[Closed] Big, old, auto car - What MPG to expect?

20-25 would be about it, I think

Had a 96 2.0 16v auto and over a year and 25k it averaged 24.7mpg. Swapped it for a 2.5 v6 and over about the same time and distance got 27.2mpg. Electric (sensors) were a nightmare.

Hmmmm. Any more estimates?

Thats not big, you need at least 3 litres in one.

My 3.0i MV6 auto averaged 25mpg over 47k, and it wasn't driven with any economy in mind. Cracking cars, especially specialised in fast, fast drives - best run from south to north (370 miles) was 4 hours 🙂

Guess that's one of the reasons why the Plod ran them.

I would have guessed about 25 depending on how lead footed you are.

I suspect because of the question you're getting far less than you reckoned!! is it about 15mpg??

Well. I've actually checked it properly. As I do on all my cars and bikes. I'm a fuel geek.
Bearing in mind over 32,353 miles in our 1.6 petrol focus I've averaged 40.3mpg
I'd checked it out and thought I knew what to expect. I as expecting mid 20s.

But.....

So far, over 884 miles I've averaged 36.24mpg in the Omega. That's THIRTY six. Not a typo!

Frankly, I'm astonished.

Big cars like that are geared for economy on the motorway. Economy round town and on short journeys will be rubbish, but if you're sat on the motorway most of the time, 35+ mpg is pretty normal I'd say.

Cruise control on at 70mpg in my old BMW 540i and it would return a steady 32mpg FFS! Driven with a heavy right foot, and you could more than halve that...

It doesn't matter. Come now Peter, I've been following your contributions to car threads for long enough to be sure you know that MPG is almost irrelevent in the total cost of running cars.

What on earth makes you think that?

Although in this case I really don't give a toss about MPG as it's only a temporary thing and work are paying me 45p/mile for each and every one of those 884 miles 🙂

I was just rather impressed

My E39 M5 with a 5.0l V8 chucking out 418bhp/400lbft would do 30mpg on a 70mph cruise. It averaged 18 around town, and 22 over my life with it.

Not bad when you think about it.

Mind you, the banzai times I had were interesting; at 185mph you could visibly see the fuel gauge dropping - I calculated <5mpg for such driving (i.e. Germany and at Bruntingthorpe).

😀

In answer to the Q: a well driven 2.0l with a slush box should be getting mid 20's.

Wel the last car you talked about was a thirsty Subaru auto and you take delight in paying next to nowt for your motors and enjoying zero depreciation.

Just to compare:

There aren't many cars that depreciate at less than £1000 per year over the first five years.

10 000 miles at 25mpg = £2800 (mental guestimate on half a bottle of rosé)
10 000 miles at 30mpg = £2300

Only £500 diffence.

My E39 M5 with a 5.0l V8 chucking out 418bhp/400lbft would do 30mpg on a 70mph cruise. It averaged 18 around town, and 22 over my life with it.

Not bad when you think about it.

My old chap had one, and his figures were almost exactly the same as yours too. Awesome car to drive, so much more agile than an 1800kg car should have any right to be. But with Castrol RS 10W60 being about £12 a litre (and the engine needing a litre every 1000 miles or so as they were designed to use oil), and an appetite for its 275 wide rear tyres and brake pads, fuel consumption figures were almost irrelevant unless you were driving it everywhere like your Gran!

At 21 (and insured on it as a named driver!) I had a phonecall a few years back from my Dad at midnight, having been on the piss all day, and in a pub lock in. "Can you come and pick me up" he said. "Ok no worries". "But there's 4 of us, I've said we'll give the other 3 lads a lift home" he said. "Well how do you expect me to get them in my car" I asked. "Best come in mine" he said followed by "don't drive too quick, we'll be ready in half an hour".

The pub was about 12 miles away, so I waited 20 minutes first... Hit 140 (in 4th gear!) on the way there, slowed down for the last couple of miles to make sure I wasn't early too... 😉

Wel the last car you talked about was a thirsty Subaru auto and you take delight in paying next to nowt for your motors and enjoying zero depreciation.

