Ford focus

jeannieblue

Not wishing to sound condescending or anything.. but, I changed my Focus for another Focus, the petrol tank in my latest one is huge in comparison to the previous one. I never realised that it was bigger until I had to fill it up... came as a bit of a shock til I realised!

I've never checked my fuel consumption that greatly.... my 'display thingy in the car tells me that I'm getting on average 14 mpg!! I ignore it! I know it is lying to me!

Its prob not mpg but something else, or does it still judge in gallons?? ... either way, I ignore it...

anewman

Try granny/grandad driving and getting into the next gear sooner. Try being in 5th when cruising at 40. Fuel gauges can be inaccurate, as can the display things. Best method - as mentioned above - is to fill to the brim, reset counter, drive around. When you next fill up that figure will correspond almost precisely with the amount of fuel used for the mileage now displayed. Record both, reset again and start again

130 miles to around 25 litres doesn't sound too great, but I suspect you're doing lots of short journeys and heavy footed.

tomstickland

I see two possibilities.
One is that the type of use and the size and weight of the car mean that this is as good as you're going to get.
The other is that there's something wrong with the vehicle.

I'd be more inclined by the first option. Multiple 3 mile journeys mean that it's never really getting up to temperature. A Focus is not far off twice the weight of a 106, so will never be as efficient.

You could confirm that it's not option 2 when you get a chance for a long journey. Sit on a motorway at a constant 60mph for a few hours and you should get 45mpg or maybe more.

jeannieblue

anewman wrote: »

Try granny driving and getting into the next gear sooner. Try being in 5th when cruising at 40.

That could be considered condescending anewman...

Guess you're fed cos its Friday night and you know that Goldspangles will be drunk and disorderly and pi**ing over your car again in an hour or two..

MrsTinks

The way to calculate it is as has been pointed out to fill the tank to the brim and set the counter to 0 - drive it till nearly empty and fill to the brim again. Note the milage and the amount of litres. 1 litre = 0.219969157 gallons - this will tell you how many miles to x amount of gallons. Now divide your miles by the number of gallons to get MPG

The driving you're doing - 3 miles round trip - is really not enough to warm up an engine, especially if it's been cold weather. This will strongly affect your MPG. I'd also start ignoring the MPG calculator in the car Purely because I don't trust any computer I can't easily log into and check the accuracy of Call me a nerd

Although the suggestion by Anewman isn't bad... try getting into the next gear a bit earlier, accelate slowly etc etc

If you really think the car is at fault (and based on the description of your driving that you're doing I have to say I don't think it is...) then take it to an independant mechanic that you can trust - get one recommended by a friend or relative - and ask them to evaluate it.

anewman

jeannieblue wrote: »

That could be considered condescending anewman...

Guess you're fed cos its Friday night and you know that Goldspangles will be drunk and disorderly and pi**ing over your car again in an hour or two..

I've got the man flu and lost my voice _pale_ Have edited the post so it's less offensive

jeannieblue

anewman wrote: »

I've got the man flu and lost my voice _pale_ Have edited the post so it's less offensive

Oh poor old you.... that means you can't give him any verbal abuse later then ..

Noticed the editing...... getting soft in your old age

Sometimes we are all prone to 'talk down' to folk. I've had it done to me on other forums when asked an 'innocent' question about something I knew nothing about (common for me ) and its not nice....

Feel free to talk down to Mrse tho... :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: she's upset cos I use BP and she doesn't........:D

tomstickland

Offensive is good.

jeannieblue

tomstickland wrote: »

Offensive is good.

You men tend to use 'offensive' to make up for lacking in the shoe size department
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Altarf

Tammera wrote: »

i been complaining to the dealer that it sucks up to much petrol and the digital display suggests its doing around 27 avarage mpg ... the book and what car says the consumption should be town 32.5 mpg

Tammera wrote: »

im doing mainly 3 mile round trips to school twice a day

The book figures are obtained by keeping the car at 25-30C and driving so gently you wouldn't believe (for example 0 to 60mph in over one minute, and the average speed for the urban test 12mph - more details if interested), so all they are really any good for is comparing one car with another.

So if the book quotes 32.5mpg and you are getting 27mpg for 3 mile trips from cold in the UK in October, you are probably doing quite well.

Your easiest way to prove this is to reset the electronic mpg display on the car when you are going to use the car for a reasonable length out of town journey (30 miles or more) and see what the mpg is. Depending on your driving style, you should see anywhere between high 30's to high 40's.

Then reset the electronic mpg display again when you are only going to be using the car for some 3 mile journeys, and you will see middle to high 20's again.