Improving my old cars fuel use with magnets ?

locutus12

AdrianHi wrote: »

Why is driving a car a right for everyone?

i never said it was for everyone, i said everyone has a right to drive, especially without it bankrupting them via excessive fuel duties.

The government is still pumping oil from the north sea and is currently reaping a massive windfall off it due to the spiraling price of oil, yet fuel costs continue to spiral upwards. Why can we afford 3 billion for a war, 100 billion for a badly managed NHS and 50 billion for our armed forces yet we cant find a couple of hundred million to help take the pinch out of the pump prices ?

AdrianHi

locutus12 wrote: »

i never said it was for everyone, i said everyone has a right to drive, especially without it bankrupting them via excessive fuel duties.

The government is still pumping oil from the north sea and is currently reaping a massive windfall off it due to the spiraling price of oil, yet fuel costs continue to spiral upwards. Why can we afford 3 billion for a war, 100 billion for a badly managed NHS and 50 billion for our armed forces yet we cant find a couple of hundred million to help take the pinch out of the pump prices ?

I would agree with the cost of transport in general rising too far and too fast and the government should help soften the blow a bit, I started a thread earlier about a petition you might want to sign up to.

"everyone has a right to drive"
So are we supposed to hand out benefits to people who cannot afford a car just so they can start using one? That does not make any sense.
The government might be pulling in some more tax revenue from tax on oil companies, but the government don't pump it, the oil companies do and any extra tax collected here is helping to make up the shortfall elsewhere with a recession of some degree going on.

locutus12

AdrianHi wrote: »

OK I'm sorry, that was not constructive.
Lets just accept that driving a car is and always has been a privilege for those who can afford it rather than those who need it.

Not a problem, im grateful for the reply

but i will try to answer some of your questions as best i can without seeiming like im just throwing up obstacles here

When your current rental agreement is up for renewal can you move close to work so you can have a short walk?
Can you make use of your commuting time on the bus etc. for studying and improving career prospects?

To live in leamington spa is much more expensive than where i currently am as its warwickshire, the council tax alone would wipe me out as currently thats included in my rent not to mention the fact that my rent is cheap anyway (£350pm).

Currently i am an Administrations and Finance manager but we are a new start up firm, none of us are on good money at present (i get about 9K a year for a 32 hour week thats working hours, not including lunch) but it has real potential and so id like to see it through for at least another year.

What about buying a 100cc motorbike to cut your commuting time down and sell/not buy the car?
What about clubbing together with someone you trust to buy your first property?

I was originally going to go for a bike, but the danger aspect and the winter months requiring all the extra weather gear put me off the idea. As for clubbing together for a house, Its not fair that i shouldnt be able to afford one on my own, and on 9K a year id need to club together with three or four people

These are the sorts of things people did when I first started my career in 1991/1992 after 7 months of doing a Pizza delivery round because it was recession time and I couldn't get a job in IT. Sky high interest rates and a property boom that just went bust were there at the same time. I also worked with someone else in IT who came home from his day job to do the Pizza round with me in the evening because it was the only way he could keep up his mortgage payments. Doing the Pizza round on a 90cc motorbike also gave him the idea of selling one of their cars and getting a bike instead.
When times are bad like now these things are necessary, when times are better prepare for the next time they are bad.

i do part time work as a free lance I.T. engineer for friend and friends of friends as such and work by word of mouth mainly but of late theres just been nothing about, i used to get three or four extra jobs a month which would put an extra £100 or so in my pocket but since christmas its just gone dead.

True inflation was high in the early 90`s but houses were affordable and plentiful still. now we have the reverse with the average house price at 189K £ and low inflation. It sometimes feels like the generation before me had all the luck and now i and other like me just starting out in life have to pay for this governments extravagance.

I would agree with the cost of transport in general rising too far and too fast and the government should help soften the blow a bit, I started a thread earlier about a petition you might want to sign up to.

"everyone has a right to drive"
So are we supposed to hand out benefits to people who cannot afford a car just so they can start using one? That does not make any sense.
The government might be pulling in some more tax revenue from tax on oil companies, but the government don't pump it, the oil companies do and any extra tax collected here is helping to make up the shortfall elsewhere with a recession of some degree going on.

i will find that petition shortly and sign it

but no, you are right, and im not advocating benefits to people who cant afford a car, but some help to those of us who need a car to work, theres millions of people in a similar situation to myself and were all stuck in the same boat

at the end of the day it all just seems like bad management from a governmental point of view, we have a 1.1 trillion pound economy, managed correctly it should be enough for all to live and enjoy living.

