new motability car

istanbul_2

is it cos the meriva is a 1.4 100ps thats why i'm not getting reasonable mpg round town that it needs more power? if the dealer had said that i wouldnt of picked the car. theres one point i would like to ask and hope somebody will be able to answer for me. its got a ishift indicator on it to tell me when to change gear , do i go by that or do it before it comes on? service manager said i should be doing it before it tells me i am confused.

mikey72

Real average is in the high 30s http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/RealMpg/Results?manufacturer=vauxhall

istanbul_2

i noticed that on honest john website that average is high 30s. but the problem with that is how much is that due to eg; 2/3 motorway and 1/3 town? or can some one advise me on this?

GolfBravo

istanbul wrote: »

is it cos the meriva is a 1.4 100ps thats why i'm not getting reasonable mpg round town that it needs more power?

Your car has plenty of power, unfortunately the wrong type of power.

PS (horsepower) gives you top speed: lots of PS = fast car

Nm (newton metres of torque) gives you acceleration: lots of Nm = effortless acceleration, not having to rev the engine much. Good for fuel economy.

Your car weights over 1300kg. That's a lot for only a 1.4 litre engine, and only 130Nm of torque - you have to rev the engine a lot to move all that weight, hence your high fuel consumption.

And, like I said before, you can almost disregard the official MPG figures these days because they just give a result of a simple lab test. The official MPG has very little in common with real world driving - IMHO it is a real disgrace that EU governments let the car manufacturers get away with this con.

mikey72

istanbul wrote: »

i noticed that on honest john website that average is high 30s. but the problem with that is how much is that due to eg; 2/3 motorway and 1/3 town? or can some one advise me on this?

I was looking at the range 36.9–39.9 mpg, mine has 27.3–36.6 mpg, which compares to the 23.7, 32.5, 41.50 manufacturers urban, combines extra urban. Meriva has 35.7, 46.3, 55.4. I expect mine to have a fair amount of motorway use as the model is a large family estate, the Meriva would be used more in the urban/combined.

istanbul_2

that means then that manufacturers know the car has to be pushed harder to run and uses more fuel. yet they are saying my way of driving is to blame that makes me more angry. 1st and 2nd gears i noticed has to be worked hard but then 3rd,4th, dont but fifth gear has no power. i gotta go down to 4th to work it if i want more speed. so in truth that means dealers know the mpg stated in their booklets are false but say to people that the mpg they advertise is correct !!!!!

mikey72

GolfBravo wrote: »

Your car has plenty of power, unfortunately the wrong type of power.

PS (horsepower) gives you top speed: lots of PS = fast car

Nm (newton metres of torque) gives you acceleration: lots of Nm = effortless acceleration, not having to rev the engine much. Good for fuel economy.

Your car weights over 1300kg. That's a lot for only a 1.4 litre engine, and only 130Nm of torque - you have to rev the engine a lot to move all that weight, hence your high fuel consumption.

And, like I said before, you can almost disregard the official MPG figures these days because they just give a result of a simple lab test. The official MPG has very little in common with real world driving - IMHO it is a real disgrace that EU governments let the car manufacturers get away with this con.

130Nm http://carleasingmadesimple.com/business-car-leasing/vauxhall/meriva-estate/47156/technical-data/ The civc http://carleasingmadesimple.com/business-car-leasing/honda/civic-hatchback_7/53439/technical-data/ is a similar spec, about 100kg lighter, and you'd expect over 40 urban on that. c3 http://carleasingmadesimple.com/business-car-leasing/citroen/c3-hatchback/45726/technical-data/ same again.

GolfBravo

I really do think it is the weight of the Meriva that kills the MPG around town.

The links above list 1285kg, yet Opel's technical data lists 1361kg for the lightest Meriva model, so that's 200kg heavier than the 1.4 C3. Then another giveaway is the 0-62mph acceleration: C3 10.6 seconds, Meriva 13.9 seconds. Then the Civic has great MPG and really bad acceleration figures, so that's due to gearing (tuned for better MPG, lesser performance).

Well, I don't think there is anything technically wrong with the car, by the sound of it the Meriva is really underpowered. Just don't understand how they manage to claim official 46.3 combined MPG.

mikey72

GolfBravo wrote: »

............ Then the Civic has great MPG and really bad acceleration figures, so that's due to gearing (tuned for better MPG, lesser performance)..........

You could say exactly the same for the Meriva figures. It's only 100kg different in weight to the Civic as well. 8% heavier won't make the fuel consumption double. I'm happy to accept the mid thirties reported by owners on Honestjohns website. I don't believe everyone one on there does no town driving, and only does long runs. They'll be driving similar to the op, in a similar car bought for that type of journey, and getting figures that correspond more to the urban figure.

istanbul_2

GolfBravo wrote: »

I really do think it is the weight of the Meriva that kills the MPG around town.

The links above list 1285kg, yet Opel's technical data lists 1361kg for the lightest Meriva model, so that's 200kg heavier than the 1.4 C3. Then another giveaway is the 0-62mph acceleration: C3 10.6 seconds, Meriva 13.9 seconds. Then the Civic has great MPG and really bad acceleration figures, so that's due to gearing (tuned for better MPG, lesser performance).

Well, I don't think there is anything technically wrong with the car, by the sound of it the Meriva is really underpowered. Just don't understand how they manage to claim official 46.3 combined MPG.

think you hit nail on the head there with it being too heavy for town use. i have said on motorway run to blackpool and back (104) miles 98% motorway it came out as 48.1 mpg after doing brim test but local driving mpg plummets to very low figures,