[Closed] MPG real figures

Your post has made me want to kill myself.

Quoted and actual are well known to be different.

However, I do feel that the quoted is fairly useful as a means to compare relative mpg across cars. I.e. A quoted 50mpg car versus a quoted 25mpg car would likely translate to the real mpg being of a similar ratio such as real figures of 40 and 20.

These days I'd buy a petrol. Diesels whilst better mpg are getting too complicated for their own good (bolt on parts that reduce emissions but can break and be costly.)

[quote=bearnecessities ]Your post has made me want to kill myself.

"It's an ill wind...."

Cheer up, my GMC suburban 2500 managed to outdo itself the other day by returning 9.74 miles per (US) gallon.

"It's an ill wind...."

Oh go post another picture pretending Scotland is so great will you?

🙂

😆

Not mine but seen on Twitter today
[img] :large[/img]

Your post has made me want to kill myself.

Yawn

40mpg is ok then

@phinbob how much is gas there now - I'm interested to see if thats still cheaper per mile (imperial 😉 )

Are manufactures getting worse with their lies?
My 17 year old Almera (1.4) has a quoted mpg of 38-40. I regularly get a bit over that (commuting 13 miles each way to work, plus one or two longer motorway trips).

Dacia Lodgy TCE, does exactly what it says on the box overall, 5.8l/100km*. It uses more than claimed out off town especially at motorway speeds, but somewhat less in and around town. That's with three different drivers: I get low 5s, Madame around 6 and junior 6+.

*The fuel used is what it says on the computer thing but the trip distance is slightly optimistic, say 6.0 real.

Edit: it probably depends a lot on where you live, traffic jams are rare here.

Quoting your MPG without telling us your driving profile is pointless.

My 335d is currently on 28mpg, after a late night 300mile blat back from Devon at speed.

However, if i drive to max economy, it also can return nearly 50mpg on a similar long run.

So, it's not what you've got, it's how you use it..........

Generally flat bypass A roads I measured it at 22 miles , no silly hills or stop start its pretty much a long run every day

"The cheapest car is the only you already own".

I expect that you're considering all costs, including depreciation.

phil, that sounds ideal for a good figure. I easily beat the nominal value for my vivaro, again mostly unladen a roads and mways. Of course it probably also helps that I'm a great driver 🙂

Service the car. Fit skinnier tyres inflated to optimal pressure. Remove any unnecessary pruck from the car and monitor your fuel use with an app as opposed to trip computer.....averaged out over a month or two.

You'll probably improve your mpg a bit. And inspire suicidal tendencies in forum users.

However, I do feel that the quoted is fairly useful as a means to compare relative mpg across cars. I.e. A quoted 50mpg car versus a quoted 25mpg car would likely translate to the real mpg being of a similar ratio such as real figures of 40 and 20

Look at honest John's pages for real results, they vary massively compared to claimed figures - some exceed, some are way under. I think I've surpassed mine in the last 1000 miles - 41mpg from a Golf GTI. Helped by a clear run down the M4 to/from Wales at the weekend, and lots of sensible driving with Mrs njee20 in the car!

I wondered what mpg i was getting in my recent purchase of a £600 2003 ford connect van so i filled it up till i could see the diesel in the filler pipe then took off to Aviemore from Kirkcudbright and back home, round trip of 485 miles including a few detours then filled it up when i got home, i used 42 litres and stuck to the max speed limits where applicable so i figure a mpg of 52.5mpg is pretty decent for a 13 year old van - quite happy with that as my MK2 Golf GTI is lucky to see 20mpg on average.

[url= http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/ ]http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/[/url]

Considering that the average driver has never been specifically trained, and has very little idea, on how to drive for max economy, it's not surprising people get wildly different Miles per gallon!#

Just in the people i drive with i regularly see the following:

1) poor maintenance, especially low tyre pressures
2) un-necessary use of the brakes, often due to observational failures
3) Inappropriate use of gears (often not even using top gear when cruising at speed)
4) Leaving things like roof racks or roof boxes on the car, even when not being used
5) "jerky" sporadic acceleration, often surging on and off the accelerator rather than driving at a constant load
6) heavy acceleration, often unnecessarily, when better observation could have avoided it

Even before we get to commonly misunderstood "hyper mileing" techniques the driver is, in most cases, the weakest link.

^what he said.

Quoted mpg is in laboratory like conditions, but poor driving style has a lot to answer for...if you drive truly progressively, you'll hardly ever use your brakes,and be very aware of what gear you're in for efficiency.

