New car eating petrol too fast!

lilibetla

Hi All,

Before I start, I am new to driving and this is my first car, so forgive anything I write that sounds ridiculous.

I bought my car last week, its a Diahatsu Sirion automatic, 1.3, 2007 and with 37,000 miles. Its a great car, but my husband is just concerned with how quickly its going through petrol. He filled it up on the day we bought it as the empty bar was flashing, but only got 35L in (despite the 40L capacity). Since then I have done 190 miles and its started flashing empty again. It has just been serviced and MOT'd.

A few factors to consider, I live in an extremely flat area, drive normally (i.e. somewhere between boy racer and granny). I have had the air con on a bit but not high or constantly. All my journeys have been under 30 minutes.

I guess my question is - is that normal? My husband has a 2004 fiesta, and he gets 400 miles from his 40L tank!

Any advice most welcome, thanks in advance

motorguy

Seems very low, relative to what others are getting

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/daihatsu/sirion-2005

thescouselander

What sort of driving have you been doing? Sounds not too far off if you've been a lot of driving round town.

Strider590

Also don't forget that driving a small engined car "normally" usually means driving it harder than you would something bigger.

Stigy

lilibetla wrote: »

Hi All,

Before I start, I am new to driving and this is my first car, so forgive anything I write that sounds ridiculous.

I bought my car last week, its a Diahatsu Sirion automatic, 1.3, 2007 and with 37,000 miles. Its a great car, but my husband is just concerned with how quickly its going through petrol. He filled it up on the day we bought it as the empty bar was flashing, but only got 35L in (despite the 40L capacity). Since then I have done 190 miles and its started flashing empty again. It has just been serviced and MOT'd.

A few factors to consider, I live in an extremely flat area, drive normally (i.e. somewhere between boy racer and granny). I have had the air con on a bit but not high or constantly. All my journeys have been under 30 minutes.

I guess my question is - is that normal? My husband has a 2004 fiesta, and he gets 400 miles from his 40L tank!

Any advice most welcome, thanks in advance

Hi,

The fuel tank is very small anyway, which can be deceiving in terms of your perceived MPG. If you're getting 190 to a whole 40-litres that equates to about 21mpg. This is very low, I'd expect at least 35 to 40mpg given it's an automatic and getting on a bit age wise. It's likely that even though you fit only 35-litres in it, you had 5-litres in the tank anyway, even if the gauge was reading empty (you'd have to have some in reserve after all!). In a nutshell, to 40-litres, I'd be expecting at least 350-miles.

forgotmyname

Small engined auto and aircon, says it all. Out of your 85bhp? your using 25 for the air con and leaving just 60 horses to propel you along.

You have done 190 miles but there maybe several gallons left. A dicky and inaccurate gauge probably. many years ago i had a classis mini and it seemed to drink the fuel, Si i filled a petrol can and stuck that in the boot and drove for another 2 weeks... Gauge would drop to the red with just a small amount used. Lots of fuel left.

gardner1

fill car to brim......and next time use same garage and pump again to get a true figure
using same garage/pump is best as car could be sloping forward/sideways/backward which makes a big difference when filling tank to brim and try to fill same time i.e. when light comes on or 20 miles after it comes on

Stigy

forgotmyname wrote: »

Small engined auto and aircon, says it all. Out of your 85bhp? your using 25 for the air con and leaving just 60 horses to propel you along.

You have done 190 miles but there maybe several gallons left. A dicky and inaccurate gauge probably. many years ago i had a classis mini and it seemed to drink the fuel, Si i filled a petrol can and stuck that in the boot and drove for another 2 weeks... Gauge would drop to the red with just a small amount used. Lots of fuel left.

It's a 1300cc engine, so although not massive it's not the same as fitting A/C to an 800cc Matiz. The A/C won't help much of course, but not to this extent.

knightstyle

As others have said you need to work out the mpg accurately and then come back.
mpg will be high if you have an auto, have air con on, drive lots of short journeys and have a heavy right foot! So see what you can do to remove some/all these.

Stigy

gardner1 wrote: »

fill car to brim......and next time use same garage and pump again to get a true figure
using same garage/pump is best as car could be sloping forward/sideways/backward which makes a big difference when filling tank to brim and try to fill same time i.e. when light comes on or 20 miles after it comes on

I used to do it to the extreme and run my cars clean out of petrol and keep a petrol can in the boot....Never with a diesel of course, and this was with much older cars.

prowla

It hasn't got a "Sport" mode, has it?

My new car has a Sport/Comfort/Eco mode button; the default is Comfort, but I tend to put it into Eco mode and see if I can save fuel by driving more sedately, lift & coast, etc. (it has a count of miles saved).

It's amazing that I can drive for maybe 5 miles and save a bit and then use all of that in accelerating uphill from a roundabout.