Yeah, if you’re so poor that you need to block others for fuel savings, then you should pull over to a bus stop every 5 minutes to wait for others to pass. This courtesy was still often seen in the 90s, but not anymore.
Those driving below the speed limit in a normal passenger car should stay off the roads entirely.
In principle, however, everyone should drive at a speed they feel is safe in relation to their own skills, and I believe they have a right to that. Even though I overtake a lot, I don’t see slow drivers as a problem; they don’t prevent me from overtaking. The problem is those who stay on the slow driver’s bumper, not daring to overtake if an oncoming car might appear 1km away on a straight road, and there are more and more of these. Then, behind the one deliberating an overtake, people don’t dare to overtake normally, and behind them, the situation is worse because they would have to overtake many cars, etc.
Safety-consciousness is increasing, especially after Corona; I often see visible couples walking on the sidewalk wearing yellow safety vests, just in case.
This can still be somewhat accepted, but it’s infuriating when that under-speed turns into a slight over-speed just when a good overtaking spot appears along the way: a long straight or an actual overtaking lane.
I still don’t believe this is done intentionally, but rather that the speedometer isn’t checked, and the speed fluctuates. They get nervous on curves and ease off the gas, and then when a straight comes, the accelerator pedal is pressed deeper.
That passing lane phenomenon is real, but I would guess it’s due to the road generally being straighter, wider, and thus safer to drive faster, rather than malice – some certainly do it out of malice, but I don’t believe it’s common.
I usually drive 10 km/h faster than the speed limit indicates. In the passing lane, then 20-30 km/h faster even if I’m not overtaking anyone, because somehow I assume there are no police lurking on that stretch (a mistaken belief, but the probability of getting a fine in the passing lane is lower).
Regarding the idea that poor people drive slowly, I would provocatively counter that only the poor are in a hurry. And the rich cannot afford to pay fines, which in Finland are given based on income.
Greetings to each and every one, rich and poor. To electricians and petrolheads.
Let’s try to give Suappi some extra time. First time doing this, but if I managed to do an engine overhaul on a Husqvarna with the help of YouTube, then surely a practical nurse will somehow manage this too 
Right? Maybe? We’ll see.
I have phosphoric acid, zinc paint, body filler, degreaser, color-coded paint, etc.
What’s not to like? The sun is shining and Radio Suomi is playing. If there’s no picture of the end result at some point, it means it went completely wrong 
Oh right, this was an investment forum. Here, we just wonder at the stock prices on our phones while the paint dries and so on. But nothing much to report there. Some go up, some go down.
True, the size of the tank matters mostly in the north. Not because of the scarcity of gas stations, but due to weather conditions. When you quickly visit the Helsinki metropolitan area from north of Oulujoki, it’s nice to fill up with winter-grade diesel at home and drive the trip back and forth without refueling. This way, you avoid searching for the only gas station selling winter-grade diesel that works in the winter during Helsinki’s afternoon rush hour. When departing from the south, the tank size requirement disappears, as the goal is to drive the tank almost empty to get arctic winter diesel from Neste at Ouluntulli.
The primary supercharger of the twin-charged 220 CDI is such a light spinner that the intake manifold is already pressurized from 1000 rpm onwards, and under heavy load, the boost pressure limit kicks in already below 1400 rpm. The 7G-Tronic automatic transmission also effectively utilizes this low-end torque, driving at 1000 - 1500 rpm whenever possible. The highest gear is just enough for 100 km/h, where in 7th gear, the engine speed is slightly below 1500.
The fuel consumption of such a car is more a characteristic of the driver than the car, as consumption is exactly what the driver demands, ranging between 4 and 10 liters. The optimal consumption is at a speed of about 70 km/h, where it consumes less than 4 per hundred.
Our Spritmonitor readings only tell us what such cars consume without compromising legal speed, if the driver utilizes a predictive driving style. Our consumption figures could be lowered in many ways. By compromising on speed and load, increasing tire pressures, and changing to the smallest approved tire size for the car, consumption could be lowered, but that is not the purpose of this exercise. We monitor consumption achieved without compromising anything other than stone chips on the windshield.
Exactly. But that same right also belongs to the one catching up to someone driving slower than others at the legal speed. The slow driver does not have the right to take that away from them.
Driving slowly indeed seems to be a disappearing skill, mastered by only a few over 17 years old. With an A1 license, it’s somewhat mandatory to know how, as an 11 kW power-restricted light motorcycle (kevari) barely reaches 100 km/h in top gear with the rev counter near the redline. Uphill, the speed dwindles and the AINACS text grows in the mirrors. Does the trucker’s schedule have time to wait for a proper overtaking spot, or do they have to push past without seeing over the hill crest?
HEAR, HEAR! The brotherhood of Volvoland nods approvingly, even though you chose the losing ticket. It’s still much better than no Swedish iron at all!
This really brings back memories from the time when I used to hobby with these and at least everything extra was attached to the car. 
It was certainly a real brake on getting rich back then.
What a nice seven-series, but do I remember completely wrong that those Titan alloy wheels run with a front-wheel drive offset? Or was there a similar-looking wheel model for rear-wheel drive models too?
Indicative of the passage of time are my own car’s oversized tires, i.e., 185/65R15 on five-spoke 740 Turbo Draco wheels. Back in the day when the ‘brick nose’ was new, that was indeed a larger and wider tire size than standard on a factory-delivered car with 14" tires. Under the rear license plate, there’s still the Volvolandia license plate backing.
