Changing cars - but not the biodiesel
Posted by DavidM in Driving | 14 March 2008
My car has done over 153,000 miles now and it's time for a change. I deliberately bought a cheap, high-mileage car to try out biodiesel. The experiment has been a success so now it's time to get something a little less tired.
But I want to continue using biodiesel so it needs to be a diesel engined car. It also needs to be able to carry our camping gear (and soon a puppy). Being the person who put the 'anal' into analytical, I did my research before getting behind the wheel of any cars.
I currently have an Audi A6 estate 1.9 litre deisel and wanted something with as large a boot but no dirtier on emissions. That meant no worse than 47 mpg and 160 grams of CO2 per kilometre. This threw up a good list of cars. My favourites were:
Ford Mondeo 2.0 DCi - 47.1 mpg and 158 gCO2/km
Honda Accord 2.2 CDTi - 48.7 mpg and 153 gCO2/km
Renault laguna 1.9 DCi - 50.4 mpg and 152 gCO2/km
VW Passat 1.9 TDi - 47.9 mpg and 159 gCO2/km.
With this shortlist agreed by the head, it was time to let the heart decide by driving them. The family test drove the Ford, Renault and Passat yesterday and had a clear winner. The Passat.
We pick the car up next Saturday and next Sunday it'll get it's first taste of recycled cooking oil.
Bearing in mind these cars are 3-4 years old, it's encoouraging to see how efficient big cars are becoming and being relatively green doesn't have to mean compromising too much.
Comments
Hello,
A word of warning: the more recent Ford Mondeo is not compatible with biodiesel. My friend's 2005 model has an electronic fuel injection system that shuts down the engine if biodiesel is used. His biodiesel trial turned out to be very expensive! However, some people have been using biodiesel in 2002 Mondeos without any problem. Good luck with your experiment!
