I have had my Nemo van for about 10 months and whilst I got 58/59 mpg originally I now struggle to get 53mpg. I took it in to the dealership where I bought it and they said that 53mpg was fair normal!

Now, I only bought this van cos the marketing said it would get 60mpg combined and I have never got that!

Anybody got any experiences or advice. I have it booked in for its annual check in March but should I be getting them to check it sooner under warranty?

That sounds like the kind of MPG drop you would expect in the winter months. Diesel has a lower cetane rating in the winter due to anti-freeze additives. I lose about 2-4mpg in the winter.

I only bought this van cos the marketing said it would get 60mpg combined

No, it didn’t. The marketing reported that it got 60mpg in the govt standard tests. That’s not a claim of how much it will get in real life.

Thanks Mol – thought it may be something to do with that as it only happened in December! I tend to drive like an old women to boost the mpg but it makes no difference in the winter!

what engine?

i run a peugeot Bipper (company van, not my own money i might add!) and struggle to get 45mpg from the 1.5TD.

drops to well below 40 if towing a trailer

Its the 1.4 HDi electronic gear box stop/start jobbie!

Apologies for the thread resurrection but thought I would post my warm weather mpg result 8)

It seems it is indeed possible to get more than 60mpg. On my last tank I averaged 60.4mpg and on the current tank I am averaging 66mpg. I have done a few motorway journeys which helps and I am sure this will come down with shorter journeys and any change in the weather.

There has been a bit in the press recently about Government figures and I can only assume that they go by the manufacturers claims who must do their tests in the South of France on an autoroute 😈

Or on an indoor rolling road!

or with the engine not actually being in the vehicle.

I get 48MPG out of a 2.0HDI Partner with 140k on the clock !

Always been a little annoyed that you can get no where near the quoted 57MPG

I recently put redex through and sprayed wayyns induction and egr clean through the engine. Although I haven’t noticed a difference a lot of soot came out of the exhaust and its starting better.

66mpg is very decent for a small van. Good show 🙂

The govt figures are a standard test, which is ok really since it’s only for comparison purposes. Real world MPG is so massively variable you could never predict it.

However the big issue is that manufacturers are tuning their cars to perform well on the test AT THE EXEPNSE of real world fuel economy. Some manufacturers are much worse than others, with (so I hear) Volvo being the best because they ignore the tests and concentrate on the real world. So whilst their test figures are less than amazing, in the real world they are good.

I wish I’d known this when I was looking!

Oh and Mol, forgot to say that you were right about the weather affecting mpg 😮

It seems that optimum mpg is only attainable above 12degrees and when the engine has heated up.

I had some great results in still weather at about 12C in the Passat (cold air helps combustion in diesels, hence intercoolers), but the Prius only gets its best mpgs once the temperature gets above 24 or so. If it gets really hot you can breeze through 60mpg on the motorway.