Bar vs Psi

[String]

Mine is far from unique. In the UK most cars do 40+ miles per gallon with only big beasts like 4x4s doing less than that. Its necessary living here with the fuel costs thats why my trip to the USA amazed me with the unfeasibly big and incredibly inefficient cars while at the same time complaining about petrol prices.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I can't wait to get my new baby seal coat wetsuit and drive my Sherman tank from Tennessee to Florida, to the dive site. Maybe I'll even be able to find a McDonald's that still serves hamburgers in the old, non-biodegradable styrofoam containers, too! I may even be able to spill my coffee on my groin and launch a multi-million dollar lawsuit. God, this trip is going to ROCK!!!!!

 

[Blackwood]

That's funny... I dive in psi and feet, but buy milk (here) in liter cartons and measure distance in kilometers... our U.S.-spec VW speedometers have MPH as the big numbers, and km/h as the small numbers, but I still only look at the km/h here... though the trip computer on my Passat calculates MPG.

--Marek

Does VW quote (for marketing purposes in the UK) power specs in Horsepower or Kilowatts? Torque in ft-lbs or m-N?

Or do they use something else entirely such as PS for power (like the new Bugatti Veyron ubercar)?

Just curious.

Efficiency is important here - dont forget we pay the equivalent of over $6.50 per gallon for our fuel here.

I was stunned when i was in the USA in june/july this year how absolutely enourmous and incredibly inefficient the cars were. A car for a family of 4 the size of a small tank with a ludicrously powerful engine that at best managed 20-22 miles per gallon. Laughable.

It makes you wonder about the goals of car builders and how they perceive their target demographic.

Let's look at a different industry: aircraft. There, you'll see a quite different: Americans building highly fuel efficient planes (such as the Boeing 777 and the upcoming Dreamliner) and Europeans building massive fuel hogs (such as the new Airbus A380).

But we can (and should) examine more than the cost of fuel per mile. We should consider the cost of fuel per mile per person. The A380 can carry many more people than the smaller American planes. When that it taken into account, the fuel used by the Airbus isn't all that much more than the fuel used by the Boeing.

Take that idea back to cars. Common in Europe are extremely small cars (like the Smart). They are probably designed to carry two people (max) comfortably. So lets say it get 50 miles/gallon, whereas a bigger car designed for American markets only gets 25. If you put twice as many people in the bigger car, the fuel used per person is the same.

I'm not saying that Europeans don't carpool or that Americans do (quite the contrary, most often when I see massive SUVs, etc., the driver is alone), but that may have something to do with the designs we see in various regions.

 

[Kagh't]

Does VW quote (for marketing purposes in the UK) power specs in Horsepower or Kilowatts?
The A380 can carry many more people than the smaller American planes. When that it taken into account, the fuel used by the Airbus isn't all that much more than the fuel used by the Boeing.

Take that idea back to cars. Common in Europe are extremely small cars (like the Smart). They are probably designed to carry two people (max) comfortably. So lets say it get 50 miles/gallon, whereas a bigger car designed for American markets only gets 25. If you put twice as many people in the bigger car, the fuel used per person is the same.

I'm not saying that Europeans don't carpool or that Americans do (quite the contrary, most often when I see massive SUVs, etc., the driver is alone), but that may have something to do with the designs we see in various regions.

Power specs are in brake horsepower over here.

Your right about the fuel needed per trip on the super-jumbo being only slightly higher than the normal jumbo. When you factor it down to per person, your looking at good savings.

The cars over here arn't that small, but they are certainly limited in size. Most of the ctities are hundreds of years old, so smaller cars are the norm (3/5 door) simply because we can't fit anything bigger in. We still have the big boys around. Not as big as your yankie tanks, but probably more energy efficient.

In america, your roads are built around the cars (last time i was over there, i had to set up camp in the middle of one road overnight it took me that long to get across. By the time i got back to my hotel, it really wasn't worth it popping out for some crisps and beer) so everyone wants big. Fuel efficency and big arn't normally in the same sentance when it comes to cars.

My car does 350-400+ miles on a full tank, and costs £40 to fill up. I tried to work out a m/g ratio, but i ended up with 2, so i'm going to try again in the morning when i've had some sleep, lol.

 

[AndyNZ]

Im so glad theres someone else using the hybrid units like me !

I do my body weight in stone but diving weight in KG too.

Well, I left the UK just under three years ago and I've gone almost totally metric..... weight now in kilos and distance in kms.

The only bastion of Britishness is height..... I just can't get my head around centimetres. I am, and always will be, 5'11". Well, until I start shrinking as I get older.

But whilst you can take the boy from the bible belt, but not the bible belt from the boy. I still understand inches, feet, yards, chains, rods, furlongs and miles. It's really the only sensible way to measure distance.....

12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
22 yards = 1 chain.... remembering that 1 chain = 4 rods (or 66 feet)
10 chains = 1 furlong
1 mile = 8 chains

See how easy it is? Perfect.... now, can I have three quarters of a pound of red leicester please.

 

[mnj1233]

Well, I left the UK just under three years ago and I've gone almost totally metric..... weight now in kilos and distance in kms.

The only bastion of Britishness is height..... I just can't get my head around centimetres. I am, and always will be, 5'11". Well, until I start shrinking as I get older.

But whilst you can take the boy from the bible belt, but not the bible belt from the boy. I still understand inches, feet, yards, chains, rods, furlongs and miles. It's really the only sensible way to measure distance.....

12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
22 yards = 1 chain.... remembering that 1 chain = 4 rods (or 66 feet)
10 chains = 1 furlong
1 mile = 8 chains


See how easy it is? Perfect.... now, can I have three quarters of a pound of red leicester please.

I thought a rod was 16 ft.

 

[AndyNZ]

I thought a rod was 16 ft.

Close. It's actually 16.5 ft.... originally perches (a wooden pole, or rod) were used to measure distance.

These got changed to chains in the 1800s, where each chain had a 100 links. To make the tranistion easier, the length of each link was made such that one chain was the same as four rods.

I really need to get a life. Soon.

 

[mnj1233]

Close. It's actually 16.5 ft.... originally perches (a wooden pole, or rod) were used to measure distance.

These got changed to chains in the 1800s, where each chain had a 100 links. To make the tranistion easier, the length of each link was made such that one chain was the same as four rods.

I really need to get a life. Soon.

I was told once that a "rod" was the length of a canoe used by the voyageurs (sp) on portages.

 

[String]

now, can I have three quarters of a pound of red leicester please.

No you cant. The faceless shirts running the EU have deemed that illegal to use imperial for that and shops have been fined for having imperial measures on the packaging...

You need to order 0.341kg of Red Leicester.....

 

[carldarl]

To add to the confusion, when my wife refers to 6 inches, we have to discuss whether it is "her" 6 inches or "my" 6 inches.