I've got a mate who complains about mpg, but he tailgates, and accelerates towards red lights before anchoring on, then boots it when the lights go green and is generally clueless.

He even argued with me that using engine/gear braking uses more fuel because the revs go high!

Cars New well 5000 miles

Im not sure it needs servicing but reading the honest john thing 40 mpg is what nissan said and some folks are getting 46mpg so afterall happy bunny it seems 55mpg is the deisel, never knew they even made one in diesel

I usually go by whatever the lowest of the quoted figures is (urban?), and work on that.

FWIW my Vectra 1.9d 150 auto has averaged 43.5mpg in the 40k miles since I've had it (zeroed the trip computer on Day One) - with no attempt to drive economically, it's now on 95k.

Has anyone put their winter tyres on yet?

Mine never come off

phinbob - Member
Cheer up, my GMC suburban 2500 managed to outdo itself the other day by returning 9.74 miles per (US) gallon.
POSTED 7 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

318d Touring. Best I have managed is 800 miles on a tank with a true 55mpg.

Mixed use commuting of 6 miles each way is around 45mpg.

If it's and thing like my 1.4 golf you'll only get the max mpg driving around town with no traffic

A road driving killed the mpg

My Berlingo gets 40mpg driving like Mrs daisy or the stig. The only thing that seems to affect it is if I use tesco fuel the mpg drops to 37.

Wife's car has a trip mpg thing. Its crazy how quickly it goes up if you try and drive without braking...the biggest factor seems to be if you cruise at 60mph rather than 75mph, and you be off the throttle without losing speed on descents and the mpg goes through the roof (in steady 0.1mpg increments)

The car normally does about 50mpg on a 1hr dual carriageway/motorway thrash/commute, on the same roads over a 2.5hr trip when I borrowed it, it steadily climbed to a shade over 70mpg averaged over the whole journey. Even coming back home and getting stuck in horrendous stop-start M25 traffic for a couple of hours, it only dropped about 3mpg.

Its a 2009 2.2 Civic.

Disclaimer- I work for Honda! I've got a 1.6 diesel honda civic tourer. Supposed to get mid 70's. On lots of a road commuting and a bit of town driving I get 62mpg according to the trip computer which is about 59 doing the maths myself. However I was chatting to a honda sales man the other day and he said it would be easy to sell my car as it has such a high mpg on the trip computer. A couple of the sales execs drove across Europe in the same car as mine and managed 100mpg. They must have been tail gateing lorries slipstreams all the way as I can't even manage 100mpg on the motorway at a steady speed.
[url= http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/honda/civic/92127/honda-sets-new-efficiency-record-with-100mpg-civic-run ]
[/url]

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/honda/civic/92127/honda-sets-new-efficiency-record-with-100mpg-civic-run

Have had cars that get better than official figures and one that could get nowhere near so they are only a guideline in any decision process IMO.

My current car (Skoda Fabia 1.2 12v) regularly gets it's quoted mpg figure of 42mpg with a bike rack on the back, gets up to 50mpg when it's just me on a long journey. Does help that it's regularly serviced, had the lowest rolling resistance rated tyres on it available and there's no superfluous crap in the boot. I'm also told I'm a smooth driver which must help, my brakes do seem to last forever. Have on occasion driven friends cars and got much better mpg out of them than their owners 😆

I have an Alfa Mito 1.3jtdm, trip computer tells me average of 63.5. mainly motorway around 80 miles per day.

You could try super unleaded.

It's a higher octane fuel and gives you better MPG with Japanese cars, as I think they have higher octane fuel in Japan as standard so engines designed for it.

How many miles do you drive a year? MPG is almost an irrelevant cost of running a car unless you have a very big engined petrol. For 10,000 miles a year the difference in fuel cost between a 40mpg and 50mpg car is less than £250.

HoratioHufnagel
You could try super unleaded.

It's a higher octane fuel and gives you better MPG with Japanese cars, as I think they have higher octane fuel in Japan as standard so engines designed for it.

No.

It varies hugely depending on small differences in how you drive. Touch the pedals as lightly as possible - a lot of people are always on one or the other. Driving slowly helps, but it's not practical - I don't want drive everywhere at 60. Consistency is also quite important, as is reading ahead. Things that don't lower your overall journey time. If you lift off even partially well before a junction you will only lose a few mph but boost your mpg significantly. Try and use the brakes as little as possible - the side effect of this is that you will glide a lot which saves loads of fuel. But you can't do this in traffic without pissing drivers off.

