Olympics' green credentials questioned over fleet of BMWs for dignitaries and officials

scottamylola wrote:Why are we using foreign built cars????

What is wrong with using Nissan, after all the money will stay in our economy.

scottamylola wrote:Why are we using foreign built cars????

What is wrong with using Nissan, after all the money will stay in our economy.

MrDoodles wrote:

Err, no!:evil:

All profits made at UK, Japanese owned manufacturing plants, go to Japan!

Yes, they DO provide jobs, but the Government paid these Companies, MASSIVE subsidies, to come here in the 1st place!

Why do you think that the Nissan factory is in Washington, Tyne & Wear?

DurhamLad wrote:

Nice people who work hard

Hugh Jardon wrote:

yep...many of whom took advantage of discounted/tax deductable cycles (a gov initiative, for cycling to work)...and sold them on... good lads!

On to the car....Beemers are some of the 'cleanest' and fuel efficient cars available today and a 320D ED will be on order in Feb 2012!

DurhamLad wrote:

Excellent choice of vehicle. I'm currently in a 320 SE petrol. Same emissions as the diesel due to the stop/start technology (which I override) and doesn't sound like a tractor........

Hugh Jardon wrote:

Ta very much...
yep...The tractor noise may be a problem.... but the 8 speed auto should make up for it...with a better MPG (68.9 combined), compared to the manual.
That said, I understand that BMW are a tad ambitious with their MPG figures..a colleague was expecting nigh on 55mpg (320D sport saloon) and is barely getting 50.
I'm currently driving another German brand and the diesel engine is as sweet as a nut.. goes like the devil and is very quiet!!

Hugh Jardon wrote:

DurhamLad wrote:

Nice people who work hard

yep...many of whom took advantage of discounted/tax deductable cycles (a gov initiative, for cycling to work)...and sold them on... good lads!

On to the car....Beemers are some of the 'cleanest' and fuel efficient cars available today and a 320D ED will be on order in Feb 2012!

Hugh Jardon wrote:

DurhamLad wrote:

Excellent choice of vehicle. I'm currently in a 320 SE petrol. Same emissions as the diesel due to the stop/start technology (which I override) and doesn't sound like a tractor........

Ta very much...
yep...The tractor noise may be a problem.... but the 8 speed auto should make up for it...with a better MPG (68.9 combined), compared to the manual.
That said, I understand that BMW are a tad ambitious with their MPG figures..a colleague was expecting nigh on 55mpg (320D sport saloon) and is barely getting 50.
I'm currently driving another German brand and the diesel engine is as sweet as a nut.. goes like the devil and is very quiet!!

DurhamLad wrote:

You can only really get that sort of mpg doing a steady 50 all the time

In A Flap wrote:

to get that sort of mileage you need to keep under 3000 revs or around 50MPH

In A Flap wrote:

that may well be the case but probably not as green as the 600cc Tata that costs around £1900 each.
It certainly costs between £23000 to £28000 each less than the beamers. Meaning the 4000 being bought could be got for around £1000000 or less instead of more than £10000000.

and lets face it they would be able to travel just as fast as the beamers in london traffic.

Hugh Jardon wrote:

In A Flap wrote:

to get that sort of mileage you need to keep under 3000 revs or around 50MPH

the 6 speed manual quotes a return of 1600rpm for 62mph....

In A Flap wrote:

I was going on my 14 year old citroen xantia which would give me about 25MPH if I was lucky if I drove at 80 on the motorway. As petrol prices shot up I found at under 3000 revs or around 50MPH I could get about 42 - 45 on the motorway. A saving I found very worthwhile. Of course if you can do 60 at 1600 revs then you are likely to attain high mileage. I agree why would any one want a prius anyway, except if you want to look as if you are being green, when you don;t want to drive the ferrari.

Hugh Jardon wrote:

In A Flap wrote:

I was going on my 14 year old citroen xantia which would give me about 25MPH if I was lucky if I drove at 80 on the motorway. As petrol prices shot up I found at under 3000 revs or around 50MPH I could get about 42 - 45 on the motorway. A saving I found very worthwhile. Of course if you can do 60 at 1600 revs then you are likely to attain high mileage. I agree why would any one want a prius anyway, except if you want to look as if you are being green, when you don;t want to drive the ferrari.

things have moved on so much over the past few years.... it's just a shame that SAAB went tits up..they had a cracking engine lined up which (if memory serves me right) was a 1.4L- developing 180BHP.

In A Flap wrote:

well I have to say my citroen was a cracking investment. £5000 for a 2 year old car with 18000 on the clock. I had it for 12 years and it still had only done 85000.
Rarely cost me much to get through an MOT, the most was about £300 one year and it started every day and never broke down.
I only sold it because I could not afford to insure, MOT and tax it again and could not afford the cost of a garage. I would have driven it here to turkey of I could have got away without having to spend thousands on import duty.
A fantastic car.

Hugh Jardon wrote:

In A Flap wrote:

well I have to say my citroen was a cracking investment. £5000 for a 2 year old car with 18000 on the clock. I had it for 12 years and it still had only done 85000.
Rarely cost me much to get through an MOT, the most was about £300 one year and it started every day and never broke down.
I only sold it because I could not afford to insure, MOT and tax it again and could not afford the cost of a garage. I would have driven it here to turkey of I could have got away without having to spend thousands on import duty.
A fantastic car.

I had a Citroen Co car donkeys years back.
It was fine.
However, as most new car purchases (in the UK) are for Co use (fleet, rentals etc) they rarely get a look in.
As a consequence, they don't sell as many, so don't enjoy the economies of scale, so have to be made 'cheaper' due to this and..I'm afraid... not always totally reliable.

traveller123 wrote:

In A Flap wrote:

I also had a BX for a while. the hydrolic cylinders needed replacing and it gave a rather spectacular ride to say the least. Very nippy car though.

Striped Stockings wrote:Personally, I think in regards to the Olympics, being "green" should not really be high on the agenda.