Cars - have we really moved forward?

Got given an interesting old car book from 1981, it lists mpg, bhp etc.

Now, cars have got bigger and fatter as supposedly, we the consumer have asked for extras like e.windows etc.

I found an interesting comparison:

1981 VW 'E' Polo 1098cc petrol 50bhp

Urban = 40.1mpg

56mph = 55.4mpg

75mph = 39.8mpg

Unladen weight 685kg

2009 VW Polo 'E' 1.2 60ps

urban = 37.2mpg

extra urban = 58.9mpg

Unladen weight n/a

Now, guess which car has the economy 'stop start' system for traffic lights and so on?

the 1981 Polo!

I couldnt believe it. Ok, the early Polo would fold in an accident but thats only 'cos of all the fat lumps on the road. A Discovery 3 is nearly 3 tons and so is a Renault Espace.

a 1981 Escort mk3 1.6 was 44.1 mpg at 56mph

a 2009 Focus 1.6 is 40mpg

Diesel has improved but have we really got somewhere yet from 1981?

But aren't new cars 'greener' ? As well

One of primary concerns when buying a car is how it performs if the unthinkable happens. In this respect we are streets ahead these days. I reckon that performance has not come far. More kit equals more weight so the extra power is used lugging AC units and window motors about the place. I've yet to drive a car that handles and goes better on real roads than my other half's MX5.

tintin40":k4q0atn9 said:

But aren't new cars 'greener' ? As well

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I doubt if 'new' cars are any greener during manufacturing than 20 years ago. The 1981 Polo didnt have a catalytic converter either but back then Co2 output wasnt so much of a worry as well.

I'm just looking at the man in the street figures. Most people dont give a blind fuuck about the Co2 just what they get from their tank

All of these car manufacturers have been insistent that we wanted bigger cars with more extras for decades, but the writing has always been on the wall.

GM and Ford will both go out of business within the next couple of years, but if they had spent the last 30 years working on electric vehicles they'd be thriving.

Good riddance.

I feel sorry for the workers, of course, but the companies have deserved to fail.

I drove a 1993 Fiesta 1.1 for a couple of months and I was getting 55mpg mix driving and over 60mpg on a run.

That was at the height of petrol prices, i was laughing as I was getting Diesel mpg at Petrol cost in a car that was 15years old and worth 500quid.

I was not driving particulary carefully, well actually you can't drive it half throttle as you don't get anywhere!

That was working it out with trip meter and full tank method.

incidently, the old quoted figures were always open to dispute.

Easy_Rider":q17mweun said:

I drove a 1993 Fiesta 1.1 for a couple of months and I was getting 55mpg mix driving and over 60mpg on a run.

That was at the height of petrol prices, i was laughing as I was getting Diesel mpg at Petrol cost in a car that was 15years old and worth 500quid.

I was not driving particulary carefully, well actually you can't drive it half throttle as you don't get anywhere!

That was working it out with trip meter and full tank method.

incidently, the old quoted figures were always open to dispute.

Click to expand...

We used to get 40+ thrashing our 1.1 fiesta around the country.

The figures quoted are VW and the books authors for the old cars.

tintin40":1un3vi9m said:

But aren't new cars 'greener' ? As well

Click to expand...

98% of a cars CO2 emissions are released during manufacture, so it makes absolute sence to drive old cars into the ground before scrapping them and this so called green 2k hand out to get old polluting cars of the road is just plain silly, why don't they just say, it's to support the car industry and there is nothing green about it.

a quick comparison between the 1999 MBZ C220 CDi and a 2009 C220 CDi Diesels

1999 model 42mpg combined

2009 model 47mpg combined

My 1996 C200 petrol had 6 airbags and side impact bars, why the **** would I want to buy new??

and the 1999 Co2 was 161 for the old car, and the new model? 156


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!


And my 9 year old Passat TDi 130 (PD) is 156 Co2 and 48mpg combined

I would have thought that most people driving cars 10 years old or more (like myself) are not the sort in the market for new cars anyway. I would never have a new car.