You've UTTERLY missed the point of my recent car threads. We have a fairly new Focus. But I can't drive it as I have a broken ankle!
So I needed a car FAST that fulfilled certain criteria
It had to be an auto
It had to be cheap
It had to be available locally
It had to be capable of racking up to 5000 miles in a few weeks with no money at all spent on it
It had to have a working radio

Does that make it clearer?

mboy - Member

My old chap had one

MBoy, the later post facelift M5's had the upgrade to the pistons which solved the oil thirst. That said some do just have a habit.

However, mine was very good on oil; indeed I actually sold it 18 months afterwards having shoved 25k on it, and only lost 2.5k (lets ignore the running costs and maintenance - after all, it was a bonafide supercar).

I've had three bikes on a tow bar rack on the back, with the car full of crap (and associated riders) and delighted in destroying an Astra Turbo on the motorway up to and over 140mph - his face as I accelerated past with 3 bikes on the back was legendary.

Too many memories to be had, including a Megavalanche road trip (with a 450bhp S4 estate) - such a utterly drama free car to cruise at >150...

As you say, utterly mental car - it drifted far too well (for my wallet and the rear tyres).

Oh I miss her so.

Some previous fun at Brunters (now have a 530d Touring to do broadly the same thing, but at 35mpg):

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

Anyone can drift on a disused airfield, however:

My current car is an E39 535i auto and averaged 25mpg, but will manage 30mpg+ if cruised at 80-90mph.

Well it did, before the gearbox went onto 'trans failsafe prog'... Now its just sat on my drive waiting for me to take pictures and stick it on ebay.

Good value though; in 4 years and 40k miles depreciation has been £500 per year and running costs (excluding fuel) at 9ppm. Fuels worked out at 27ppm and insurance this year was £213 comp cw business, even the tax isn't bad at £207.

Not sure what to replace it with as we now live in a more rural/hilly area.

And when you've only paid £2k, happy to do this 🙂

[IMG] [/IMG]

36... thats pretty good.

ohh and an M5 touring.. that would be my ideal car I reckon

[img] [/img]

Only one ever made officially by BMW (although there is talk of another that an engineer has).

Plenty of conversions around though - agreed on the perfect car bit - it's why I'm in the 530d 😆 - I just can't afford an M5 AND N+1 bike habit...

[img] [/img]

My '99 V70 auto does 30+mpg on the Mway with bikes on. (Its for sale in the classifieds btw 🙄 )

ohh and an M5 touring.. that would be my ideal car I reckon

I came pretty close with my late E34 540i Touring. It was a very rare manual, but not only that, had the sports pack fitted which included lower/stiffer suspension, and gorgeous Leather Bucket seats.

Paid £1500 for that car back in 2009, with 150k on the clock. It felt fresh as a daisy!

Sadly, even though it was depreciation proof (sold it for £80 more than I paid for it!), and spare parts were cheap as chips (or cheaper than chips, bought and sold stuff on ebay and made a profit on the lot!), its thirst for fuel was fine whilst I was getting paid to drive everywhere for my old job, but when I lost my job I couldn't afford to fuel the bloody thing at £80 a fill up (when unleaded was 99p a litre) which would last 440 miles. Still, that was a 24mpg average, and over 30mpg on a run...

I really wanted to keep that car, if I'd had the money I would still be driving it now... My eventual plans one day were to put the S62 lump out of the E39 M5 in it (pretty much identical bottom ends) and have a "sort of" E34 M5 Touring.

Oh, and it was Oxford Green... THE ONLY colour to have a fast Beemer in! 😉

EDIT: Even debadged for stealth! Gave a few people at Bedford on this trackday a fright when it left them for dead down the straights, and it was totally bog standard!

[img] [/img]

Managed to blag our 530d Touring with a manual, with full leather interior, tree, and M-Tech bits inside.

Outside, 16" wheels and SE suspension give the best ride this side of a Rolls...

Oh, and all just for £2300. 150k miles and feels new.

