VW Lupo 1.2tdi 3l (112 MPG)

[Franmcm]

You are right!
Not only i will not recover the money but also i will loose money when i sell it and i will have to ride an uglier car...

[MetroMPG]

Hey! I resemble that comment.

[groar]

Congrats for the lupo 3L

I searched a lupo 3L or a A2 3L but they are rare and the ones I found were more expensive. Since I decided to go for a second hand Prius (because it has been conceived to emit very few pollutants) when the bank account will permit.

You can decide to put money to ecomod it not because it will pay back, but because you are saving money compared to the previous car. I "heavily" aero-modded (not as much as basjoos of course) my car but I consider the aero-mods only contribute to 20% of my saving, vs 80% for my driving, so my aero-mods doesn't deserve the time I spent on them.

Now the aero-mods on my car, and the fact my car is ugly, permit to people to wonder about their own consumption and if 10% of these people save 10% of their fuel then they will save more than if I can save myself, even by stopping all energy consumption.

Now several aero-mods have been done to have fun, while building them and while driving. I do love when a mod change the behavior of the car and I have to change the way I'm driving, per example the rear wheel skirts and pumping up the tires at max-sidewall. The car is now much more fun to drive

Denis.

[vtec-e]

Mind you, you could always do some internal mods like hotter thermostats, block heaters, lighter oils etc. Some underside mods like belly pans could be done while retaining a standard look. Have you started a fuel log here? Make sure you do it!

[NHRABill]

Originally Posted by Franmcm

The lupo and the Fox are two different models. The fox is a little bigger and was bild specially to be cheap. The lupo was bild to be small but is more refined and more expensive.
I dont believe lupo 3l would have sold a lot in USA. In europe the lupo 3l didnt sell that much. For the same price of the lupo 1.2tdi you could buy the 1.4tdi and this one had aircondition, assisted direction, bigger tyres(ususally people relate to bigger security), faster, easier, less expensive to mantain, with electric windows, with better seats.... All that made people buy the 1.4tdi instead of the 1.2tdi. And in Europe we tend to have and appreciate more the efficient cars. In SUV country where bigger is better with low gasoline prices and some allergy to diesel cars (although the lupo is fitted standart to use biodiesel, i just found this reading the instruction manual)... the small and hyper efficient lupo would in my opinion have been a disaster.

I dont think it would have been hard to meet the safety tests, the lupo meets them all here in europe and for the polution dont think it would have benn hard (the lupo has 81g/100Km) but with low selling future maybe it would not worth the costs involved on it, i can easy understant VW reasons.

If you read the article it does not meet North America standards for Safety and America does not have an allergy to diesel they do not meet emissions standards even with the great mileage they get in many cases. There is a large demand for efficient cars motorcycle and scooter sales are skyrocketing but still with the ever increasing standards for safety the cost is too high for companies to make any real profit off of a cheap car.

Large vehicles with all the add on equipment is where they make all of their profits. If you ever compare profit markups on new vehicles a truck will have 3000-4000 dollar profit in it where a compact car will have a 500 to 1000 profit margin for the dealer.

You see many people including myself here trying to find a way to have a multipurpose vehicle get better efficiency because I don't want to buy another dedicated car just for better gas mileage an eco box such as the lupo is great in theory and I wish those 80mpg could meet safety standards and pass emissions hopefully enough people will continue to show a demand to the auto companies that the public wants more efficient cars that burn clean and are safe that they start to make them.

[Franmcm]

Originally Posted by NHRABill

If you read the article it does not meet North America standards for Safety and America does not have an allergy to diesel they do not meet emissions standards even with the great mileage they get in many cases. There is a large demand for efficient cars motorcycle and scooter sales are skyrocketing but still with the ever increasing standards for safety the cost is too high for companies to make any real profit off of a cheap car.

Large vehicles with all the add on equipment is where they make all of their profits. If you ever compare profit markups on new vehicles a truck will have 3000-4000 dollar profit in it where a compact car will have a 500 to 1000 profit margin for the dealer.

You see many people including myself here trying to find a way to have a multipurpose vehicle get better efficiency because I don't want to buy another dedicated car just for better gas mileage an eco box such as the lupo is great in theory and I wish those 80mpg could meet safety standards and pass emissions hopefully enough people will continue to show a demand to the auto companies that the public wants more efficient cars that burn clean and are safe that they start to make them.

The article says clearly that vw didnt try to sell in USA,

" But VW has no plans to sell the Lupo in the United States. The company believes there is no market for fuel-efficient cars in our SUV-populated country."

It is different from trying to sell and failing the pollution or crash tests.

Its very hard to believe the lupo adapted from factory to biodiesel with 81g/co2 with the best figures for pollution in diesel cars (even today) one of the first cars equiped with start-stop system would not have passed the emissions test in 2000.
The security test... i think vw would have manage it if they see the market lupo already have ABS, AIRBAGS, traction control...

I do understand that lots of people are modificationg their cars in order to get better fuel economy and i admire the efford and results.

I just dont think it will be worth(meaning the costs, energy and time will not be compensated by the savings) to make such changes to my lupo as VW already took the time and efford to do it with ecodriving in mind. (if i can save 10% it means 0,3lts/100km in 10.000Km i would have saved...40€?!) They made lots and lots of changes and the present results on a completly standart car speak for themselves.

Justifying the ECObox for me was easy:
- I don't need a big car or engine (I need a car confortable, safe... that can reach 140Km/h)
- 95% of the time 4 seats is enough for me for the outher 5% i use my wife car.
- The fuel savings will pay for the car.
- I wouldn't mind paying more for the extra pleasure i get from such a car.
- The pollution savings will benefit the enviroment.
- The "Eco style" (meaning that if people look at me as an unsucesseful person in a small ) i couldn't care less!


I agree that specially USA people must pressure their car manufacturers to produce more efficient cars. USA is full of big heavy cars with big engines that seem to be a waste specially with so strict rules regarding speed.

[Franmcm]

Originally Posted by vtec-e

Mind you, you could always do some internal mods like hotter thermostats, block heaters, lighter oils etc. Some underside mods like belly pans could be done while retaining a standard look. Have you started a fuel log here? Make sure you do it!

Hotter termostats - VW did it
Block heaters - VW did it
Lighter oils - VW did it
belly pans- VW did it

If you have the time take a look at this article abaut the lupo.

http://www.volkspage.net/technik/ssp/ssp/SSP_218.pdf

[Vekke]

What Vw didint do:
DRL lights
Ksenon lights?

What is your cars color?

[Franmcm]

Originally Posted by Vekke

What Vw didint do:
DRL lights
Ksenon lights?

What is your cars color?

In the days lupo was made there was no such things (generally used in these type of cars)

My car is sky blue, not the colours i would choose but not that bad also...

Volkswagen Lupo 3L TDI wallpaper # 07 of 14, Front Angle, MY 1999, 800x600

[vtec-e]

Originally Posted by Franmcm

Hotter termostats - VW did it
Block heaters - VW did it
Lighter oils - VW did it
belly pans- VW did it

If you have the time take a look at this article abaut the lupo.

http://www.volkspage.net/technik/ssp/ssp/SSP_218.pdf

Great stuff! Might you be able to post pics of some aero details on your lupo? We love aero details......