The Latest British Standard For Petrol Can Damage Engines

Monday, 7. April 2014

This next item is of particular interest if you drive or are thinking of driving a petrol car. You may or not be aware that when petrol is manufactured, or whatever the correct expression is, it has to conform to British standards and for many years the standard blend of fuel in the UK has been known as E5.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

This means that petrol has to be blended with 5% Ethanol which cuts down greenhouse gas emissions. The downside is that it delivers 30% less power than petrol but with just 5% added the difference has hardly been noticeable. However, this is about to change because from March 2013 British Standard EN228 has allowed petrol companies to increase the ethanol content to 10%, known surprisingly as E10.

To date none seem to have adopted the new blend as it has been found to cause a problem in older cars. In the US they have investigated the differences the new blend makes to cars and found that there is a drop in economy of about 3-4% between E10 and pure petrol (E0).

In real terms, following an investigation by What Car, on a Dacia Sandero 89bhp, the drop in MPG meant a difference in fuel cost of £202 every 12,000 miles. A 98bhp Hyundai i30 had a 9.8% drop in economy between E0 and E10 amounting to an extra £16 per month. Hybrids performed a little better.

It is thought that 39% of UK road transport CO2 comes from petrol engines and Ethanol has been proposed as a quick fix to help to reduce this. The expected carbon saving is anticipated to be 58% but What Car tests have found that there is actually a slight increase in carbon emissions.

The general feel is that whilst the fuel companies won’t introduce E10 before the end of this year – it will come eventually. Before you start to panic the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders(SMMT) have said that 92.2% of all cars are OK with E10 and that cars built after 2002 should be in the clear but check the manual before filling up.

E5 will still be available so we will be back to the days of ‘Super’ grade and ‘Super Plus’ grade petrol. If a garage sells 3 million litres a year it must offer both grades, less than this and the site will need to decide which grade to offer. Retailers don’t have to identify E5 petrol however the Biofuel (labelling) Regulations state that pumps dispensing more than 5% Ethanol must clearly show it on the pumps so E10 will be clearly labelled.

Manufacturers have known about this for a few years so all new cars will be compatible with E10, yet another reason why you should lease a new car rather than HP a used car! By Graham Hill

Enhanced by Zemanta

Graham Hill, Car Finance Expert, Reveals All 10 Of The Auto Express Top 10 Cars

Sunday, 25. April 2010

I revealed last week that the Hyundai i30 was voted the Auto Express Driver Power car of the year as voted by 23,000 drivers polled. This week I reveal the rest of the top 10. The cars were scored for 10 major features including reliability, build quality, running costs, performance, comfort, ride quality etc. The top ten were as follows: Read more »

Graham Hill, Car Finance Expert, Reveals Top Car Voted By AutoExpress Readers

Monday, 12. April 2010

Auto Express have named their Driver Power 2010 top 100 cars. More of this next week but I can report that the Jaguar XF has been knocked off the number one position and replaced by, wait for it, the Hyundai i30. The survey was polled amongst 23,00 drivers with cars being assessed on 10 factors including reliability, comfort, build quality and performance. More of this breaking story next week but this week we are offering the i30 on special terms as our deal of the week – I don’t just throw these things together you know! By Graham Hill

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]