Diesel Help

Foxy-Stoat_3

Assuming you work 5 days a week x 4 weeks a month then your driving 5120 miles a month spending £600 on fuel. Works out at £0.11 per mile. Not bad for a diesel at all....amazing for a petrol.

The Skoda Octavia 1.9 TD I had made around £0.11 per mile on an early morning run to Blackpool from Eastbourne one time...made it there and back on 50 ltrs of fuel too.

What car are you running, and is your real name James T Kirk? As you are doing starship miles (56,000 a year assuming you work 11 months a year) GULP! If its costing you £7,200 of your taxed salary just to actually get to work then I would seriously consider moving closer as others have said or try the train, or take a £9,000 pay cut and get a job on your doorstep....but that wouldn't be a cut at all as you will wont be spending on fuel, not to mention wear and tear on the car and have 5 hours a day extra to do with as you please. Even at minimum wage thats £7,428 gross a year.

Forget about electric cars as for the privilege of driving for around 100 miles on a "tank" of electric you need to first pay out £35K for the car to start with.

steve-L

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

Assuming you work 5 days a week x 4 weeks a month then your driving 5120 miles a month spending £600 on fuel. Works out at £0.11 per mile. Not bad for a diesel at all....amazing for a petrol.

I get 60 mpg from a 3L (BMW 330D) so not that impossible....just takes a very careful pressure on the gas!

As you are doing starship miles (56,000 a year assuming you work 11 months a year) GULP! If its costing you £7,200 of your taxed salary just to actually get to work then I would seriously consider moving closer as others have said or try the train, or take a £9,000 pay cut and get a job on your doorstep....but that wouldn't be a cut at all as you will wont be spending on fuel, not to mention wear and tear on the car and have 5 hours a day extra to do with as you please. Even at minimum wage thats £7,428 gross a year.

Funnily enough I have had the same conversation with myself ...
I could quite easily have the same or higher disposable income if I moved into my father's empty house (that he isn't using) and found a job on 70k less than I am now.

However, I have a few personal reasons prevent me doing that.

Im assuming the OP has their reasons as well and doesn't want to get into them.

Foxy-Stoat_3

60 mpg is pretty good going in a 330d, must mean you get 820 miles out of a full tank of diesel then.

My 320d E91 only makes 600 miles to a tank (£0.15 per mile) but I have always thought it was rubbish on economy compared to my old Skoda, but a much nicer place to be.

I assume you meant £7,000 a year less not £70K !! LOL

steve-L

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

60 mpg is pretty good going in a 330d, must mean you get 820 miles out of a full tank of diesel then.

My 320d E91 only makes 600 miles to a tank (£0.15 per mile) but I have always thought it was rubbish on economy compared to my old Skoda, but a much nicer place to be.

If I did mostly motorway and dual carriage way I'd get something like that.... it really really drops on urban. (Its got a stage 1 remap)

My best was 68 mpg from Poole to the end of the M3 (and then straight to Tesco 1/4 mile away) doing EVERYTHING possible to save fuel .... I averaged about 65 mph but got up to 80 on some downhills and down to say 45 on some uphills....

I assume you meant £7,000 a year less not £70K !! LOL

Nope I'm deadly serious 70k!

shaneewels

steve-L wrote: »

Yep its the normal to lean I find makes a difference (as I already try not to use the flat out...)

Complete alternative....
Is there any chance work might help out in designating your place of work somewhere else?
It's not their problem where you live (unless they basically moved you) but if they designate your place of work elsewhere you can claim milage (its 45p up to 10,000 and 25p after)

Im not an accountant, let alone corp accountant but so long as the company is making profit they should be able to pay this as a legit expense and not cost them money!

I tried the fuel dump and didn't really see much difference. I'll keep trying, usually i just set the cc control to 57 i find this gives me the best all round average MPG. I also speed up when going down hills as the engine load is lower. This gives me more speed with still quite a high MPG. The other thing I have tried and actually does seem to help the MPG at these lower speeds it only using Shell fuel this seems to give me another 3 - 5 mpg over all the others? I have also tried keeping behind a truck. I have managed to get 75mpg doing this, but this is very dangerous and not worth it. My current car is a Passat which is my second I find them very reliable cars and have had very few issues with them.

skivenov

Santander credit card - 3% cashback on fuel

Add that to a Morrisons miles or a Shell Driver's Card gives you a bit back as either a shopping voucher (Morri's) or money off fuel (Shell), ain't much, but it's better yours than theirs.

steve-L

shaneewels wrote: »

I tried the fuel dump and didn't really see much difference.

You mean just watching the MPG and backing off?
If your referring to the technique as fuel dump I explained badly..... as his is the exact opposite!

