Love Affair

A while ago I read what was basically an attack on the automotive industry about their thirst for power (as in brake horse power) rather than economy. I felt at the time this was rather unfair as in fact, with anybody selling anything, customers dictate what does and doesn't succeed and up until recently in terms of cars that has been safety. Encap ratings being the big thing. This led to each size of car bloating somewhat to make it more pedestrian lemming friendly and to get better ratings of course (great ad material). The problem with this was that the cost of re-engineering engines to match the new cars size and weight was just too great and it was far easier to just re-use old engines with slight tweaks (think 206 and 207). This in turn led to a range of highly underpowered cars that, in reality, offer limited MPG in the real world. Currently the aim of the games is greater MPG, and lower C02. Alfa have been making tremendous engines of late offering a lot of power, with amazing environmental statistics. Add to this the new rule change in Formula 1 meaning refuelling is prohibited and it won't be long before advances in fuel economy leak down to the home market. If you're really concerned about C02 there's another way to go that involves no Cat converter but this poses a bit of a hydrocarbon nightmare I'm told.
And this brings me on to what caught my attention at the time. The fact of the matter is that GOOD economical cars have been out there for a while, people just didn't buy them. My car in fact. A 53 reg Punto HGT JTD (~ 6 years old) of which I've had two, both offered amazing MPG that makes some modern cars look poor. 62 and 58 mpg respectively over their entire lives with us, that includes city driving and the daily slog up to Wakefield.
After returning from 6 months off our beloved blue Italian has been sat in my 'rents garage with no electricity. Its first Italian-ism was waiting for me when I went to recharge it. Whats the answer to the riddle "what do you do with a Punto with a flat battery and a broken bonnet release"... The answer to which is: Fight to remove bonnet release handle as silly Fiat decided to leave the threaded bar too long to fit a socket over and the bracket too small to fit a spanner in, pure genius, they must use special tools over there. Having fought for a while and eventually winning I left it to suckle electricity overnight from the slow trickle charger. It turned over first go in the morning and then chucked out warning lights from Engine Failure to Refuelling Needed. 15 minutes later these had disappeared and I was on my favourite backroad. The snow was falling, the road was wet and coming into my favourite bend on my ex Saturday morning school drive I gave the throttle a blip, the car slid in perfection just hitting the apex and once again... I love my Fiat.

Oh and I climbed indoors the other day, it was average and hurt my hands.