My little corner

Its all for green

Man I have been having some major car trouble lately. Just before my dad passed away, my clutch gave out on my Peugeot 307 suddenly and had to send it in to a dealership in Fourways. They charged me R9000 to replace my clutch and flywheel, but when they gave my car back it was leaking oil and making a funny noise they said was a worn gearbox. When I complained about the noise and oil leak not being there, I got a very cold “you can’t prove that” from the service manager. I just sent it to a gearbox repair specialist who told me that the gearbox was seriously damaged and it would cost me R20000 to fix. This included a new clutch and flywheel since the ones put in 2 months ago were saturated with oil from the oil leak. Anyway I am waiting for the Motor industry ombudsman to tell me what the way forward is for my complaint against the Peugeot dealership in Fourways.

I had been contemplating the Peugeot 308 because it really looks like a nice car, but the service I am getting from them so far has totally put me off Peugeot. I started thinking that with the current petrol price I need to look at a more economical car anyway and have started looking at the Toyota Prius. It looks like a cool car and with my possible move to within 10kms from work and about 900mtrs from Church, I should save a bundle on petrol, however I started looking at it purely from a cost point of view. After seeing a video of a little girl speaking at a UN conference for energy I am thinking it might be more beneficial from a green point of view.

The Prius runs between 4.5 and 5.5 litres per 100 kms which means it can run probably about 800-900 kms on a single tank of fuel from what I have been reading. A large part of the Prius’ fuel efficiency comes from driving the car in mostly city environments. Long road driving at 120kms per hour will give you an average efficiency similar to most other cars on the road, but shorter distances with frequent stops will use the battery more and cause the fuel efficiency to be much better. I will let you know if I decide to buy it or what I decide to buy if anything, but for now, check out this video…

I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com

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