Fuel Economy

[HoneyBear1980]

I have checked my odometer on a run from Birmingham to Preston on th M6 using the motorway distance signs. The sign said 100 miles and I did 101 miles to my junction on the odo. Therefore unless all the garage pumps are way out, i'm still pretty confident that i'm getting around 60mpg on average from a tank. This is providing I do at least 100 miles on the motorway between each fill up - i'm still getting between 590 - 605 miles on a tank (still don't get over 45 litres in before pump clicks off).

Therefore, although still pricing up a new pair of tyres i'm confident that 700 miles is possible on one tank.

[br0ke]

My wifes had the Verso 2.2d for 2 years now.

Stats from fuel receipts for

07/08 are

9246 miles @ 41.35mpg cost £1089

and 08/09 are

7098 miles @ 37.06mpg cost £937

During 07/08 it got weekly 80mile return runs on good A roads to our caravan but we gave that up and this year it is all town roads or local country roads of less than 10 miles.

The most I ever got in the tank was 54.87litres (it must have been on fumes)

She drives it like a vicar whereas I would push on a little but on a fully laden 200 mile motorway run driving very gently I got 60mpg from it which impressed me no end as my BM would give +25 for the same run

[IainM]

Just back from doing 1100 miles on hols to France. No idea exactly what mileage It gave but suffice to say, not much :(

Then again, with two adults, 2 kids, a bootfull of stuff & towing a trailer with 4 bikes mounted on it (est weight 350kg total) it shouldn't really be a surprise! :P

The thing tows very well though - on smooth mortorways (i.e. French ones, not British!) it would amble along quite happily at a genuine 72-75mph (according to GPS, so 80 on the dial) all day long. Computer showed it averaging around 36mpg so I'd guess low 30s in reality.

Diesel is currently 99.9 cents (so about 88p)/litre in French supermarkets whereas unleaded is 1.25 Euros

[IainM]

Just back from doing 1100 miles on hols to France. No idea exactly what mileage It gave but suffice to say, not much :(

Then again, with two adults, 2 kids, a bootfull of stuff & towing a trailer with 4 bikes mounted on it (est weight 350kg total) it shouldn't really be a surprise! :P

The thing tows very well though - on smooth mortorways (i.e. French ones, not British!) it would amble along quite happily at a genuine 72-75mph (according to GPS, so 80 on the dial) all day long. Computer showed it averaging around 36mpg so I'd guess low 30s in reality.

Diesel is currently 99.9 cents (so about 88p)/litre in French supermarkets whereas unleaded is 1.25 Euros

Just back from a service & they found the EGR valve (which had been cleaned out earlier in the year) was sticking so they replaced it (under warranty fortunately). Early days yet but the thing seems to be using 10%+ less juice than before it went in.

[Will_de_Beest]

Speedometer error is designed in to most cars, presumably on safety grounds. And it's generally not linear - both our cars (Volvo and Toyota) read pretty accurately up to about 40 mph but the error increases after that, so that a true 70 reads more like 75. In each case the odometer is much more accurate - it tallies with road sign distances, GPS measurements and motorway kilometre posts.

Changing tyre sizes in an attempt to eliminate speedometer error would be insane and potentially dangerous, as well as very expensive. You'd very likely end up with a speedometer that would read right on the motorway but understate your speed in town, where limits are (rightly) enforced more rigidly. Meanwhile the steering, braking and gearing would be upset, and your insurer would want to know what you were up to.

[Paul/C.]

Just done 312 miles on a full tank which has just taken 39.54 litres to refill. That gives me an mpg of about 36, but the display on the dash thought it was 46. Are they normally that inaccurate?

Not too impressed with the 36mpg. I've been pretty light with the right foot and at least half of it was on the motorway. Is that likely to improve? It's only done about 1000 miles so far.

I've got a T180 D-4D Cat '56 model which currently gives me about 41mpg.

I've had 565 miles on a single tank (to the brim) though including a 445 mile Cornwall to Newcastle stretch with 3 bikes on the back and a roofbax and FULL load.

I do remember the first few tanks gave me about 32mpg though and I thought there was something wrong with the mpg too, but it gradually improved over the following months so let it be.

[MKICampaign]

Just done 312 miles on a full tank which has just taken 39.54 litres to refill. That gives me an mpg of about 36, but the display on the dash thought it was 46. Are they normally that inaccurate?

