Quoted mpg figure v's actual mpg

smitchy73

decsdad wrote: »

Would like to see how the new breed of super efficient deisels claimed figures compare to some real life figures.(eg Bluemotions, greenline, efficient dynamics, econetic etc)

There was a guy earlier in the thread with a Passat 2.0tdi bluemotion with good figures.
I'll give you a shout in a few months, I've just found out my new Golf Bluemotion has gone to Production today, woohoo:j

tomstickland

Golf Mk3 TDi.
Parkers says 53mpg and normally get that. Lowest I've got is 43mpg but that was all hard driving. I currently spend about 75% of the time being sensible and the other 25% working it harder. So I'm pretty impressed.

tomstickland

Broadwood wrote: »

3) always read the road ahead and back off early instead of using brakes

I think that this is one of the most important things. People get obsessed with avoiding hard acceleration, but it doesn't make a huge difference, as long as the speed gained can be used for a decent distance.
Slowing doing without using the brakes much can save a lot of energy.

rev_henry

1999 Hyundai Accent 1.3. Claimed combined 38mpg. I usually get between 40-42 and that's mainly NSL A roads and motorways. Drops into high 30s if I'm doing a lot of city driving. Lowest I had it was 35mpg, although that was the week I sat in a traffic jam in sub zero temperatures for about 2 hours.
I'm pretty happy with that, seems like I get almost exactly what the official figures say.

AdrianHi

Altarf hit the nail on the head on page 1, very contrived test conditions which favour smaller engined cars that warm up faster.
In general, cars that have more "tricks" (i.e. Bluemotion, efficient dynamics, hybrid) fall short of the "official" figures by the most.

My experience also backs up the "hard acceleration does really matter point". What makes the biggest improvements to MPG is avoiding short trips and reducing cruising speed.

Official figures for my BMW 320d touring, not efficient dynamics, is 47.9mpg. I will get anywhere from 36mpg to 56mpg depending on the trip I do. Long distance cruise at 70mph and it's nearer the 56mpg mark even if I have a roof box on. Winter and 5.5 mile short trips to the railway station and it's around 36mpg-40mpg. Keeping the car warm in a garage overnight in winter can improve mpg by 10%.

plane_boy2000

I think one of the motoring mags ran a thing on acceleration gentle V harsh - IIRC the outcome was that harsh acceleration to get up to a cruise quickly was slightly more efficient than a gentle climb in speed

MORPH3US

plane_boy2000 wrote: »

I think one of the motoring mags ran a thing on acceleration gentle V harsh - IIRC the outcome was that harsh acceleration to get up to a cruise quickly was slightly more efficient than a gentle climb in speed

I have heard that before too. When I purchased my most recent two cars from new (57 Fiesta and 10 ForTwo) the literature that came with them on how to get the best efficiency from them both stated "When accelerating, do so quickly but avoid depressing the accelerator pedal fully"

clockworks_2

plane_boy2000 wrote: »

I think one of the motoring mags ran a thing on acceleration gentle V harsh - IIRC the outcome was that harsh acceleration to get up to a cruise quickly was slightly more efficient than a gentle climb in speed

absolutely correct, my mpg on average is a little higher with harsh acceleration.

smitchy73

I discovered a guy in a motoring magazine who does alot of test driving for some of the big companies, and gets record mpg's out of cars, he got something like 1100 miles out of a single tank on a seat ibiza 1.4tdi ecomotive, that's something like 70-80mpg, one of the things he says is to get it to between 2 & 3000rpm as quickly bit not harshly there, as when youre at that level the engine doesn't burn as much as it does with a slow climb to the same speed.
he also says things like not to accelerate on hills, choose a position for your foot on the accelerator and keep it at the same point all the way up, but obviously not to the point of stalling rather than go down a gear.
I found it very interesting.

LandyAndy

I have two cars bought last September.

Mazda2 1.3 (86PS) petrol. Manufacturer's combined figure 54.3mpg. My experience over 7k miles, mostly short journeys (5-15 miles), 45-46mpg.

Mazda6 2.2 (163PS) diesel. Manufacturer's combined figure 52.3 mpg. My experience over 9k miles, mixed driving including a fair amount of long Mway journeys, 49-51mpg.