Latest speed limits

I am puzzled if French cars have different gear ratios or engines with different torque curves - and if this has changed over past 10 years with a move towards cleaner emissions.

Done this plenty of times Mat, 6th being a bit of a struggle in mine as the rpm gradually drops off on the flat and no good on an incline. 90kph is fine.

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Many marques have moved towards passing emissions tests and rattling how good their mpg is.
The ford transit is amazing when empty but how many do their day to day work empty or nearly empty, fill it up and watch the fuel gauge fall away quickly.

Our Skoda is unbelievably bossy and tells me what gear I should be driving in. By the time I have reached 70kph it’s wanting me to drive in 6th. Needless to say I ignore it. :roll_eyes:
I am, however, comfortably in 5th by the time I’m doing 70-80kph.

How does electric feature in this discussion about emissions/speed though?

Not at all😀

perhaps it should @Flocreen

or not at all ever😀

When i raised the subject I specifically mentioned small French car like Clios, because that’s what my garage usually provides as a courtesy car. When I first had one after the 80km h limit came in, it struggled a bit in top gear and it struck me that these cars’ gear ratios might have been designed so one could go into fifth somewhere between 80 and 90.

Memory plays tricks, but I think I posted something along the above lines at the time

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My UK Fiesta (7 years old and 1 litre engine) seems to need a lower gear than my previous French one which, admittedly, was some 14 years older. 30 miles an hour (or 50k) can’t be done in 4th gear at all. Needs to be at least 40 mph for that.
It also tells me when to change up a gear as well for the best fuel economy @SuePJ and I can’t turn the bloody thing off!
Izzy x

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50mph in 5th?

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Yes, it will trundle along at just under 2k revs at 50mph in 5th. The car certainly flashes it’s “up” arrow at me when I get to 50mph to tell me to change up!
Izzy x

Hoping to raise some money on fines perhaps. The main road nearby has one speed camera, but it gets moved up and down the road so you never know where it will be. I got a fine for doing 87kmph when I forgot to look out for it. Having recently been sprayed with vaguely Ukrainian colours, it is possibly now out of order.

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Mines automatic, and fuel consumption is terrible …:roll_eyes:

The environmental argument for the 80kph is about the way the work the motor needs to do changes around this crucial speed. On electric you obviously still don’t directly use fuel or produce emissions - but you do still use more power, which means more charging, some of which may ultimately use fossil fuels (in France, not much, but in other places, including the UK, maybe a lot).

Driving electric has also played a big role in changing my driving behaviour - mainly because my car gives me a lot of information about how it’s using its power - so I really see the difference between driving below 80kph or above it. When it’s laid out very clearly right in front of you, it does make you think.

Not disagreeing with your post Geof, clearly electric cars are superior on environmental grounds (and of course they also have phenomenal acceleration - that we all secretly envy!) but I wonder whether such a direct comparison between electric and internal combustion power and speed is a sound one because in the former it is simple and straightforward whereas in the latter one has to consider in which gear the car is the car being driven. Until recently my car would show me the remaining kilometrage at the current rate of speed and choice of gear. Often in higher gears, the remaining range would increase significantly if I changed up to sixth.

Unfortunately, that facility suddenly disappeared from the dashboard display, it’s now greyed out in preferences and what little I remember from my 1969 ‘O’ level German (failed) is unsurprisingly insufficient to deal with the car’s 200 page plus manual :wink:

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I know what you mean - my kids were all here last week and had great fun mocking me and my car manual. They got hold of one volume of the manual (it has two, each almost as thick as Ulysses) - this one just covering the computer and audio-visual stuff - and proceeded to ask me lots of questions, all the answers to which were ‘I don’t know’, ‘I’m not sure’, ‘I don’t understand the question’…

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Seems a random comparison to throw into the mix, what evidence can you offer to verify such a claim?
Our motorhome is powered by the current Mk 8 Ford transit so is never empty às the kerb wieght of the vehicle is about 3 tonnes. Add to this the trailer and Smart car we tow of 1.3 tonnes ànd my experience is that the fuel consumption is excellent and regularly in excess of 30 miles per gallon (conversion equivalent as fill up in litres and record in kilometres).I have owned and driven transits since 1970’s and they have consistently returned excellent fuel consumption figures.
The dash info is always telling me to go to 6th gear at around 70kph and the ensemble still pulks like a train.
Consumption the same without trailer.

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there should be a “be kind to your tranny” day :wink:
like most things… I guess the experience of the driver counts a great deal as to how he treats his steed… yer average white van man might not care about “sparing the horses” and drive like a madman which will obviously have its cost on both engine life and fuel cost.

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OMG, back to the subject of tranny’s again :scream: :rofl:

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