Twenty thousand miles to an oasis;
Twenty thousand years will I burn
As the title sayeth. A few weeks ago (I have been delayed by holiday blogging), the mileage on my car passed 20,000 miles. I have had said car from new, September 2004, and have driven every one of those miles myself (except for what was possibly about a mile's worth of my mother trying it out round an industrial estate because she wanted a play on my new toy, but even then I was in the car).
Twenty thousand miles. Twenty thousand miles.
Very nearly far enough to get right round the world at the equator. More than far enough to get right round it going due east/west from here.
Approximately the total length of all public railway in Britain.
Assuming the mpg figures given by Ford are correct, I should get 10 miles per litre of petrol, so I have used 2,000 litres of petrol. I have probably used more than that as I do not drive the poor thing kindly.
With a 1.25 litre petrol engine in my car, enough to create 5 tonnes of carbon dioxide, which I think equates to 500,000 litres floating around out there in the atmosphere which are mine.
Creating this grand total has included...several parental round-trips home to Scotland (including side-trips to see the mountains), another parental visit to Brighton, friendly visits to Southampton, Manchester, York and Oxford/Abingdon, weekend trips into Wales and the Peak District, holiday driving up to Thirsk, grandparental forays into Rutland, three different trips to the Lake District, journeys to airports to catch flights to Paris and Barcelona, and let's not forget the 30-mile round trip to work I have been doing every day for nearly a year now.
I love my car. But the appearance of that little 2 on its mileometer still staggered me. A milestone, of sorts.
posted by skittledog @ 9:20 pm
17 comments
17 Comments:
Congratulations on your contribution to global warming!
Congratulations on your contribution to global warming!
So great she said it twice...
*grins* thanks. I hear the sincerity in every tone.
*Coughs into skits direction from her holier-than-thou bicycly seat*
*Coughs into skits direction from her holier-than-thou bicycle seat*
*spot the difference
Heehee. I like this way of making me look more popular by comment multiplication.
I cycled to work in Crewe. Sometimes. When I finally work in Derby I will cycle. 15 miles each way to Burton on Trent I will not. No - cannot.
But I could believe it of you to intend the "bicycly" as a kind of pet name for it.
Miles per litre?! What sort of arse-about-face unit is that?! *grins*
Only kidding.
I think Ford quoted 61mpg (13.4 miles/Litre) for my Fiesta (1.4 L diesel), but I've averaged 51.4mpg (11.3 miles/litre) over 70,000 miles, for comparison. Don't put too much faith in their numbers!
It was 45.6mpg. I just have no concept of a g as a thing so went for l for visualisation purposes.
And no, of course I don't trust it, but without fancy gauges or any actual idea how much petrol I use, it was the best I could do. The whole post is decidedly back of the envelope.
I have a very geeky spreadsheet that records all my fuel and mileage, as I was interested in the costs and economy.
Fiestas rock!
They do. Must admit I would prefer a 1.4 diesel though. Engine-wise, my poor thing is made more for little ladies about town than what I use it for. Limited acceleration and/or ability to climb hills at times...
Must feed it some screenwash tomorrow. And check its tyres. *nods* 20,400 passed today.
The TDCi certainly can accelerate. I did have fun embarrassing a mouthbreather in his Nova once, just to try it.
Mouthbreather?
Wonderfall characters have come to life?!
And if they have, couldn't it have been the brother instead?
No, Eric. I'll find a caravan so he can work shirtless on top of it and everything.
Mouthbreather
Someone once objected to my use of the word "Chav". "Mouthbreather" is technically accurate, if you look closely*
*not to be done on a regular basis.
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