VW Polo Bluemotion low mpg

fatbelly

Weird_Nev wrote: »

I've never really understood why they've bothered - Our 1.4 Skoda Fabia Tdi got over 60 real Mpg everywhere. It was nice to drive, handled acceptably well, and was just ridiculously economical. I drove a 1.2 Bluemotion Polo as a hire car on a 2 week holiday. The handling was compromised by skinny tyres and (i'm guessing) the suspension geometry. It also felt gutless - prompting me to thrash it to within an inch of it's life. The result? About 55mpg.....

That is the problem with some of the extreme eco models. I drive a 1.9 Tdi Fabia - I don't need to thrash it to get around at normal traffic speeds and I average 57mpg.

Jbrown

I've had my polo bluemotion for about 4 months and have done about 7500 miles, in the summer I was averaging 69-72 mpg and now in the winter it's been around 61-64 mpg.
I've found the best speed is around 68 mph is the optimum speed for my car, however with passengers it can fluctuate between 62 and 75, on a journey from Somerset to Liverpool with 2 passengers the optimum speed was 75 and was averaging 72 mpg.
My usual commute is from maidenhead to the west end of London which is about 30 miles and if I drive at 60 mph on the motorway all the way in I get 75 mpg at 68-70 mph i get 67 mpg where as at 80 mph I get 62 mpg max, that was summer driving not winter though.

I suppose it's all about how you drive. And yes I am sad enough to remember all this, and i do use the brim to brim method however there is always about 50-80 miles in the tank once the trip and fuel gauge says zero.

avantra

So the underline conclusion is:

Why buy a new Bluemotion that needs to bedded in, will give you less than expected MPG and will have the usual depreciation every new car suffers... when you can buy a used already bedded-in car for far less. Will save you almost 10k.. and few bobs on diesel.

almillar

Re: coast against stay in gear. As already mentioned, if you're off throttle in gear, the road is making the engine turn, and basically any half modern car will cut the fuel. You use the motion of the car to jump start it, this is similar.
But when deciding to coast or stay in gear (taking on board advice on when it may be unsafe to coast due to less control over your car, you must remember that staying in gear slows the car down (and the lower the gear, the higher the revs, and the faster the deceleration). Comes back to looking far ahead and anticipating things. No point slowing down in gear, then having to accelerate again, in that time you could have just coasted and that would have used less.

kaya

sounds like you have been suckered in by the sales hype, you will never achieve the manufacturers quoted MPG as the tests that they use bear no comparison to real life road useage , the brim to brim method is laughable, unless you are going to wait until you actually run out of fuel both times you have no way of telling how much is left in the tank as top gear showed when clarkson drove an audi to scotland with a camera fitted inside the fuel tank, besides which fuel changes volume with temperature and your inaccurate fuel meter measures volume which makes the "brim to brim method" as inaccurate as watching your fuel gauge , there are only two accurate ways to measure fuel consumption -one is to measure the carbon left in your exhaust gasses and the other is to weigh the fuel in your tank before and after the test period, fuel volume changes with temp but fuel weight remains constant throughout, i have been to powertrain at milbrook testing grounds a few times overseeing testing of fuel saving devices and the only real way to save fuel is change your driving style (this advice came from the manager of powertrain), this simple measure can equate to as much as a 25% saving over normal fuel consumption

Trebor16

avantra wrote: »

So the underline conclusion is:

Why buy a new Bluemotion that needs to bedded in, will give you less than expected MPG and will have the usual depreciation every new car suffers... when you can buy a used already bedded-in car for far less. Will save you almost 10k.. and few bobs on diesel.

Depends on how old the Polo you buy is of course, as getting a £10k saving on a new Polo Bluemotion 1.2TDi (list price £14860) will mean trying to find one for £4860.

Trebor16

kaya wrote: »

sounds like you have been suckered in by the sales hype, you will never achieve the manufacturers quoted MPG as the tests that they use bear no comparison to real life road useage , the brim to brim method is laughable, unless you are going to wait until you actually run out of fuel both times you have no way of telling how much is left in the tank as top gear showed when clarkson drove an audi to scotland with a camera fitted inside the fuel tank, besides which fuel changes volume with temperature and your inaccurate fuel meter measures volume which makes the "brim to brim method" as inaccurate as watching your fuel gauge , there are only two accurate ways to measure fuel consumption -one is to measure the carbon left in your exhaust gasses and the other is to weigh the fuel in your tank before and after the test period, fuel volume changes with temp but fuel weight remains constant throughout, i have been to powertrain at milbrook testing grounds a few times overseeing testing of fuel saving devices and the only real way to save fuel is change your driving style (this advice came from the manager of powertrain), this simple measure can equate to as much as a 25% saving over normal fuel consumption

Brim to brim is a reasonably reliable, real world way of measuring a vehicle's fuel consumption and is certainly not laughable. How many people have the facilities to drain fuel from their tanks and weigh it in order to get a slightly more accurate measurement of their fuel consumption?

caeler

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

You do realise that 'coasting' or driving in neutral, uses more fuel than going downhill in 5th or 6th? (not to mention you have less control) In fact, in most cars nowadays with the fancy computers, they wont use any fuel if revs are above idle. My parents thought their trip computer has broken when it kept reading 999mpg when not accelerating.

The moment I used the word coast I realised that isn't what I meant. I meant driving in 5th, foot off throttle, revs at zero and letting the vehicle glide down hill. My trip says 200mpg when not accelerating - wish I could do that at other times! ;-)

caeler

kaya wrote: »

sounds like you have been suckered in by the sales hype

My friend has a eco Fiesta and regularly averages 84mpg as per the 'sales hype'. The cold weather is now affecting that and he only started getting significant mpg after putting 5K on the clock.

knightstyle

hey caeler my mpg only gets to 199mpg when coasting so your car must be more economical than mine!!!!!
One thing you can do to save fuel is to disable the aircon, remove the belt if possible, plus use electrical stuff sparingly. Every watt of electricity is produced by burning fuel!