Fuel Economy Reporting Thread

greenman7

My first post here. When I bought my Citroen C3 1.4 diesel about three months ago the person I was buying off said she returned around 50mpg, then proceeded to demonstrate the car to me driving at 85 mph on a short run! She said her daughter got around 60mpg in the same car. I have consistently had around 63-68mpg in a mixture of driving conditions. I do not hang around when I am driving but I refuse to floor the accelerator - personally i do not see this saving fuel. On a dual carriageway I drive at about 55-65mph. I do look ahead on the road - drive with anticipation so I am not constantly hitting the gas hard or braking hard. I like driving the car and would love to consistently get over 70mpg but I am not sure how to do this.

anewman

It depends largely on the car. I know mine is quoted as being most fuel efficient at 56mph, although I tend to do just above 70 and on my last run got 40mg which I thought was amazing for a 1.3 13 year old skoda estate with a boot full (I mean full big boot) being driven hard at over 70. I suppose I should do 56 and try save the cash.

As for getting 70mpg it might not be possible if you have already done everything possible and maintained the car well. I would personally be impressed with what you're getting already

greenman7

Well I have got 71mpg once on a long run, but I would like to get this or more all the time to save on emissions and money. I suppose I am always looking for perfection - fuel economy was a big reason I bought the car. My last car was a 1.25 litre Fiesta (1998) which I converted to LPG, I guess that returned about 38mpg, not good enough so I gave it to my son! I do my own routine maintenance, (change oil,filters etc) to make sure that it is done it is much better for me than trusting a garage.

Murphy_The_Cat

Has anyone on here mentioned adding a 'performance chip' to their diesel car ?

Depending on who you talk to, they increase the performance on your car, and increase you mpg.

Allegedly.

anewman

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Has anyone on here mentioned adding a 'performance chip' to their diesel car ?

Depending on who you talk to, they increase the performance on your car, and increase you mpg.

Allegedly.

This is a claim by the manufacturers/seller. These performance chips normally work against the ECU's instinct to save fuel by injecting more fuel. This is how they get the performance boost. Sometimes these "chips" are just some kind of resistor placed on a sensor like the lambda sensor which the ECU takes readings from to manage the fuel injection. I seriously doubt any such product does improve MPG and I seriously doubt there is any data to back up their claims, which afterall are there to make you pay something silly like £5 for a 25p resistor with a piece of paper telling you where to put it. Don't waste your money unless there is further evidence, than "it will increase MPG" is my advice.

I could sell you moth balls to put in your fuel tank and put them in a nice box saying how they double your MPG, and if you're a sucker you'll buy them, if your even more of a sucker you'll actually believe you got more MPG after using them (usually without calculating MPG). This is actually a scam that has been done.

Lots of people on forums I have read suggest an additive called something like millers diesel power sport or something helps increase MPG in diesels. I don't know if anyone has done with and without tests and comparisons, but if you're interested search around for info. Being a petrol car owner I didn't pay much attention.

Crabman

anewman wrote: »

Lots of people on forums I have read suggest an additive called something like millers diesel power sport or something helps increase MPG in diesels. I don't know if anyone has done with and without tests and comparisons, but if you're interested search around for info. Being a petrol car owner I didn't pay much attention.

Fifth Gear had done some tests with additives ranging from cheap-ish to expensive and found all were pretty much useless, I don't know whether this relates to diesel systems at all but the video clip is on YouTube, sorry if it is completely irrelevant in this case

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jbcCr2ll3c

Cameo1

I drive a Mini One D (Diesel). Sadly, this car is no longer made (a little short-sighted?).

When we bought it I drove it without "thinking through" my driving technique and got 550 miles out of one tank of fuel (around £48 before the recent increases).

To see how well I could do, I changed my driving to become more anticipatory and lettting her "run" up a hill rather than pushing, plus rolling rather than braking and accelerating, and trying to drive at around 56 mph.

So far, I have got the car's tank to just 700 miles on the same price - a saving for the long term in a year on - oh I can't do the maths!
We do around 11,000 miles a year. It is about £50 to fill up now. I have been surprised how more miles I have got from one tank since I made the effort!

anewman

Doing slightly over 70mph on a long run, about 39mpg, doing about 60mph on a long run, 45mpg with a 94 Skoda Favorit 1.3 Estate (136 high compression SPI [Bosch MonoMotronic] engine). My mathematics isn't at it's best at the momnt, but I think that's about a 13.3% improvement.

careful_driver_2

I bought a 1.6 Astra Auto a few months ago and became concerned about the amount of fuel it uses. I drive the car economically. Every time i fill the car I note the amount of miles that I have done, and divide that by the amount of litres that I put in the car then times that by 4.5 (the amount of litres in a gallon) and consistently it works out to 23-24 MPG. I only get about 260 miles to a full tank. I took the car back to the garage that I bought it from and they checked it over and said there is nothing wrong with the car. The independent website Parker says the car should do about 34 MPG, when I told the garage that they said they phoned up their Vauxhall Technical Department who said that 23mpg is round about right!!! I cant believe that 23mpg is right for this car. (I used to get about 34mpg when i had a Zafira which is a bigger car). So therefore IF 23mpg is right then Vauxhall lie in saying that it would do around 35mpg when they sell their Astra's!!

Does anyone have any ideas please??

lily_the_pink

careful_driver wrote: »

I bought a 1.6 Astra Auto a few months ago and became concerned about the amount of fuel it uses. I drive the car economically. Every time i fill the car I note the amount of miles that I have done, and divide that by the amount of litres that I put in the car then times that by 4.5 (the amount of litres in a gallon) and consistently it works out to 23-24 MPG. I only get about 260 miles to a full tank. I took the car back to the garage that I bought it from and they checked it over and said there is nothing wrong with the car. The independent website Parker says the car should do about 34 MPG, when I told the garage that they said they phoned up their Vauxhall Technical Department who said that 23mpg is round about right!!! I cant believe that 23mpg is right for this car. (I used to get about 34mpg when i had a Zafira which is a bigger car). So therefore IF 23mpg is right then Vauxhall lie in saying that it would do around 35mpg when they sell their Astra's!!

Does anyone have any ideas please??

I have had a similar experience with the 2 ford focus's I have driven. I cant remember the consumption but it seemed high for the age of the car and the engine size. It certainly bore no resemblence to the figures in the handbook (and the cars were well maintained). I have not had similar problems with other cars so I dont think it was just due to my driving style.