Alistair chooses to drive a quality car. I have also done so in the past.
All that safety and comfort adds weight, weight needs power to overcome. Engines are most efficient at peak power output - ie they convert the most power to motion, which is why smaller engines are more efficient at lower speeds - they are further up their efficiency curves.
Alistair, like myself, drives abroad where proper speeds are legal and tolerated. I've regularly driven my cars at 90-100% of Vmax for hours on end, running 12-15mpg. That's my choice - so live with it. Currently in an effort to reduce my expenses I'm running a small diesel hatchback - it runs 33mpg flat out (115mph) but I'm not traveling europe as much now so it makes sense.
The extra value is 400bhp...
-- Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving And revolving at 900 miles an hour That's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned, A sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see, Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour, Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.
