I've just downloaded the list of all the cars scrapped under the government scrappage scheme which is available here - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/sy...ata.csv/preview

Loooking at the whole file it shows how many of each Coupe model were scrapped - 30 20VTs and 1 20VT LE. Some obviously didn't have much detail but it looks like there were 142 scrapped in total.

That was a bad scheme for a lot of good cars. But saying that working at a main dealer at the the time and some (good) cars that were in the scrappage scheme didn't get scrapped. I got a mint mk2 cavalier and Carlton for instance.

I've taken a brief look at the list and it's amazing to see how many nice cars went.

But now aren't the government hiking up the price on tax for diesel cars? After promising cheaper tax for low emission cars?

and 50+ GTV's.

Diesels aren't low emissions, they are just low on certain emissions. It was an ill thought out Government plan where, as usual, one side of a storey was seen. Emissions from petrol cars are something like 90% cleaner than 25 years ago where as diesels are no better. The Government has basically subsidised pedestrian and cyclist killing particles being blasted into the air.

Plus how many "eco" diesels achieve 70+ mpg in the real world? My wife's certainly doesn't.....

But that was a bit of convenient taxation!
The government reduced tax on diesels years ago as a "look we are giving you a tax cut" as there were not many diesels on the road in comparison to petrol! now the tables have turned and the same thing will happen with LPG if more people take it up, although currently not that common
Then they will some how try to tax electric cars when they are commonplace in 10-20 years time!

Every diesel car van etc. i have driven have given really poor results if you drive normally but to be fair do give decent mpg if you drive like a fairy everywhere

Not always, my diesel Grande Punto went down to near Gibraltar and back at around 80-85mph indicated pretty well all the way with about 100 miles local running down there.

3500 miles, it used 60 gallons which is 58.3 mpg. Pretty impressive in my book.

Drive them on torque, not revs and the efficiency and performance is there.

Fair comment! that's sort of what i meant but you have put it far more eloquently than I ever could!

Best I've managed out of the wife's Bravo Diesel was 55 ish on a run driving very very very fuel cautiously. It's supposed to do upwards of 70!

Back more OT, £2K for most coupes (Especially a few years back) was over priced!

My 1.9tdi Saab gives me an average of 48 mpg pretty much regardless of whether I thrash it or not!

I've got a Golf GT TDI 180bhp and the computer says I'm getting 53mpg over the last 2500miles. Plus the road tax is 0!! I don't hang around either

I find that diesel mpg is very journey-specific

While I was working in Leamington, I used to get close to 50mpg average per tank.

Then I started working full-time at Motormech, it dropped to around 44-45mpg

Now I have a desk job again, I'm commuting to a technology park right next to the M42, which means far less stop-start traffic - last week, while cruising home at 55-60mph, I managed the following:-



This was over a distance of exactly 40 miles in evening rush hour, between 6:00pm and 7:00pm. 15 miles of motorway, 15 miles of DC, 8 miles of A road and a couple of miles of urban streets.

Alfa GT 1.9 diesel, with economy remap, plus Terraclean treatment

If all diesels could do this sort of mpg, the government would be hiking tax anyway, as the revenue from fuel would drop - let's face it, they're going to have us one way or another.....

You've got a bulb out nigel

Not bad going that!

I do a long commute, as Nigel's but 65 miles each way. About half is motorway speed, the rest is slow A roads or queuing.

Same engine as Nigel and Suba - I'm showing around 58-59 most weeks (although when I do a proper brim it and divide, I get a couple of mpg less as a rule; I suspect the others will too). I do have to drive like a daisy to do that, but on the other hand, putting my foot down costs me sometimes twenty percent... on four thousand quid a year on fuel, that's a big chunk.

The diesel is *very* sensitive to conditions: a wet road can drop the consumption by 5mph, as can a fairly gentle head wind. I suspect because it's using so little energy anyway, any extra drag shows up immediately.

Neil - I have a test for you....

On the motorway, drop in behind the biggest truck you can find and see what happens to the mpg

When I leave my office, I'm straight onto the M42. Within one junction, I'm at 50mpg (not bad from a cold start) Within two junctions, I'm over 60mpg and by the time I turn off, 20 miles later, I'm usually well over 70mpg

like you say, diesel mpg is highly sensitive, and slipstreaming a chunky truck makes a huge difference

Still can't work out why a wet road brings the mpg down though - surely a tiny bit of water can't be THAT difficult to drive through....

It's all a bit subjective really, a tiny bit of water to us is a lot to a barnacle.

The only diesels i currently drive are the new Fiat Doblo 1.3 multijets, they can allegedly manage 58mpg?

I've yet to better 32.8

When the road is wet, the tyres shift a *lot* of water and that pumping action takes power.

Poor Coupes. It will always be the case that people will kick themselves in years hence since they scrapped low value (at the time) cars.

I am guilty of that many times over in the 1980's - trashing a few 850 Sports, Honda S800's, even a Fiat 2300S Coupe. All emminently restorable but worthless then.

Hindsight is a fine thing !!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99ixp6UuHt4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

108 mpg over a 9km motorway stretch with the Alfa Diesel, behind a truck doing 90km/h average. Not slipstreaming at 120km/h gave me around 55-60.

That is with a Squadra Massimo remap.

Oh it gave a stock 20vt a run for its money as well.

Wonderful engines.