My Octavia 1.4 petrol, is more or less right on the quoted figures. Worst I've had is 39mpg. Typical is mid to high 40s. I've twice had 52mpg going Glasgow to Skye and back without any attempt to drive for mpg.

But as others have said many drivers accelerate towards red lights. Tailgate/brake/accelerate etc.

I'll be first to admit that I'm terrible at getting fuel economy out my cars. I get around 29 mpg out my 3l tdi Saab, however can easy get it up to 35 or so when I really make an effort. Given I drive such short distances every year its not a real financial hardship however

My Nissan Qashqai 1.5 Diesel regularly gets about 68mpg between where I live (Nottingham) and work (Leicester). Book max MPG is 74.

I don't hammer to and from work, just put the car cruise control and listen to the radio.

irc

But as others have said many drivers accelerate towards red lights. Tailgate/brake/accelerate etc.

Well you can't expect them to text and hyper-mile at the same time FFS.

also depends on whether the car is brand new Euro6 or couple of years old "new to you".
had a few Euro6 (petrol) rental cars, that are so asthmatic, you won't get anywhere if you change gears the instant the shift up light comes on on the dash. Opel one was so gutless the only way to drive it around scottish country lanes was to rag the tits off it, at least 2 gears lower than what it would flash up on the speedo. That's not going to do anything to help economy. On the motorway, it'll cruise at 70 whilst barely breathing.

Fiat500x diesel with 9speed auto box was not bad (it had both go and plenty of miles to a tank).
Fiat500x 1.4 petrol had a bit more guts than the aforementioned Opel (It could go up a hill in 3rd for starters).

Anyone driven one of those Skoda/Seat/probably other VAG cars that switch off cylinders 2 and 3 to save fuel ?

Most of my driving is either cross-country on winding B-roads, driven spiritedly but not stupidly (in my opinion of course) or cruising motorways at non-licence threatening speeds. With this in mind here are some real world calculated average consumption figures from recent cars.

BMW 118d (diesel) - 46mpg
Suzuki SX4 petrol - 34mpg (also did town centre duties)
Mazda 6 TS diesel - 41mpg
Boxster 3.2S petrol - 28mpg
Elise petrol - 37mpg IIRC

Huge variation, obviously and unsurprisingly, but I was chuffed with how (relatively) economical the Porker was.

We also have a VW Sharran (diesel) but I don't use it that much and it does a lot of short town centre driving too - 38mpg

No idea if this info is remotely useful for anyone but thought I'd share 🙂

My BMW does any where between low 40's mpg (really driving it hard) and around 85mpg, which is some circumstance is better than the manufacturers claimed.

My wife's Fiesta on the other hand has claimed around 65mpg and we can never get it above 44mpg.

My new BMW on order has a claimed 150 mpg and 0-60 of 6 seconds 🙂

My Berlingo steadfastly refuses to go below 42mpg no matter how it is driven. Left to cruise along at 70mph it goes up to about 46mpg, change that to 80mph and it starts to drop back down again.

Looking to get rid now and getting a E61 525d which allegedly will do around the same mpg. Looked on fuelly and the average of cars on there is 39mpg which will do fine.

Ok

I have been doing some more reading it seems bimbling along is ok

also some say slipping it out of gear and coasting along will save petrols, lots of petrols

HOWEVER ....BEEEJESUS

the arguments caused amongst motorists on variouis forii about coasting versus not in or out of gear wear on clutch etc etc...its like the trail coming alive debate.

now I am lost

philxx1975 - Member

Ok

I have been doing some more reading it seems bimbling along is ok

also some say slipping it out of gear and coasting along will save petrols, lots of petrols

HOWEVER ....BEEEJESUS

the arguments caused amongst motorists on variouis forii about coasting versus not in or out of gear wear on clutch etc etc...its like the trail coming alive debate.

now I am lost

Forget about it. A modern car will know when it needs fuel and when it can preserve it so even if you're in gear and coasting it'll cut the fuel pump and let gravity turn the engine over.

Ah Good to know JimJam

if you need to stop (lets say you can see some red traffic lights in the distance for example) then entering deccel Fuel Shut Off by fully releasing the accelerator pedal whilst staying in gear with the clutch engaged is the best option (because the engine is using no fuel)

However, if you don't need to stop, then it's better (in terms of ultimate economy) to freewheel in neutral with the engine idling (it's best to free wheel in neutral with the engine off of course, but rather more dangerous). This is because what matters "on average" is to have the lowest possible drag and hence lowest average road load. Spinning the engine takes a surprisingly large amount of power. For a typical 2.0l family car, spinning the engine at 2000rpm takes about the same amount of power as it does to drive the car at a steady 40mph on a flat road!

