Volkswagen Polo Match 2008 - Big MPG issue giving me a migraine

bigjl

motorguy wrote: »

Is your Berlingo petrol?

I'd a petrol Berlingo van - a 1.4 petrol - at one point. Loved the vehicle, but fuel consumption was :eek:

It is indeed, 1.4i Forte.

Has the standard oil leak from the HG.

Did stupidly low miles with previous owner, have known the car since it was new, bought with 27k odd (November last year) and now on just shy of 40k.

The fuel consumption is not bad if you pootlw along at 60/65mph on the motorway, but round town it is pretty bad indeed.

bigjl

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

I have an old 2003 Avensis. 1.8 petrol. I do mixed mileage motoring, some urban, some rural, some short and mostly 10-20 mile trips and occasional motorway use. I get 55-60mpg and on longer motorway trips, 60-65mpg and that's with a family of four in the car. It's a great motor. I can't understand how people are getting such low mpg figures in smaller cars. They must be very heavy footed or always in traffic on short journeys.

Have I misread that?

60-65mpg from a petrol Avensis?

bigjl

z1a wrote: »

I remember when I had my Montego in the 80's that was a 2 litre & unbelievably good on petrol.
My current car is a Saab 9-3 2ltr turbo, daily use consists of to and fron work twice a day, only 1.5 miles each way, and trips to Morrisons, 3 miles each way. If only used for that, computer says 16mpg, actual 14mpg. Quite good on long runs though, low 30's.

That is pretty hard usage for a Saab turbo.

Are you doing shorter oil and filter changes?

I would be doing 6monthly (with Full Synth) regardless of miles as that engine was a known sludger that could have camchain problems wasn't it?

Aylesbury_Duck

bigjl wrote: »

Have I misread that?

60-65mpg from a petrol Avensis?

Nope. I've owned it since 2007 and it's regularly returned 55-60mpg, and 60-65 on long motorway trips. Short pattern driving in the depths of winter can see it drop to 52-55mpg but a long run and that soon rises. I do about 9k miles a year in it and keep a record of its consumption. It's been using oil for the last two years which is a known issue with the engine, so I do have to add a little oil every month, but the fuel consumption hasn't deteriorated.

I have a 2L diesel that I drive in the same way, but getting anything over 50mpg in that is a challenge.

tony6403

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

Nope. I've owned it since 2007 and it's regularly returned 55-60mpg, and 60-65 on long motorway trips. Short pattern driving in the depths of winter can see it drop to 52-55mpg but a long run and that soon rises. I do about 9k miles a year in it and keep a record of its consumption. It's been using oil for the last two years which is a known issue with the engine, so I do have to add a little oil every month, but the fuel consumption hasn't deteriorated.

I have a 2L diesel that I drive in the same way, but getting anything over 50mpg in that is a challenge.

Toyota should then have kept their old engine as the current 1.8 petrol can't match that :-

"The 1.8-litre petrol engine is available with either a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic gearbox. The manual, with claimed fuel economy of up to 47.1mpg, is a smidge less economical than the automatic, which claims to return 47.9mpg. CO2 emissions are 140g/km, so the petrol has an annual road tax bill of £130."

Mind you my old Austin 1100 was a world beater on fuel consumption but sadly it was because a lot of the driving was done on the end of a tow rope.

bigjl

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

Nope. I've owned it since 2007 and it's regularly returned 55-60mpg, and 60-65 on long motorway trips. Short pattern driving in the depths of winter can see it drop to 52-55mpg but a long run and that soon rises. I do about 9k miles a year in it and keep a record of its consumption. It's been using oil for the last two years which is a known issue with the engine, so I do have to add a little oil every month, but the fuel consumption hasn't deteriorated.

I have a 2L diesel that I drive in the same way, but getting anything over 50mpg in that is a challenge.

I can only assume that the engine in your Avensis is some kind of lean burn engine and if you are able to drive to its strengths you reap the rewards.

I have always had decent fuel economy from Vauxhalls with petrol engines, not as good as you have obtained but still high 40's.

A mate has a 55 plate (now on Irish Rego) 1.6 Astra estate over in Eire and he is getting better fuel consumption than he got from a 61 plate Jazz 1.2S. Mostly fast A roads and dual carriageway, no such thing as traffic where he now resides. I am sure he reckoned he was getting as near as make no difference 50mpg.

Do you use hyper milling techniques or simply drive with a light foot?

Aylesbury_Duck

bigjl wrote: »

I can only assume that the engine in your Avensis is some kind of lean burn engine and if you are able to drive to its strengths you reap the rewards.
Do you use hyper milling techniques or simply drive with a light foot?

Having looked up hypermiling (I'd never heard of the term!), yes I do, with one exception. I keep the aircon on auto all year round because on my other car, I made the mistake of using it infrequently and it needed recharging twice in three years.
I am very light-footed. To get the 60-65mpg on motorway journeys I drive at about 65mph. I think you're right about the engine though, because my other car is a 2L diesel Avensis that I drive in the same way gets nowhere near that economy. Maybe 55mpg on a long motorway trip but no better than 50mpg in mixed driving. It's why I've kept the petrol car so long. It's done 116k miles and other than wear and tear items, I've only had to change the starter motor and clutch recently.

onomatopoeia99

Iceweasel wrote: »

So so much depends on the driver - my cousin, his wife and kids once went on a touring holiday with us - exact same cars (old style original Minis) similarly loaded and never out of sight of each other on the road.

We even filled up at the same fuel stations en-route - but he got 7mpg less than me.

He uses brakes much more than me, and accelerates harder.

On that car plenty of other things can affect the fuel economy before driving style is considered - condition and adjustment of the points, ignition timing, distributor wear, correct functioning of the vacuum advance, condition and adjustment of the needle, wear in the shaft of the carburettor causing vacuum leaks etc.

Manxman_in_exile

Aylesbury - I presume you're calculating actual mpg and not relying on the trip computer? We had a 2003 1.6 Avensis and got nowhere near your figures. And I think(?) we drove it quite economically.


When I calculated actual mpg the computer was out by 25%

Aylesbury_Duck

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

Aylesbury - I presume you're calculating actual mpg and not relying on the trip computer? We had a 2003 1.6 Avensis and got nowhere near your figures. And I think(?) we drove it quite economically.


When I calculated actual mpg the computer was out by 25%

Hi Manxman. Yes. When I first got the car I was surprised at the results from the trip computer so started measuring it myself. In my case the computer is reasonably accurate although it does always overstate by a few mpg.

I do look after it well, with frequent oil and filter changes (now it burns oil, it's getting lots of new oil between changes anyway...) and I check/keep the tyres at the 32psi mark every weekend.

I am fortunate in that I am able to avoid short journeys and congestion, so I'm rarely burning fuel sat in queues and the car gets properly up to temperature on pretty much every trip. It's certainly atypical usage which is why I'm getting such a good return.