MY09 Verso 1.8 fuel economy and other fuel questions? - Help!

[Stonedofmoo]

Hi all

We own a 1.8 petrol Verso, 59 plate manual. We love the car but I'm disappointed with the fuel economy. The car is only showing 31.5 average over 1500 miles since a reset, and one of the reasons we bought this car over alternatives like Zafira is the economy was listed as around 38-39 on honest john's real mpg site from owners feedback. The car mostly runs regular unleaded, with the odd tank of Tesco 99.

A couple of questions then

1) Tyre pressure, what are you guys running yours at to achieve better mpg. Book figures appears to list 35F/33R.

2) Can someone confirm it's actually a 60 litre tank on the petrols? When the gauge says the fuel is nearly out (20-30 miles to go) we go to a fuel station and only manage to squeeze about 45 litres in before the pump starts clicking to say the tank is full  Surely this should not be happening with supposedly 15 litres to go.

3) Is there any way to adjust the current mpg reading? The bar shows 0 to 90mpg. 90 mpg is a ridiculous scale on a car that's never even going to come close. 60mpg would be more appropriate at the upper end.

4) If my economy is lower that what most people are getting, is there any common reasons why? i.e. faults, sensors, common problems to investigate? I will say the car appears to be running perfectly, the mpg is just very disappointing.

Cheers everybody :-)

Chris

[camdave]

Hi Chris

I have owned the same model for three years and like you I was disappointed with the fuel consumption. I have always logged all the fuel used in my cars for many years (how sad is that ?) and overall I get around 32 mpg. On a long run, say 200 - 300 mile round trips, consumption improves to 35/36 mpg but that is about as good as it gets.

I spoke to a man in Tesco once who had the same model and he was getting exactly the same figures.

Having said that, the plus points i.e. comfort, reasonable performance and reliability outweigh the minimal extra cost as I only do around 6,000 miles pa now I am retired.

 

 

[Stonedofmoo]

Hi there

Very interesting what you say about your Verso. This weekend just gone we drove over 500 miles and I brimmed the tank using Tesco 99 fuel and reset the MPG counter as we set off.

Using cruise control, 6th gear and a steady 75mph indicated (but actually 70mph according to my TomTom) our Verso averaged 44 mpg on the readout. It was on for 46 mpg but we got caught on the M1 in a jam and crept along for nearly an hour, while the average mpg sunk lower and lower :-/

245 miles covered I stopped in at the Tesco near my parents and brimmed the tank once more. It took 27 litres which according to online calculators mean even though the readout says 44 mpg it's actually closer to 40 mpg. Either way this is a considerable improvement on anything we'd seen up until that point.

On the way back I increased the speed to 80 mph indicated/75 mph actual and the economy dropped to around 40 mpg indicated, so looking more like 36 mpg in reality.

I guess it shows the 1.8 petrol is capable of decent mpg, but it's all about cruising speeds in 6th gear. The car is just too heavy and the engine has too little torque to manage good economy around town. In fact having done this long drive I was starting to regret my choice of the manual gearbox and wondered if the auto would have been a better choice as it was starting to get irritating having to shift up and down so much to stay in the most economical power band as indicated by the shift lights.

If it helps before we set off I increased the tyre pressures to 38 psi on the front, and 36 psi on the back. It didn't effect handling, noise or braking and is still less that Toyota's listed autobahn setting of 40 psi on the front. I also agree about the plus points, while I do feel a turbo diesel would suit the car better with their torque, I simply don't want the hassle or cost of fixing the common rail systems used when and injector or high pressure pump fails - it just wipes out the savings. Also my wife's regular short journeys would block the DPF in no time, so petrol was the only choice despite it's lack of power and lower economy

Cheers

[camdave]

Hi again

Slightly off topic but I agree about an auto. Before I retired I was doing 25/30,000 miles pa. in a Mazda Premacy 1.8 auto. and it was a real pleasure to drive. That car did 215,000 miles in the twelve years I owned it with no major issues - not bad for a petrol engine !