birmingham to strasboug

[hart38]

hello my crazy mate has convinced me to go to strasboug with him from birmingham! 617 miles! he drives a standard ford fiesta, think years aroubd 2001!
anybody know how much we will be paying in petrol there and back! cheers for any suggestions!

[kempie]

Any calculation will be open to margins of error based on estimates of fuel consumption, fuel price, exchange rate etc.

If we assume the petrol-engined Fiesta maintains an average fuel consumption of 40.9 mpg (9 miles per litre) �10% error and;

unleaded costs �1.05 �5% in the UK and:

unleaded costs �1.37 (equivalent to �1.05) �3% in France then;

621 miles = 69 litres = �73.20

The margin of error indicates that the fuel costs should be within the range �63 to �84 for each leg of the journey.

[sddsddean]

I would suggest you go through southern Belgium (Charleroi, Namur) and into Luxembourg, before dropping into Germany toward Saarbrucken and thence to Strasbourg. Luxembourg has the cheapest petrol/diesel in Northern Europe, so fill up just before you leave Luxembourg both ways. There are service stations just before the borders on the motorways, so its not a problem.

[kempie]

A great tip from sddsddean which may only increase the distance of each leg by around 10-15 miles but allows you to purchase fuel at around 89p per litre.

However to gain full advantage of this you would need to plan your fuelling since a Fiesta is unlikely to reach Luxembourg (480+ miles) on one tank of petrol - its 45 litre tank is likely to offer a range of 400-ish miles. To maximise the saving in fuel costs your (ideal!!!) plan would need to include a small (less than 10 litres) top-up before reaching Luxembourg, e.g.

Fill tank in Birmingham ... 45 litres = �47.25
Top-up between London & Lille ... 9 ltr = �9.45
Fill tank in Luxembourg ... 45 ltr = �40.05

then continue 140-ish miles to Strasbourg.

For the return journey:

Brim tank in Luxembourg ... 31 ltr = �27.59
Top-up between Lille & London ... 11 ltr = �11.55

and continue to Birmingham.

***Bear in mind that these are 'ideal' figures and cannot be assured not to leave you stranded on the roadside if the car's fuel consumption is below 41mpg***

From this exercise we see a possible cost saving between Journey 1 (�146.40) and Journey 2 (�135.89) of around �10.50 for the total trip (and not allowing for any sightseeing).

[Buenchico]

The ViaMichelin route planner estimates the fuel cost as �84.32 (about �65) each way. It also advises that you'll have to pay �44.28 (about �35) in tolls for each leg of the journey:
http://www.viamichelin.com

Chris

[kempie]

ViaMichelin allows you to choose a route avoiding tolls. The resulting route seems to match that advocated by sddsddean...

Road Trip

[Brooksy]

This is exactly the sort of thread that makes this such a useful site.

[sddsddean]

Just a quick aside to the route in kempies link. Watch out as you go round Lille. The signage used to be terrible (they may have upgraded it since) and it is easy to head off on the wrong motorway. Otherwise its a great trip through some very pretty countryside.

[hart38]

thanks for all replys on this people much appreciated!

[hart38]

hello took about 4 tanks each way! we took toll roads to save time but they cost like 40 each way the robbing so and sos!