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| 1st September 2008 |
| 145 fuel injection & LPG test drive: 3,500 miles |
The Henchoz' took the 145 out a couple of weeks ago, and returned last night: 3,500miles later.
The car ran faultlessly, although I shall need to replace the radiator before next summer as it was a little hot when sitting at Dover ferry check-in for 20'.
- The run down through France provided ample opportunity to sort out the fuel injection mapping:
- The "cruise" area was leaned off to stoichiometric air-fuel-ratio
- Later I also increased the cruise ignition advance to 42°, it could quite possibly take more in fact.
- Our stay in the Morvan hill country allowed me to sort out...
- Hill start mixtures, which were all over the place, particularly going horribly lean at around 1500rpm (and therefore stalling at just the wrong moment.
- Then there was the LPG side of things: absolutely brilliant...
- The first tankgave us about 240mile range
- Subsequent tankfuls gave over 270miles
- This consumption was irrespective of the type of driving:
- either pootling around the hill country, hairpin bends and big climbs
- fully laden on the 130kph run down the Autoroutes
- However, the car starts on petrol, then switches to LPG: therefore the "local pootling" uses more petrol simply by virtue of more engine starts, even if the LPG consumption is no different.
Conclusion
- LPG is truly superb, so long as the government keeps the tax attractive:
- £30 for close on 300miles of fuel sounds like the 1980's...
- ...so I guess that on this trip to France alone, we've already saved close on £600, for a £1000 investment in the kit.
- This makes 144 ownership such a good decision on every count: green, comfort, economy, simplicity.
145 as a family cruiser
- It's the quietest car we can remember driving (including the sexy Merc 300TE24 that we ran)
- It's fast, and cheap to fuel
- Almost perfect ride quality (I need to stiffen up the rear springs 20%)
- Ultra comfortable front seats
- The girls say the rear seats were hard, and they slipped about a bit: so maybe I need to source a 245 rear bench?
- Load capacity: well it's a 140 Estate, no other car can match it!
- Wouldn't it be nice to have aircon, but then that's wasting power & fuel, so maybe not. We only really wanted it on the Peripherique.
- We popped a couple of (4.5m) canoes in the boot with the tailgate open, to go down to the lake. Local Francais' thought this was remarkable earning us many a grinning wave as we regally negotiated our way down the hills (and back up again).
- But perhaps I should dig out the Volvo roof rack and install that, so we could simply strap the canoes to the roof. I'll go and look for it right now...
We like the 145.
A lot!
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