Those of you who have viewed my website will know that for the last 10 months or so I have been running a very small plastic and aluminium car with a 505 cc diesel engine and automatic gearbox with CVT driven by a rubber band sort of system. This small two seater has been used to commute to and from work and for short local journeys such as taking my daughter into the next village for dance class etc.
It acheives 80 to 90 miles per gallon running on standard diesel. Of course I have a proper car, a people carriewr for when I have to take the whole family anywhere, but that wil only do an average of 40 mpg.
So the little Ligier is pressed into service whenever possible to keep running costs down.
Like all of us, I hate paying taxes to a Government which is only interested in shafting us and lining it;s own pockets. Don;t get me wrong, I'm not some sort of anarchist. Bit I'd really like to see some socialreform. like those of us who pay tax beneift from it for a change, and those who have never paid into the pot keep their sticky mits out. Why should I pay taxes for the idle and lazy to benefit from it? Example? The NHS. I pay stamp duty, income tax. VAT etc etc to support the NHS. Then when i want denatl treatment - guess what? I pay again! Doctors prescription? Yup! pay again! Idkle dole scroungers who didn;t pay in the first place? Oh. yeah you can have it for free.
So to reduce the amount of tax I pay I now run the Ligier on Vegetable oil. This is availabel (duty free and VAT free) from wholesalers from about 49 pence per litre. Compare that with diesel at about 98 pence per litre and that is half price motoring. (or if you prefer the cost equivalent of about 160 to 180 miles per gallon)
But wait it gets better!
A local Cafe throws away used vegetable oil, and will very soon have to PAY the local authority to take it away as commercial waste. Instead I take it away from them for free. Well actually for each 20 litres I take i give them £1 towards a charitabe casue, the Cafe owners grand daughter wasborn with the unbilcal cord around her throat and starved of oxygen so she sufferred some brain damage as a result of oxygen starvation. Any how I digress. £1 for 20 litres of fuel is 5pence per litre. This has to be filtered before use, so allowing fo the cost of a filter being maybe another 50 pence, that makes the fuel about 7.5 pence per litre. Or if you prefer a cost equivalent of about 950 miles per gallon.
Well it's not quite as siple as that. In the summer I could and did use pure Waste vegetablke Oil to run the car in with no ill effect. That was fine right up until last week when the temperature dropped to about 6 degrees and the fuel started to "wax." Veg oil is thivker than diesel and waxes so much sooner. Solution? Mix 25% diesel with 75% veg oil. This makes my running costs a whole £4 a month. That's about 300 niles for £4, and even cheaper once the weather warms up again. So stick that tax man!
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