Some of the latest auto/dsgs transmissions include a "sailing" mode, where they freewheel in neutral if you lift the throttle at high speed (eg on a motorway descent etc)

I'm in the 'leave it in gear and roll' camp but I got through to the final of a driving competition at work held at Millbrook Proving Ground, and the guy who won the economy run went against the advice of the assessor and coasted as much as possible! It was included stop start city driving, the Alpine section and a fly around the high speed bowl.

Some of the HGV's now come with a clever Auto box that allows the truck to coast in neutral whilst on cruise control so there must be some mileage (!) in it.

What I've found remarkable is that my wife's M135i and my 335d are so similar in consumption. 31 vs 33mpg. Remarkable in that in the 9 years since they built my 335, petrol engines have come on such a long way in efficiency terms that a modern twin turbo 3l petrol is (almost) as good on fuel as a 9 year old twin turbo 3l diesel.

Try lifting off the tiniest amount you can manage, so that the passengers don't even notice. You'll slow down only imperceptibly but your instant mpg will shoot up. You don't have to coast, even slight lift-off helps and you can do it for longer.

Gee - something wrong with your 335d I think!

molgrips - Member

Gee - something wrong with your 335d I think!

Nope - standard if driven like it's supposed to be.

Nope - standard if driven like it's [b]not[/b] supposed to be.

Something wrong with your left foot then.

Nissan qashqai 1.5 diesal get 60mpg no problem book claims 74 and I gave had 68 which I think is bloody amazing

Something wrong with your left foot then.

Not really. Have a look at Fuelly or Pistonheads MPG Wiki. 28-34 is the average for a 335d. Let face it, if you wanted economy, you'd have bought a 320ed, not a 300bhp, 3.0 twin turbo charged, 1.7tonne rocket barge.

I use an app called My Cars. Tell it how much fuel you put in, whether it was a fill up or partial, the odo reading and it comes back with mpg. Once it's got a few figures to work off it shows monthly/yearly mileage, cost, best/average/worst mpg.

My 1.9 CDTi Vectra estate gets a fairly consistent 50mpg. No idea what the quoted figure is though.

Something wrong with your left foot then.

My 435d and 325i both return similar mpg, apart from on long motorway journeys were the 435 hardly drinks.

Well, having said earlier that MPG isn't really a big deal - in relation to depreciation especially - I'd just add that...

I managed to get 64.2mpg from a Golf 1.4 TSI 150 on a recent long journey (overall ownership figure is low 40s and the manufacturer average is c.50). I was well chuffed as this is better than even VW's "extra urban" figures. 🙂

It's running via a DSG auto and has radar cruise control, which moderates the accelerator with finer inputs than my foot can achieve. If you're happy travelling at 60-65mph and doing very slow, deliberate manoeuvres then it's quite possible to get great MPG from petrol engines IME; usually better than the manufacturers quote. I struggle to get near to average manufacturer MPG figures in any diseasel.

Small petrols are very sensitive to load in my experience, too. I get 45mpg in the same situations I'd usually get 55+ from in said Golf 1.4 if I'm carrying passengers and bikes on the roof.

My old supercharged Golf R32 would give the same figures no matter what the load. 😉

Ok, so 33 is mixed driving. Driven at a steady 70 on the motorway or autoroute it'll magic it's way up to 600 miles on a tank compared to 450 in mixed driving.

Honda NC700X (motorbike)

Honda claim 81.6mpg
http://www.honda.co.uk/motorcycles/range/adventure/nc750x-2014/overview.html?gclid=CIua5NW7jM0CFXEz0wodVZkMtg&gclsrc=aw.ds

Over 20,283 miles I've averaged 81.2, but from my last 2 months (1458 miles) Ive averaged 84.0mpg and I've seen 90.1mpg in the past on a full tank.
This is worked out figures, I don't have a trip computer. The vehicles I have had a trip computer on have never been accurate either.

The computer on my car is [b]wildly[/b] optimistic 🙂 It normally says 80+.

Real figure is almost always 56-58.

The car is old and crap and probably only worth £500. I do 80 miles a day commuting (nearly 20k miles pa). Fuel consumption is massively more significant than depreciation !

Nope - standard if driven like it's not supposed to be.

Something wrong with your left foot then.

That's typical. Plus the readout could be wrong. I get 35 mpg average out of mine but the dash displays closer to 33. You can squeeze 42mpg but then you might as well have bought a VAG 2.0L car and be doing 55mpg.