This thread has turned from a place for tipping off about financing offers, leases, and sharing the honest costs of motoring into a meeting place for Motonet men. The feeling is like sitting in a Biltema cafe, a shame. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but I think I’ll pause following this thread.
It’s quite easy to calculate. If the insurance is, for example, €1.5/day and Traficom charges €6 for taking it out of traffic use, then for five days it’s already worth putting it out of use.
The XC60 2.4-liter diesel’s vehicle and fuel tax was close to a grand a year, and insurance was another similar amount. So, with low kilometers, I leaned towards a petrol crematorium that consumes 9 L/100km.
In addition, the accumulation of vehicle tax also stops by taking it out of traffic use (the tax for the day of removal still needs to be paid).
I’ll update my situation a bit: I just temporarily deregistered a car for the first time ever. Inspired by this forum. I used to think it was a bit of a gimmick, not worth the hassle. However, I’ve started to become a full-fledged stock investor, who is often such a miser that they only have a barrel around their waist because even clothes cost too much. I still always wear brand-name clothes, but I can already hear the call of the discount bins in Tokmanni’s popular clothing section.
During the week, I drive a company car, and if needed, I use my own car on weekends. Often, I even do weekend driving with the company car and fuel, but it’s not suitable for nearly every need. It’s a grocery getter. Also, sometimes work pisses me off so much that I refuse to sit in a car because of it during my free time.
I calculated that if I put my own car into temporary deregistration every Sunday and only take it into use when necessary, which often means a 2-3 week gap, the savings will be quite substantial. The diesel tax on the car partly makes it profitable.
It remains to be seen whether I find this constant registration switching too bothersome or if it starts to go smoothly. Another thing, especially at first, is that I wouldn’t want to end up paying a four-digit fine too many times because I forgot to register the car for use.
So, this is how savings related to driving were invented! And immediately followed by expenses: I caught myself browsing 3-6 liter engine cars for hours, because this way maintenance would be affordable and I wouldn’t drive my own car very much. So I thought I could try a car like that for the first time in my life. Perhaps also for the last time, as they are gradually becoming history and ending up in the museum register. Still time -opportunity.
No it’s not, check again and/or show the calculation… and vehicle tax is also on petrol vehicles…
The Volvo XC60’s fuel tax is determined by its weight and the fuel used. If the car is diesel-powered, the fuel tax is 5.5 cents per day per 100 kg, which is on average about 450 euros per year
Edit, I looked it up myself since you might not reply 
Your choice is, of course, your own, but please note that if money is the deciding factor, the discussion will be short because the only options are something like a well-maintained 1990s Toyota Carina or no car at all. If this is your view, I understand why you find weighing other criteria boring.
Those for whom money is not the only selection criterion end up in a motive conflict, where the importance of different selection parameters in their own choice is weighed. In such a case, the choice begins to diverge in several directions depending on what is important to each person.
By popular request, let’s discuss numbers, so I’d be happy to hear how you made this comparison? I ask because I had the same discussion at home before my wife’s Volvo S80, which consumed an average of almost 9 per hundred, was replaced by a clearly larger capacity XC60 wagon (M-B E220d / S213).
For us, the calculation went like this: the petrol Volvo’s vehicle tax was about 360 € per year due to high fuel consumption. The diesel Mercedes’ tax is 654 €, so the difference is about 300 €. With a difference in average consumption of over 3.5 liters, the diesel thus saves its fuel tax (käyttövoimavero) over about 5000 km of driving, i.e., already during the fourth tankful. There’s no need to compromise on space, and in this calculation, the S213’s fuel tax (käyttövoimavero) is increased by its exceptionally large payload (640 kg) thanks to the standard air suspension on at least the rear axle.
The Mercedes would also be available with a slightly more economical petrol engine than the Volvo, but the same principle applies there too, as the diesel is already more economical with less than 10,000 km of driving.
How much exactly was the XC60’s “almost a thousand” vehicle tax, and how much is the vehicle tax for the 9 liters per hundred consuming car you chose instead?
I don’t doubt that someone driving very little could get by cheaper with a petrol engine, but at least in our practically realized comparison, saving with petrol would require such low mileage that it completely questions the rationality of car ownership.
Yeah, if you want to get by cheap, buy a V50, 160k km and maintenance has cost about 400€ in total, 7 years. Rust-free. Best car ever.
49 months and 55,000 km:
| expense item | cost |
|---|---|
| maintenance | 10,176.00 € |
| other costs | 24,343.66 € |
| total | 34,519.66 € |
704.48 € / month
62.76 € / 100 km
Other costs include: insurance, tires, fuel, taxes, inspections, other (washing, fluids..), depreciation
It might be a bit off the top of my head, as I don’t remember the exact numbers anymore, and the XC60 was in my ex-wife’s name. However, it accumulated about 30 k km per year on the odometer, and over 82 k km, the actual average consumption, measured from refuels, was 7.53 L/100 km. In any case, the vehicle and fuel tax was around 900 €/year, and the insurance premium with comprehensive coverage, according to autumn -23, was 1018.41 €/year.
Now, the tax for the petrol burner is 414.27 €/year, the kilometers driven are about ten thousand, and the insurance costs 355.43 €/year (third-party liability insurance only).
The difference in consumption compared to a diesel is around 1.5 L/100 km, meaning 150 liters more of 95E is consumed per year than would be consumed by a comparable diesel XC60. So, when the car changed to a “three-thousand-euro clunker” and the kilometers dropped to about 1/3, it was worth forgetting about diesel. Of course, if we had gone with a car of the same price and the same kilometers, it would be a different story.