Frankly, my “practical” car was only mine by chance-I inhereted it from a family member who died very suddenly a year ago, and then only after I personally reposessed it from the person who was driving it.
Before that, I was driving a 2.5l 4-cyl 1989 Dodge Dakota pick-up truck, very basic transort. For many years, my car was my trusty, rusty old Volvo 245 4-cyl. That car went everywhere, and even towed my rally car, too. BTW, my rally car was a fire-breathing Dodge Omni turbo, 2.2l which put out about 180 bhp. That car used to scare the {self-edited} out of me! I believe a similar model was sold over there as a Talbot, albiet without the turbo motor.
One of the reasons diesel cars are not so much available here as in the UK is that gas stations in generall at least here in the Southwest do not sell diesel. Yes I do take diesel to some stores, but in general, its unleaded and premium.
I wish sometimes I could have a diesel car or truck like I had in the UK, but here in the US it will never change, the Yanks don’t really care for change that much.
Another thing that makes fuel consumption differ so greatly and also the price, is that in the UK the octane level is FAR higher than it is here, I know the last time I was there when I put unleaded in the tank the octane level was someting like 93 for regualr and like 97 for premium. Inthe US the unleaded is either 86 or 87 and the premium in most states now is 91.
This has to be a factor somewhere.
Cheers guys
Stuart
Octane ratings:
In Europe, Research octane rating is quoted, always the highest number.
In the automotive industry, Method octane rating is used, which is always a lower number.
In the US, the octane rating advertised is the average of the 2. It usually runs about 5-8 points lower than the Research octane rating used in Europe. Therefore, our “regular” unleaded fuel is about 92-94 RON, and is 2 points lower in high altitude regions.
If Europe has a higher octane level in general, wouldn’t that explain some of the difference in price as well? Higher octane has to be more expensive■■?
kate,
when i was over there i stayed with james in kinderhook. this was last year in march and it was cold, . and you are right in that it was a bit further south were i seen the odd diesel car.
however it was not that that made me mention diesel cars.
over here you can buy nearly any model with a petrol or diesel engine.
some of the newer diesels are not on better mpg wise but also performance wise.
i mentioned this to james when i was there and he said that not many people buy them or manufacturers make them. this was a bit of a shock to me really, as we all know diesels are much more longlived than petrol engines and would be ideal for big milages in the usa.
not convinced with james answer , i got on his computer and searched vw ,s website for a diesel variant of the golf etc (very good diesel car) and they did not do one. infact i could not find any.
even here in the uk you can buy a jeep cherokee with a diesel engine.
i beleive this wasnt an option over there.
then again as munchman said.
if the gas stations dont sell diesel who is going to buy a diesel car 
incidentally, i found your part of the world a very nice place and look forward to the day when i return there( probably in the summer)
question ■■ have you been to marthas vineyard?? its on my places to go to list.
i stand corrected pat,
yes you could buy a diesel vw. however this was a old tech low bhp diesel.
putting out around 75 bhp.
over here you can get a 1.9 turbo diesel vw producing either 115,130 or 150bhp. now the 150 bhp machine still does 50 mpg and will leave an equivelant petrol engined car standing.
even golf gti,s are diesel here.
they have come on a long way.
im sorry about not visiting pat, but i did not know you were there at the time.
not that we were in kinderhook for long, to busy driving down to louisville, getting robbed in new jersey and drinking beer.
Dave,
I was at martha’s vinyard once when I was a child… don’t remember much about it. If you get the chance to do a driving tour, New England is so beautiful to see… especially in Autumn, so long as you get off the highway and take the back roads. I’m sure Martha’s Vinyard is very nice… its also very $$$$$$$$… so come with an extra credit card.
If you’re in our area and you have an extra day or two, you might consider taking a trip to the Olympic Village in Lake Placid. There’s alot to do there, alot of lakes and resorts… and its beautiful any time of year.
I do a driving tour of new england every week, and it gets very ugly
Dave we get Golf 1.9 TDI’s here
Pat Hasler:
I do a driving tour of new england every week, and it gets very ugly
lol ya liar… might get boring for ya… but the scenery is nice, and even YOU have to admit that… 
dear kate&pat i would start by not getting facts from the world service its just a pr company for the govenment.
next we soon are putting up our retirement age up to 70 that way they hope you drop dead on the job instead of collecting your pension.
next pat they have brought in 64 new taxes since you left,married mans allowance ect ect,all been scraped even pensions are taxed,now i think that means its taxed twice.
i could go on for pages but like you said it goes no where,so ill point out the big ones we use high octane gas because our cars are much leaner burnig than your’s to get the emissions,plus to make the power.
