Melbourne media personality David McCarthy (pictured right) has shown that it costs only $40 to get from Melbourne to Sydney in a Honda Jazz.
David recently accepted a challenge to get to Sydney in a 1.5-litre Honda Jazz VTi-S automatic for under $50 - and went one better, arriving in the harbour city after spending just $40 on fuel.
David calculated his fuel consumption figure for the 12 hour journey was 4.9 litres per 100 km. In fact, the frugal fuel economy of the Jazz meant David had enough change left over to spend $8.95 on lunch in Albury.
"Honda and I agreed that the run would be a 100% real world drive," said David. "There would no sky high tyre pressures, coasting, driving below posted speed limits, modification of driving style or any of the other 'economy run' tricks."
"The Jazz had absolutely no problem sustaining the posted freeway speed limits (the average overall speed was 97kph) and delivered an amazing overall result of 4.9l/100kms."
"The result showed the very real benefits that the application of technology is having on fuel economy and that you don't have to sacrifice driveability or comfort to enjoy those benefits. I was impressed".
"The Jazz was a very comfortable and efficient way to travel to Sydney, I felt far from fatigued when I arrived .The unexpected bonus was not having to eat airline Bento Box food and having meaningful space to travel in!"
"Even after putting $40.00 of fuel in the Jazz I arrived in Sydney with enough fuel left to drive around inner Sydney for 50km before the fuel light came on!," said David.
No enhancements such special tyres or fuel were used - the challenge was to get there under genuine "real-world" conditions.
In addition to being extremely fuel efficient the 1.5-litre Jazz VTi-S outputs a healthy 81kW of power and 143Nm of torque.
David is a regular contributor to MCV Newspaper, Sports Car & Racer , Joy 94.9 FM and also hosts a regular interview show on Channel 31 (BENT TV) in addition to contributions to Wheels magazine and The Herald Sun Cars Guide.