Life in the slow lane

Ready for the off: the line-up of Toyota Vios cars in Bangkok before setting off on the 650-kilometre journey to Chiang Mai

After the economic crisis back in 1997, the majority of Thai people were forced to tighten their belts, and many of those who usually spent their annual vacations travelling overseas had to scale down their plans and travel within the Kingdom instead.

At the time, gasoline and diesel prices were subsidised by the government, resulting in motorists being able to enjoy cheap fuel.

But eventually the burden became too heavy and prices were finally floated. So here we are today with unleaded gasoline hitting the historically high Bt30-per-litre level, and the idea of driving long distances for a vacation isn't exactly the most economical choice these days, especially if you drive a large, heavy SUV or a big luxury saloon.

Recently, there has been a trend among drivers to lower fuel costs, whether by using a smaller car with good fuel economy or switching over to cheaper alternative fuels such as gasohol, biodiesel or natural gas.

Presently, only Chevrolet and Mercedes-Benz, which make up a small fragment of the Thai automobile market, offer special models that can run on these alternative fuels.

Other manufacturers have yet to start offering similar products, and the majority of buyers who are concerned about saving fuel costs still rely on fuel-efficient models that run on regular petrol or diesel.

I have made it clear to many auto companies, especially those offering pickups with common-rail engines, that I won't be taking part in any more fuel-economy events. In my opinion, these events are not practical nor accurate, since drivers, aiming to win nice prizes by using various fuel-saving techniques, are not replicating real-world situations.

In real life, nobody drives a car with the air-con switched off and with the windows closed to maintain good aerodynamics, cruises in top gear at 50kph, turns off the engine when going downhill (bloody dangerous), minimises brake use or pumps up tyre pressure to 50psi (which means that there's almost no grip and drag left), etc.

Every fuel-economy experiment is a nuisance to other motorists sharing the road. Our vehicles often get special privileges from the local police, who help block other traffic to allow us to cruise through intersections. Do we pay more road taxes than others? No.

I have told many people that if they want to set a fuel-economy record, they can drive around a closed oval course and do whatever they like. There may not be such a course in Thailand, so you can go to the National Stadium and drive around it for as long as you like and set your stupid record. No one would be affected this way, and it also ensures the safety of the caravan.

When Toyota invited me to join the Vios "One Tank to Chiang Mai" event, I didn't like the idea at all.

Actually, I had to be in Chiang Mai that weekend to take part in the Vios One Make Race, and another purpose of Toyota's fuel-economy caravan was to get the media to that race, the first of five to be held this year.

"You don't need to drive, Phi King. I know you don't like it," Toyota's PR manager told me.

"But do you know how long it's going to take to get there with a fuel-economy caravan?" I asked.

"Don't worry, we have a time frame and we won't be going too slowly. This is supposed to be real-world driving. We're not trying to set records here, just to prove that we can reach Chiang Mai in the Vios with one tank of fuel," he confirmed.

"All right, but I hope that for the next four races I won't have to do anything like this again, okay?" I replied.

The distance was roughly 650 kilometres and the cars had to arrive at Saraphi district in Chiang Mai by 5pm, meaning we had nine hours, including breaks and lunch.

This did not seem too bad because usually if you start off in Bangkok in the morning, you would get to Chiang Mai in the evening (before 6pm), I thought.

There were nine Vios cars in the caravan, plus Fortuner and Hilux Vigo staff vehicles, and we started off at the Shell gas station on Chaeng Wattana Road. I was assigned to a black 1.5 E Vios along with fellow journalists Amorn Phuang-ngarm of Prachachart Thurakij and Akapol Suthapinthu of Autobild magazine.

I knew that many of the participants were in a competitive mood, since there were some pretty nice prizes up for grabs. But this was a competition where the slower car would win - this is very depressing, especially for someone who was going to be racing all out later that weekend.

Akapol was the first to drive and I was already annoyed the moment we left the Shell station. Instead of driving the car like Toyota engineers had intended, our black Vios crawled out to the main road and maintained an average speed of about 15kph - and there was no traffic at all!

I waited to see whether he would increase the speed but it was only when we entered the expressway that this fantasy of mine would come true. Now we were going at about 80kph.

In order to make sure I would not have a stroke due to the excessive stress, I started talking with both guys. We talked about everything, ranging from golf to sex (a lot of the latter), which made the time we spent in the car more enjoyable.

We headed towards Kamphaeng Phet, where lunch was served before changing the driver.

Amorn was next, but this time it wasn't that bad. He went a little faster than Akapol (about 90kph) and the dirty talk (and jokes) resumed.

After another 150km, we stopped in Tak for refreshments and I decided to take the wheel after that. It's hard to sit in a car driven by other people the whole day, especially at this speed, so even though this was a fuel-economy event, I had to jump into the driver's seat.

Throughout the day, our team was always the last to leave the stopovers and the first to arrive at the next stop (even with Akapol's and Amorn's speeds, other cars were even slower).

With me at the wheel, we arrived at the stops even earlier. I didn't actually care about winning, although I made sure that I spent every bit of fuel wisely. No unnecessary kick downs, accelerating very smoothly, braking gently and maintaining a steady speed (about 100kph). I went up to 110-120kph at times, and made sure I did not block other motorists on the road.

We reached Saraphi well before 5pm and got to the refuelling station. Here we would know how many litres of fuel we had used. It turned out that even with my unconcerned driving in the last few hundred kilometres, we still had a quarter of a tank of fuel left.

At the gas station, 30.14 litres of 91 unleaded was filled into the tank of our Vios, which translated to fuel economy of 21.56 kilometres per litre. With unleaded 91 costing Bt29.54 per litre, we had spent Bt890 to get to Chiang Mai.

However, this was far worse than the car that won. Saravuth Khamsri from Taladrot (Car Market), Kiatsiam Kerdsap from Autoplace and Narinthorn Chotipiromkul from Thai Post used only 26.65 litres, averaging 24.39 km/litre (Bt787).

Meanwhile, the worst performance came from Puthipat Suriyasarn of Manager and two a car drivers, Porama Phuang-ngarm (Amorn's cousin) and Sahaporn Charoenporn, who used up 37.25 litres, averaging 17.44 km/litre (Bt1,100). Actually, I think that this figure is a good one due to the manner in which they drove the car - just like a person driving to Chiang Mai at regular speeds.

After the Vios race, in which I finished in 11th place out of a field of 30 cars, it was time to go home. This time the nine Vios cars were driven in a totally different manner, as though there would also be a prize for the first car to arrive in Bangkok.

Oh, those Thai motoring journalists!

Kingsley Wijayasinha

The Nation

Ultimate in Luxury

The Luxury LS 460 is a wonderfully comfaortable car fitted with all mod cons, althoough not necessarily the most fun vehicle to drive.