Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) mpg

It is subjective, I agree.
The same as spending money on anything.
Buying clothes, consumer goods in general, mobile phone deals, house....
We cecide whether we want to spend a given amount of money and are we happy to do so for the returns?
I loved my 4/4 but traded up to the plus8 knowing full well that running costs would go up but went ahead as I felt they were not that much more. The added cost of purchase made me think more, but when weighed up I was ok with it.

As you know Jays I prefer a spirited drive, and am certainly not a Sunday driver , I quite like what I was told by an Advanced Motoring Instructor on a days experience drive. It was that a cars purpose is to get from A to B in the quickest time possible in a safe manner, and that the speed limits were the maximum considered safe for the average motorist, and that I should consider all other drivers to be dangerous idiots. So I keep to this ethos in my driving.

"a cars purpose is to get from A to B in the quickest time possible in a safe manner"

But it's not though, is it? If someone wants to poodle along at 40mph in a national speed limit , on a leafy B road, on their way to a WI coffee morning, why should they be forced to do 60 when they are just not up to it, and there are many many motorists who drive slowly to increase the fuel economy of their cars.

I find these people as annoying as the rest of us, but there is no legal reason why they should drive faster than they feel comfortable. Besides, many of my journeys are from A to A just for the fun of being at the wheel of a responsive piece of machinery.

Sounds very much like the words of my motorcycle instructor. He's not around any longer.

There are old drivers, and there are bold drivers, but there are no old, bold drivers...

I agree...

Also agree with Adrian's motorcycle instructor when he said "consider all other road users as a danger", or words to that effect.

My instructor went further. He told me to assume every other vehicle on the road was driven by a homicidal idiot who wanted to kill me, given the opportunity. As a biker survival required that I deny them the opportunity.

As a driver I tend to adopt some of that mindset, more so in an open Mog then when wrapped up snug in my airbag filled, crumple zone engineered computer nannied German tin box.

What has this to do with MPG and the cost of driving? I find driving defensively, but quickly, for fun uses more fuel than driving from A to B because I need to get there.

Absolutely, this has alway been standard advice. When I learned to ride there weren't any motorcycle instructors, you just got a provisional license, a 250cc bike, and went out and learned for yourself with your mates. Darwinism in action, it weeded out the crap riders pretty well

I remember when the first dayglo 'Sam Browne' belts came out. One school of thought said they were beneficial because they helped other people to see you. The other school said that they were dangerous because you were more likely to assume that other road users had seen you. Better to not wear anything bright and assume you were invisible.

I was in the second group, and never used any aids to visibility, not even headlights in the day time. I survived fine for the 35 years I rode bikes.

How many times have we seen drivers who are completely oblivious to the presence of an emergency vehicle.

I used to be a riding instructor. I told my students "If they can't see a bright red fire engine with lights flashing and siren blaring then you can't expect them to have seen you!"

An original 1972 4/4 will just do 40mpg if you keep it below 50 and drive smoothly. I got around 30mgp normally and when I fitted a tuned engine it dropped to 25 even if one utterly behaved.

Competitive mpg though was less than 10. I ran it with about 2 gallons in the tank and frequently had to add the contents of a one gallon can to make it through the day. Event mileage on hillclimbs was often less than 8...