[i]Outside, 16" wheels and SE suspension give the best ride this side of a Rolls...[/i]

+1 for normal wheels/tyres

Anyone been in the next 5 series (forget the E number) with M-sport suspension and 19" wheels cw runflats - most uncomfortable ride, ever

I know someone who regularly gets 24mpg from a 2.2 ton 4x4 on mud tyres with the air con running constantly. 3ltr TD. Recently shopped in his BMWs (330d and 530d touring) because they had nothing but expensive faults despite FSH and careful ownership. Lovely to be in though.

Can't see why you couldnt get 30+ in an omega auto, but I think you'd have to be careful lol.

mboy, I can't remember the exact plate - but my mate drives a 540 that could well be your old car. Although he has just bought bucket seats for it - so maybe not. Lovely car, and great great engine.

Used to have a 2.0 CDI Cavalier auto and got about 35mpg on a run, but about twenty in town traffic

Economy round town and on short journeys will be rubbish

I appear to be getting 31-ish like that, if the fuel computer is to be believed. I've not done enough miles to work out how accurate it is yet.

I'm wondering if my driving style suits automatics. I don't stop much, I don't break much, I just sort of ooze around at tick over, which seems to suit me 🙂

Quick update for any fellow fuel geeks:

Now done 5639 miles at an average of 36.93 mpg
Best - 43.3mpg (treating that one as a statistical blip though)
Worst - 32.8mpg

Fuel computer is the most accurate of any I've ever used. Rarely more than a few tenths out.

🙂

Did Smokey Joe make it oooop North then?

getting 34 mpg out of my 1994 Merc 300D estate. According to the weighbridge I went on last week, it weighs 1720kg ! Doesn't have anything you might call 'performance', though.

Good economy with the Omega.

The 535i has gone - total cost of ownership 48.81ppm over 40k and 4 years (ignoring the income I got for business miles).

Replaced by an 3.0i X-Type AWD (hopefully will get off my drive this winter). 77k and a years' MOT for £1100.

Everything works on it, even the electric seats 🙂

There's a lot you can do if you know what you are doing, as PP does.

Having said that, all I do is stick the cruise on 70mph and I got 64mpg coming to Farnborough from my Passat 🙂

Replaced by an 3.0i X-Type AWD (hopefully will get off my drive this winter). 77k and a years' MOT for £1100.

Aww.. flippin eck.. see if I had a little more cash.. really tempted to pick up something bonkers for buttons like that 🙂

I've had 41 mpg out of a 3l 3 series auto, infact any long motorway run will regularly return 37 mpg plus. Of course in town, when it's on the torque converter, it drinks like George best. Definatly costs 33% more to run than my old octavia diesel, but worth it considering it's a 270bhp car that will do 60 in 6 seconds and the top speed would be more than the speedo could indicate.

Great deal on that x-type br.Was it from a dealer or private seller?

Did Smokey Joe make it oooop North then?

Hell yes! I'm in Manchester now. 🙂

My 2004 Merc estate auto (petrol) is quite big in terms of weight, but the engine is only 1.8 (Kompressor version).

That said, I get 42mpg on a 100 mile run up north on often slow and winding A roads with a packed boot and 2 passengers.

7 mile commute to work through town and on motorway gets around 34mpg.

I've yet to do a long motorway run, but I'm expecting 45ish.

Pretty happy with those figures.

Replaced by an 3.0i X-Type AWD (hopefully will get off my drive this winter). 77k and a years' MOT for £1100.

I've had one of these for five years and it's not been a good car, likes to get through transmission related parts rather regularly, clutches, dual mass flywheels, prop shafts, transfer cases, although it is still on its original gearbox somehow!

I got it when I was 23 and kept the old rover 200 I had then as well for taking dogs to vets etc, in hindsight, I'd just have kept the rover as my main car after all the problems with the mondeo (sorry, jaguar!). My sisters had a Lexus for the same amount of time and it's been faultless, as has my parents Lexus, probably what I'll get next

I saw a 2.2TD X type for sale at a private dealer whilst I was looking at cars, it was cheap but high-ish mileage.... Not sure if I regret not having a further look now.

PP, did you ever change the oil to quieten the tappet or just turn the radio up?