My little tirade about oil companies gouging us at the pump not withstanding, you've gotta admit it's nice to have gas prices at about 1/2 of what they were 6 months ago.
And, yes, I'm going to say it..."We really have it pretty good"
However...it could be better.
My wife and I spent 2 weeks in Italy in Tuscany near Florence the last two weeks in Sept. We rented a 4 dr. 2008 Volkswagen Golf TDI (turbo diesel) hatchback. We drove around for the 2 weeks on just the one tank and filled it up on the day before we left.
In that time we had covered about 760 kilometers or roughly 456 miles. I purchased 39 liters of diesel at 1.43 Euro/liter. That equated to 10.3 gallons at...wait for it...$7.27 a gallon!!!
And we complain here in the states?!?!?
There were a few things that were interesting about Italian driving habits.
First: Everyone drives like they HAVE to get there before you. You get passed at the most inopportune times on roads that are at times as narrow for 2-way traffic as one of our single lanes.
NOTE...we did not see one single accident there.
Second: Diesel is NOT the most expensive fuel sold. In fact it is the second cheapest only to Unleaded gasoline.
Third: Easily 70% of the cars we saw were Diesel and that same percentage were roughly the size of our Golf or smaller!!
The point here is that even though they pay almost 3 times as much for fuel, they're being as economical as they can in the cars they drive. We saw maybe a total of 1/2 dozen passenger vehicles that would equate in size to our SUV's or Minivans.
Our car got almost 44 miles to the gallon on diesel. A diesel that, by the way, was quiet, well appointed, fun to drive, sporty and NOT belching smoke
So, the question begs. Why do we not make use of more diesel powered cars here and why do we have to pay a premium for both the vehicle and the fuel??
It's not the ultimate answer...alternative fuels are. But...wouldn't you rather pay under $3 a gallon for fuel and get 44 miles to the gallon to boot?
And, yes, I'm going to say it..."We really have it pretty good"
However...it could be better.
My wife and I spent 2 weeks in Italy in Tuscany near Florence the last two weeks in Sept. We rented a 4 dr. 2008 Volkswagen Golf TDI (turbo diesel) hatchback. We drove around for the 2 weeks on just the one tank and filled it up on the day before we left.
In that time we had covered about 760 kilometers or roughly 456 miles. I purchased 39 liters of diesel at 1.43 Euro/liter. That equated to 10.3 gallons at...wait for it...$7.27 a gallon!!!
And we complain here in the states?!?!?
There were a few things that were interesting about Italian driving habits.
First: Everyone drives like they HAVE to get there before you. You get passed at the most inopportune times on roads that are at times as narrow for 2-way traffic as one of our single lanes.
NOTE...we did not see one single accident there.
Second: Diesel is NOT the most expensive fuel sold. In fact it is the second cheapest only to Unleaded gasoline.
Third: Easily 70% of the cars we saw were Diesel and that same percentage were roughly the size of our Golf or smaller!!
The point here is that even though they pay almost 3 times as much for fuel, they're being as economical as they can in the cars they drive. We saw maybe a total of 1/2 dozen passenger vehicles that would equate in size to our SUV's or Minivans.
Our car got almost 44 miles to the gallon on diesel. A diesel that, by the way, was quiet, well appointed, fun to drive, sporty and NOT belching smoke
So, the question begs. Why do we not make use of more diesel powered cars here and why do we have to pay a premium for both the vehicle and the fuel??
It's not the ultimate answer...alternative fuels are. But...wouldn't you rather pay under $3 a gallon for fuel and get 44 miles to the gallon to boot?
1 comment:
Interesting to read what you really think about us europeans and our little cars- would an SUV even be able to manoeuvre on those Italian roads? If ever you and Julia make it to France do not, i repeat DO NOT ever drive in Paris!! I'll tell my husband about your comments on Italian driving he'll whole-heartedly agree! Are they still excessively honking horns too?
Post a Comment