the govenment is about to raise the bands for councill tax from £860 band a toi think its band h £6,000 , allso cap/gains tax staid the same at 240,000 for last 2 years,its only a 3 bed semi in towchester.
so if you manage to stager to your retirement and the govenment hasent taken your house for back payment of poll tax you cant leave it to anybody becase they will have to pay the death duty to the tax man 14 days to pay.
so you sell it to stay in a retirement home or you may have medicall bills.
not a hope in hell if you have more than 13,000 in the bank you pay for it all yourself untill all your money has gone then they ases your cituation you still might get thrown out on your ear.
pat i hear you say but they have paid into the system all there lives,they must be due somthing not a single thing,i had to fight tooth and nial to keep my mothers care up,and she needed 24 hour care she had motonuron diseas
lasted 3 years in a veg comer.
hey ive gone on long enough this used to be the best country in the world its now run bhy social workers and lawyers and freeloaders come from every part of the world to feed on us.
rgds mark.
So,to sum up ,life in the states offers a better standard of living/quality of life? It’s what most Brits would think when comparing the two and certainly it’s how I perceive it to be.Obviously individual items will buck the trend but overall the good 'ol U S of A runs out the winner.And Bully,you couldn’t get by on £90,000 a year ? 
you don’t have to elaborate on that,but it’s such a sweeping statement to make… 
The grass is greener on the other side… until you get to the other side and realize that it was just the way the sunlight was shining on it.
Patrick loves it here, thinks its a great quality of life. But… we have less material things than he had in England, much less money than he had in comparison, and we’re still struggling to pull out of debt from the 2 years that he couldn’t work. It’s the lifestyle he enjoys more… not the money gain… cause we don’t have that.
It seems to me that there are 2 types of British people who think the US is a great option… 1-- the working class or poor, who are attracted to the lower cost of some things… they come with nothing, thinking that they’ll be well off after they start working, and find that they have to bust their ■■■ more here than they did in the UK for the same standard of living. The economies are not interchangable… and… 2-- the wealthier or upper middle class, who like our tax system and exchange rate … obviously these people will benefit from the move here.
If what Bully says is true, he’s obviously either an exception to the rule… or when he moved here he came with a nice little bank account in tow… the fact that he couldn’t get by on 90,000 pounds in the UK says alot, cause we all know that’s an exceptional income,… even for the UK.
This is another example of how the Yanks can conduct their usual “Dog and Pony” show. Perhaps these guys should stop nickel and diming the situation and just ruddy well run the company without the BS.
You’re going to get roughly 5mpg no matter what. Give or take 1mpg. Who care’s what you get unless you’re a O/O. The driver’s job is to drive and not worry about fuel consumption or doing some minor repair.
My answer to the shop at my terminal who think I should swing a spanner on a small repair, is " sorry mate, I drive 'em I don’t fix 'em!!!" 
chris53uk:
Who care’s what you get unless you’re a O/O. The driver’s job is to drive and not worry about fuel consumption or doing some minor repair
And I thought it was everyone’s responsibility to worry about fuel consumption… no matter what they drive■■? An extra 5 or 6 gallons of diesel a day per truck adds up to alot of cash when your paying to run an entire fleet. Around here, most trucking companies are basically small family run businesses that struggle to stay running, and every little bit helps. If a company runs 10 trucks full time… that would be an extra $10 or so per day per truck, so an extra $100 a day, or $1000 a week minimum for expenses that just aren’t necessary because its not the drivers responsibility to be concerned? BULL! Add it up… thats $52,000 a year… and thats a low estimate… and certainly not one that I would call “nickel and diming”. So there goes any idea of running an extra truck or giving another driver a job, or improving benefits or equipment for the drivers that are already there. And the higher the cost of operations, the higher the cost of EVERYTHING thats transported by truck. But I guess some people will only ever be concerned with themselves.
The answer to Chris’s point is to make it worthwhile for the driver to care. Fuel economy bonuses go a long way towards making a driver think about the fuel they use. The savings would pay for a bonus scheme pretty soon.
The company Pat works for already have a bonus program in place, and a lot of the guys there don’t qualify for it at the end of the quarter… simply because they don’t care how many speeding tickets they get or whether their deliveries are on time or not. Some of them have had so many insurance claims for minor damage on the truck that it’s laughable. And all those things cost the company more money too… insurance goes up with every claim, speeding tickets are expensive, and there are penalties charged for late deliveries. They say they drive faster to get more miles in and make more money, but the bonus pay they’d get for doing it right would more than make up for the extra miles they might get if they weren’t in such a hurry all the time. Either the drivers care or they don’t… and a lot of them just don’t. So if they can’t accomplish those small things for a bonus then how would a fuel consumption bonus make any difference?
