Another Booze Cruise to France

[macabethiel]

Well the Hyundai did another uneventful trip to France and back in the day with her indoors at the helm with her mate as companion.

The Santa Fe 2.7 V6 petrol managed to do 26 mpg despite hold ups on the M25 and on the Dartford Tunnel.

She has now covered 8,000 miles in 11 months without any reliability issues to date.

Although we preferred the Terrano R3mR for its higher stance the Santa Fe is marginally cheaper on fuel due to petrol / diesel fuel cost difference.

The Hyundai has managed 28 mpg at its best by keeping the top speed at 65-70 mph.
I hope we have some snow this coming winter so we can see how she performs without a diff lock or LSD. (I am assuming it has no LSD.)

 

[AlexD333]

Well the Hyundai did another uneventful trip to France and back in the day with her indoors at the helm with her mate as companion.

The Santa Fe 2.7 V6 petrol managed to do 26 mpg despite hold ups on the M25 and on the Dartford Tunnel.

She has now covered 8,000 miles in 11 months without any reliability issues to date.

Although we preferred the Terrano R3mR for its higher stance the Santa Fe is marginally cheaper on fuel due to petrol / diesel fuel cost difference.

The Hyundai has managed 28 mpg at its best by keeping the top speed at 65-70 mph.
I hope we have some snow this coming winter so we can see how she performs without a diff lock or LSD. (I am assuming it has no LSD.)

I was trying to read on other Hyundai forum, the only answer they gave is it seems to be a. Option in some models, check the window sticker..

 

[rustic]

...The Santa Fe 2.7 V6 petrol managed to do 26 mpg despite hold ups on the M25 and on the Dartford Tunnel...

When we did the booze cruise, we used the M40 and M25 south past Gatwick, then the M26, then M20 A20 to Dover.
Saved the cost of the Dartford crossing... We also thought this route was quicker too.

With price of fuel vs offers in supermarkets we don't find it that economical these days, although the £ is high against the Euro...

 

[macabethiel]

When we did the booze cruise, we used the M40 and M25 south past Gatwick, then the M26, then M20 A20 to Dover.
Saved the cost of the Dartford crossing... We also thought this route was quicker too.

With price of fuel vs offers in supermarkets we don't find it that economical these days, although the £ is high against the Euro...

We only buy read wine and sparkling white / fake Champagne. Beer is often as cheap at Asda.

With splitting the cost of fuel and Euro Tunnel between two households it works out that we have to add 75 p onto the cost per bottle. Because we bulk buy we get free extra cases of wine from the warehouse. Our favourite red -Tall Horse works out at £4.20 a bottle and our slurping wine comes in at £2.65 for a litre. Usually the girls stay in Calais for a night and make a holiday of it. Left to me I would not bother I would just pay the extra from Aldi or Bookers.

They usually load up with around 25-30 cases plus a few bottles of spirits so its economies of scale. We used to get really cheap deals with the Chanel Tunnel but the prices are a bit higher these days. Present Euro exchange helps!

 

[solarman216]

on my trip to Jonella, I picked up 60 bottles of cotes du rhone for £1.20 a bottle, still drinking it, Rick

 

[macabethiel]

on my trip to Jonella, I picked up 60 bottles of cotes du rhone for £1.20 a bottle, still drinking it, Rick

Before Tesco Calais shut we used to get a 1 litre bottle of La Villageous for £0.95p now its around £1.50 still at just 11% alcohol it makes a good second bottle!!
In the UK it was around £6.00 for the identical wine.

 

[Sweety]

26-28mpg is good going for a V6:thumb2 best I ever got out of my V8 was 21 & that was sticking to 55mph & being very easy on the throttle:augie

 

[CliveG]

We get our red "glug" from the local Cave at 1.25 euros/litre.It's better than a lot of the stuff on the shelf here in French supermarkets and a lot better/cheaper than the red you find in the UK.Pity you can't run a diesel Patrol on it!:augie

 

[macabethiel]

26-28mpg is good going for a V6:thumb2 best I ever got out of my V8 was 21 & that was sticking to 55mph & being very easy on the throttle:augie

Its not so good on short journeys. Wife does just under a mile each way to work and in the winter it drops to 19-20 in the summer it rises to 21-22.

On journeys of over 15 miles she rises to 24-26. On the France run I always add 500ml of cheap two stroke oil and we manage 26-28.

Trouble is in a 30/40 mph zone she rarely changes into top unles warm or its downhill hence the drop in economy.
I have changed to Fuchs Titan 4400 ATF to encourage better gear changing. The previous owner used the manual change for economy but it defeats the object somewhat of having an auto.

 

[Sweety]

Would have loved the 19-20mpg out of my V8 only got 12 around the doors, used to give it some stick every month to clear out the cobwebs but got told off by my wife as it returned 4mpg when doing it:lol BTW manually changing the gears won't save you anything on fuel as it's an auto box selecting number 2 lets say does not mean your in 2nd gear it means it won't change up any higher than 2nd but it will drop down to 1st when needed this happens with No 3 on the selector it won't change up a gear but will drop down to 2nd or 1st but this can come in handy going down steep hills where you want some engine braking:augie