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Buying a new car nowadays has a whole
new set of considerations that are important when
considering your final model. That is the fuel you have
to put into it.
Once it was that your new car fuel options was
quite an easy choice, petrol was really the only
fuel for a car. Then it was found that petrol was
quite a pollutant and so diesel engines, once
nearly only used by trucks and taxis, were vastly
improved and put into cars. No more the noisy
clunking brutes, diesels have become turbo charged
silent power houses that produce good fuel mileage
as well as performance.
In some countries, diesel also has the advantage
of being cheaper than petrol although in the UK,
this has ceased to be the case.
Great strides have been made in both reducing
the pollutants and greatly improving the fuel
consumption in petrol engines, which means that it
is not always an easy decision to make.
With a petrol engine, you also have the
opportunity to add an extra LPG (Liquid Petroleum
Gas) tank to your car. This has the double benefit
of great fuel economy with a fairly low fuel price.
You will, of course, have to take into account the
cost of conversion, so it may be a while before you
break even. You will also have to find the nearest
garage that stocks LPG as it can be difficult in
some areas.
The really hot duel fuel vehicles are the
hybrids, petrol cars with big batteries that will
use their electric motors when driving in town but
can use the petrol motors when on the motorways.
These are considered the best compromise when it
comes to trying to be ecological.
The last consideration is a totally electric
car. These were once the joke of the motoring
industry but they have improved beyond belief, with
even one sports model, able to travel at over 100
miles per hour. However, even with these impressive
performance figures and increases in battery life,
a totally electric car is only really worth it for
the urban motorist as long distances can only be
contemplated if you are staying long enough to
recharge it for the return journey.
The green credentials of owning an electric or
hybrid car are not as good as first appears as the
carbon footprint of the materials used in the
construction as well as the fuel used to generate
the electricity have to be taken into account.
New Car Fuel Options by Ian Richards
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