I'll keep trying, usually i just set the cc control to 57 i find this gives me the best all round average MPG.

OK different cars .... mine is a BMW 330D with a remap (280 BHP forget the Torque but its enormous.. lets me amble along in 6th though)
Overall this means I have a huge difference in MPG depending how I drive. That perhaps makes it easier to see as the scale is stretched as it were.

However, you can't use the switch between engine modes (if thats what you call fuel dump) with cruise on! I obviously didn't describe it well enough.

I also speed up when going down hills as the engine load is lower. This gives me more speed with still quite a high MPG.

OK, this is essentially the same thing happening... when you go downhill your ECU recognises the engine barely has to work to keep ticking over ... it adjusts by injecting less fuel and also by injecting it in a different part of the cycle (on the upstroke)

What you are trying to do with the technique is spend more of your time in that engine mode.

I'm guessing you have the 1.9 engine?
It may be you lack the spare torque to see a huge advantage in this... but probably you can do it (I have done it in my OH's Honda 2.2TDCI and all driving style considered I can get about 25% better MPG over 350 miles than my OH on mainly motorway driving)

The technique is backing off on the gas until you see a quantum drop in the instantaneous MPG. This is the same but opposite of if you accelerate as hard as you can and then back off the gas .. you should see the MPG drop a big step (not just waver) as you take your foot off.... this is because its basically gone from fuel dump mode into 'normal' driving.... what you want is to go from normal driving into 'super economy' (just keeping the engine ticking over and then some). This change is more subtle ...

The other thing I have tried and actually does seem to help the MPG at these lower speeds it only using Shell fuel this seems to give me another 3 - 5 mpg over all the others?

If you can get Shell fuel at the same price thats fine but what you are interested in is not MPG but miles/penny... (MPG is actually irrelevant).....

If you can get supermarket fuel quite a bit cheaper then your miles/penny might be higher even with lower MPG.

I have also tried keeping behind a truck. I have managed to get 75mpg doing this, but this is very dangerous and not worth it.

Yep.... really not worth dying over! As a kid a friend, (actually one of the older scout helpers) died horribly going under to tail of a artic truck and was decapitated....
Makes me hesitate to even try this!

Trebor16

steve-L wrote: »

I get 60 mpg from a 3L (BMW 330D) so not that impossible....just takes a very careful pressure on the gas!

You get that over an entire tankful or is that just the read out from the computer for a moment?

steve-L

Trebor16 wrote: »

You get that over an entire tankful or is that just the read out from the computer for a moment?

No because I never drive that carefully across a whole tank and I have to drive through traffic and towns sometimes. I'm currently working in Sunbury.... basically A roads and M3 except the last 1/2 mile either side.

If I am driving dual carriage way and motorway at 06:00-06:30 (as I usually do in the morning going to work) and 21:00-21:30 coming home I get 60mpg to/from Sunbury

(Or abandoning attempts at economy I can leave at 06:00 and get to work at 06:20 and get 45* MPG or leave at 06:00 and get in at 06:15 and get 30* mpg) These are just illustrations, i.e. if I do 110mph all the way on the M3 I get there quicker but burn far more fuel!

If I leave at 08:00 and get to work at 09:00 (hopefully) driving economically as I can I get about 45-50 mpg ... the difference is the traffic, stop/starts and having to adjust my speed to traffic not the MPG gauge...

Overall I average 45 mpg from the ODB, I checked it twice brim to brim and it is within 1MPG....

With this thread in mind, I reset the ODB trip today driving from the end of the M3 to Woking .(14 miles)... I was averaging 65 mpg until I got to the town centre and had two sets of red lights and traffic

... this dragged it down significantly.... just two sets of traffic lights with other traffic and I was down to 58 mpg in the last 1 mile of 14..... I could probably have not lost so much if I had not just abandoned the 'quest' and kept the acceleration down

So in summary....my OBD is reasonably accurate when checked.
When I travel (traffic/lights etc) on a mainly motorway/A roads route makes a HUGE difference to my MPG even when trying hard to be economical.

Driving to my Mum's (350 miles with still only 1 mile what i call heavy MPG road) and leaving at 02:00 I can get 60MPG plus easily so long as I don't stop at any services... and no accidents etc. and avoid the M6 Toll as its slightly longer (Minor) .. forces a acceleration from 0-70 again... (more important)....

tony6403

"Overall I average 45 mpg from the ODB, I checked it twice brim to brim and it is within 1MPG...."
That sounds entirely reasonable.
And I agree with and practice frugal tactics trying to extract maximum mpg.
But forget all the distractions about 65mpg etc. when driving in certain conditions, it is the actual average, including having to drive from a cold start and in urban situations, that is representative.
The trip computers can be very misleading at times.