas99 wrote: »

None of these gallons make sense, should be litres every where

Ah, but US liters or UK litres?

rdwarr

Labman wrote: »

.....Why?:D

As this thread has demonstrated few people really understand what a "gallon" is! I only know the difference between a US gallon and a UK one because I used to work in the oil industry.

Metric is so much easier. For example, a cubic metre of water ways a tonne. Anybody know (without working it out) what a cubic yard of water weighs in Imperial?

toasterman

goldspanners wrote: »

american gallons are smaller than british gallons. so why would a british gallon be more likely?
the benefits from a hybrid car is more to do with emissions,the engine is powering a generator at a fairly constant speed,its under very little load compared to a conventional cars engine,it still has to rev up,but for shorter periods.
the best benfits will be when they are running on electricity at slow speeds, i.e city and around town driving,but switches to engine power when on the motorway,this is where the fuel consumption gets better.

I thought it must be a british gallon, because they said it had a 20 gallon tank.
Hang on.. I've just realised my maths has been totally wrong. I had the us and uk gallons the other way around..

Ok, so if thats US gallons, a 20 gallon tank is 74 litres. I've never been in an estate car with bigger than about a 50 litre tank. It'd be huge.
Whereas 20 gallons UK, is 90 litres...which...well thats massive.

As for the Prius, doesn't it use petrol to power whatever sort of generator keeps the batteries charged? So it's still using petrol.
And you're still apparently damaging the environment more than keeping an old car on the road.
I guess the question would be whether producing a diesel car creates more pollution than producing a hybrid car, or not.. and say if the diesel is better - how long would you have to run it for to create as much pollution as the other one did on-birth. You kinda need a total-pollution-of-ownership figure, based on keeping it say 3, 5, 7, or 10 years.

Labman wrote: »

It's an American car in America!...go on have a guess!

Lol. Yes its an American car, in America.. but the presenter is British, the production company is British, and they know it'll more likely be watched by a British audience.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

There are very stringent emissions regulations in the USA regarding diesels. For instance, you can't import a diesel that isn't certified in the USA. You just can't, full stop.

Frankly if I was paying what they're paying for petrol, I wouldn't have a diesel either. I'd have a nice big V12.

Lol they have big engines. Doesn't mean they go fast though, or corner well, etc. American cars all seem to weigh more than my house, and are HUGE. You're right though - if petrol was half the price, what would I care if my car did 20mpg.