I had a similar problem with my 07 plate TR. The MPG read out on the dash would read 6-10mpg out (typically worse at numerically higher MPG values). It would also occasionally reset itself between stops for diesel (not 99 hours at which IIRC all figures reset).

The supplying dealer looked at it and discovered a fault code on the speedo unit which was related to out of range values.

I had the ECU "upgrade" and the speedo unit replaced. The MPG readings now seem more realistic if possibly still slightly high. I've yet to use enough fuel to compared displayed and manually calculated MPG values but based on experience fuel consumption of the car I'm confident they are only slightly high.

I've yet to take it on a really long run to see if the unrealistic motorway/A-road figures return, at the moment it is doing the usual school run and weekend driving mix.

The only problem is that the dealer did not warn my that the new speedo could not be programmed with the correct mileage. The car now displays 20k miles less than it has travelled.

[woggles]

56 plate T3 2.2 d4d, just under 20,000 on the clock when we picked it up. Had it two weeks now and 'topped' the fuel up with Ultimate diesel twice, haven't let it go down to the light coming on yet. £1.20 in Norfolk, £1.15 in Carlisle per litre.

Took it on a round trip from Carlisle to Kings Lynne via A1M and A17 so a certain amount of fast dual carrigeways, dead flat country lanes in East Anglia and plenty of ups and downs in the North West, covered 715 miles all told what with all the driving around we did and got 52 miles per gallon :D . Kept forgetting I had a 6th gear!!. Used the odometer for milage covered and also kept forgetting to see what the average mpg stated!

[IainM]

56 plate T3 2.2 d4d, just under 20,000 on the clock when we picked it up. Had it two weeks now and 'topped' the fuel up with Ultimate diesel twice, haven't let it go down to the light coming on yet. £1.20 in Norfolk, £1.15 in Carlisle per litre.

Took it on a round trip from Carlisle to Kings Lynne via A1M and A17 so a certain amount of fast dual carrigeways, dead flat country lanes in East Anglia and plenty of ups and downs in the North West, covered 715 miles all told what with all the driving around we did and got 52 miles per gallon :D . Kept forgetting I had a 6th gear!!. Used the odometer for milage covered and also kept forgetting to see what the average mpg stated!

Back from a 1050 mile round trip to Scotland. With a roofbox on top & a full load on board, 2 adults, 2 kids.

2.2D (23K Miles) was averaging around 40-42mpg. Started out with a full tank of Shell Standard diesel bought near London & refilled at Sainsbury's in Stirling (about 420 miles) which took around 47 litres - so not much more than 40mpg on th eway up. Sainsbury's diesel was rubbish (maybe a lot of winter additives in it). Topped up with about 40 litres of BP diesel on the way home & the computer is showing 45.8 avg. Was running at around 70-75mph (GPS reading) & on cruise control a lot (and in 6th gear :) )

[mike787]

I am just about to say goodbye to my d4d, it has been a good car, just a few little niggles, but the wife is allowing me to move on to a bigger engine, so I am taking the chance while she is in a good mood! The yaris has returned an average mpg of 54.55 over the 2 years and 21,250 miles I have owned it, (pretty sad recording it all, but it has been very interesting). Most of that has been long runs at around 70-80mph. I have always done neck to neck refills since the day I bought it new and I have never bothered with 'diesel ultra' but I have tried my best to stay away from supermarket slop.

Farewell to you all I will now start the same with the 2.2cdti civic. Something tells me it won't be as economical as the Yaris, but I want the bigger engine to be able to take the strain of motorway runs, over a few years I think the 1400 engine may be pushed a tad too far.

[Genuine Modest]

Hi Guys,

I'm a newbie and I have my new Verso for a month now. I have a couple of questions, related to the topic. From your discussion I still cannot find my answers. I have a brand new Verso 2.0 D4D engine. When I took it a month ago the odometer show just 17km. After the first tank, now the trip computer shows the average consumption of 6,9l/100km, while the calculation show approximately 9,2l/100km. Here I have my questions:

1. Is it normal to have such a big difference between the trip computer reading and the actual consumption?

2. Isn't it too much to have 9,2l/100km diesel consumption, taking into account that I'm driving peaceful and 2/3 from the mileage is done on a high way?

Thanks in advance!