Markyt

locutus12 wrote: »

i never said it was for everyone, i said everyone has a right to drive,

Far from it. Driving is a privilege, not a right.

Emmylou_2

Why don't you just get the no 12 to Leamington from Pool Meadow? Takes just over an hour - long enough to catch up with your reading/learn a language on your ipod/have a nap...

A bus pass would cost you £9.50 per week (£32.25 for four weeks, £28.75 for a month by direct debit or £345 for a year - see here http://www.travelcoventry.co.uk/cards/cardinfo/cardinfo.asp?ID=9)

locutus12

Emmylou wrote: »

Why don't you just get the no 12 to Leamington from Pool Meadow? Takes just over an hour - long enough to catch up with your reading/learn a language on your ipod/have a nap...

A bus pass would cost you £9.50 per week (£32.25 for four weeks, £28.75 for a month by direct debit or £345 for a year - see here http://www.travelcoventry.co.uk/cards/cardinfo/cardinfo.asp?ID=9)

because i live on the edge of the city on the very last stop of the 27 route which takes 45 minutes on a good run to hit pool meadow bus station, then providing youve some how managed to miraculously time it you can jump on the 12 for a 1hr ten minute ride, your looking at 4 hours a day on buses and if you havent timed it or the 27 runs late then your waiting half an hour for the next 12 to leamington, alternatively its 25 minutes in a car from me as the A46 is 800 meters from my house.

AdrianHi

locutus12 wrote: »

Currently i am an Administrations and Finance manager but we are a new start up firm, none of us are on good money at present (i get about 9K a year for a 32 hour week thats working hours, not including lunch) but it has real potential and so id like to see it through for at least another year.

It sounds very exciting, if you can get a business off the ground in difficult times you should do very well in the long run. I guess for now you just have to grin and bear it and do what ever you have to do to get by and build the business.

What MPG do you get out of that Sunny?
It might not be very economical compared to something 7 years old costing 500 to 1000 that does much higher MPG and therefore saves you in fuel what you have to spend to get it. Bit of a risk if you know the Sunny never breaks down.

locutus12

AdrianHi wrote: »

It sounds very exciting, if you can get a business off the ground in difficult times you should do very well in the long run. I guess for now you just have to grin and bear it and do what ever you have to do to get by and build the business..

it is fairly exciting, by day we design luxury goods for other firms, our last project was a watch worth 175K £. sickening but true. by night my directors enjoy leaning out of the top floor windows shouting obscenitys at passing chavs. Were a hard working bunch..

AdrianHi wrote: »

What MPG do you get out of that Sunny?
It might not be very economical compared to something 7 years old costing 500 to 1000 that does much higher MPG and therefore saves you in fuel what you have to spend to get it. Bit of a risk if you know the Sunny never breaks down.

I could drive this car into lava and it would still be in one piece which is why i like it for a first car, but as for mpg, i honestly am not sure, i put £7 in the other day and that did me roughly 45/50 miles.

AdrianHi

locutus12 wrote: »

it is fairly exciting, by day we design luxury goods for other firms, our last project was a watch worth 175K £. sickening but true. by night my directors enjoy leaning out of the top floor windows shouting obscenitys at passing chavs. Were a hard working bunch..




I could drive this car into lava and it would still be in one piece which is why i like it for a first car, but as for mpg, i honestly am not sure, i put £7 in the other day and that did me roughly 45/50 miles.

I found reference to 1.4 Sunny's of this age returning about 35mpg.
The most economical £500 car I can think of is a Fiesta 1.1 which you might get 45 or may be as much as 50mpg.
Sticking these numbers in my car cost spreadsheet and assuming 780 miles a month I see:
In the long run, assuming your current car represents £0 cash in car and the alternative is £500 cash in car plus £100 a year depreciation, if you got 50mpg out of it you might save £10 a month all in.... if the £500 did not breakdown on you. The saving increases with petrol price increases. Unleaded at 125p per litre then gives you nearly £14 a month saving.
Hardly worth the risk if you current car is not giving problems.

Excluding the cost of insurance I estimate the car is costing you about £200 a month all in, about £120 of this is fuel - assuming 780 miles a month.
If the car is the mode of transport you have to use earning more money or making savings else where to make room for increasing car costs is the only way forward.

goldspanners

locutus12 wrote: »

I could drive this car into lava and it would still be in one piece which is why i like it for a first car, but as for mpg, i honestly am not sure, i put £7 in the other day and that did me roughly 45/50 miles.

nissans have never been the most fuel efficient engines (getting better though) but i think 50 miles out of £7 is pretty average considering fuel prices,that works out at roughly 34 MPG.