Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

Yesterday I put in 20 Euros worth of petrol, gave me 12 litres......

Did 100kms and a bit, and I was being careful ffs!

NotoriousREV

I'll aim for being the worst:

Skyline GTR: 18mpg average (mixture of extra urban and motorway driving, booting it occasionally as traffic allows)

Soarer 4.0 GT: 16mpg average (driven like a nun using cruise control)

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

16 MPG Arghhhhh, is it all that quick ?

Vern, My Saab has a Factory boost gauge, its a bit contrived but seems to work, I use that and the economy indication, best so far is 34.2 but I think I have found its limit.

NotoriousREV

Not really 0 - 60 in about 7. It's very smooth and the revs don't go above 2000rpm when driven gently so God alone knows where all the fuel goes!

I do love it, though. The auto box doesn't help economy even in economy mode. I'm too poor to use the Power setting.

Leslie

I used to have a Jaguar Sovereign and on the overrun the instant mpg used to got to zero until the rpm dropped to about 1500 as you say and the mpg would go up as the fuel kicked in again while still on the overrrun.

Les

NotoriousREV

OK, I'm giving the challenge a go. I filled up today so I'm going to be driving economically for this tank in the GTR.

Last tank:
210 miles
47.66 litres
125.9p/litre

19.55mpg
29.27p per mile
£4097.80 per year

I should be flling up again in 3 or 4 days time, so let's see how much improvement I can get (assuming I don't get tempted to boot it)

FlightMan

Your not doing it right messiah! My 1.0 litre Yaris does 62.7mpg, thats on a 52 mile daily commute.

Check your tyre pressures.

Dream Weaver

I am currently getting about 21mpg from the Focus ST and 48mpg from the Civic 2.2

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Mart

Disagree with cruise control being more economical I'm afraid. It tries harder whereas a delicate feather foot that knows when to back off/accelerate is going to be more accurate. My XC has CC but gets better MPG when not switched on.

Spoon

Ummmm, I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned the fact that brakes are cheaper than clutches or gearboxes. Something that was quoted for class 1 driving and never forgotten.

I know the pace is more sedate here but you're not telling me every down shift is totally smooth. Long term the challenge possibly might not be as financially rewarding.

Leslie

It stems back to the "good old days" when brakes used to wear out much more quickly and also could easily fade with hard use. It was expected that a an averagely skilled driver (for those times) would not only use the gearbox to save excessive use of the brakes, but that he would be able to do a smooth gearchange using the double declutching method since synchromesh did not work very well-if you had it in the first place. That is why there was always a warning on a long downhill stretch to change into a lower gear to avoid the possibilty of brake-fade.

There is no reason at all why gearchanges, either up or down cant be perfectly smooth with use of the throttle on a down change to run the engine at the same speed as is necessary in the lower gear as you change gear and also as you let the clutch back in and is far easier to do now anyway because of the much improved synchromesh these days. It used to be a matter of personal pride to be able to do that in those times. Good use of the throttle and double declutching on a modern gearbox will also reduce wear on the gearbox and the clutch as well as the rest of the transmission. It works in racing cars too! "Heel and toe" gearchanges facilitate changing down while braking of course.

Les

Spoon

Of course, Les, and I'm more than familiar with it. Its those that aren't that could be the problem. You know, the same ones that rev an engine until it bounces off the limiter and wonder when they should be changing gear.

I've travelled many a mile in a manual car without using the clutch at all during gear changes as a challenge. Thats when good use of the throttle helps, just a similar method when I was racing bikes only the engine noise wasn't constant like it was on the bikes or indeed like todays sequential car changes.

EddScott

My 4.0L Jeep average MPG reading is 18 ish. On a run my wife and I compete to ge the highest. She wins with 23.

Floor it and the current MPG reading can hit 7

Monkeh

I think i win the economy stakes with a scooby
33MPG on my weekly commute from norwich to surrey, 370 miles on a single tank

I didnt always get this good milage, before i replaced all the cats with a single sports cat i averaged 25MPG on long journeys.
it's now 290BHP. my girlfriends 06 Fiesta sport only manages 33MPG ?? mainly coz the gearing is wrong, it sits at 4500rpm at 70 ish mph !

Petem95

It's surprising how much you can improve MPG by taking it steady!

I've got an A3 2.0 TDi which is remapped to 185bhp, and by staying at 60-65mph on my motorway commute, and trying to always keep the car rolling (not constant accelerate then brake) on my commute I can usually average 55mpg+ on my 15 mile commute in traffic (48-50mpg if driving normal/fairly hard) - with a best of 63mpg.

The car is especially economical on the motorway, and on the 10 mile or so motorway section from the office I can get the average up to almost 75mpg!

Simon C

32 mpg.

26 miles of stop start, and m/way each way.

And thats in a Sport!!! Next car is going to be an oil burner.

Wizzbang

Been doing quite few motorway trips just recently, and the computer is telling me that the average consumption is c.65mpg.

Not too bad for an 11 year old passat tdi (110bhp) with 170k miles on it.

Removed.

Pre PPP around 16MPG, post PPP about 18MPG. Worse if I really enjoy myself. That's pretty consistent, a fill up usually lasts me about 10-12 days, If I max it out, so even the filler neck is full, and drive until the warning light comes on, I get about 195 miles out of it, if I drive very carefully I get about an extra 20 miles to a tank. The joys of living on an island with a 35 mph limit, and bad traffic! It's actually cheaper for me to run my car in France as I get much better MPG and the petrols about the same price.

Iwan

On my current contract, I'm having to do 600-1000 miles a week on average - travelling all over the UK.

My car is a 2.3 VW Golf V5.

Sitting at "typical" motorway speeds all day, it'll return about 33MPG.

On A-roads, sitting at 50-60mph on a long run, I can get anything from 35mpg driving normally, to 41mpg (my record) driving it at 50mph and annoying the hell out of everyone.

I rarely boot it or come hammering up to roundabouts on the brakes any more, as these things totally kill the mpg. Interestingly, my car makes less power (according to the handbook - feels less to drive too) if I use 95 octane unleaded, I get more power and better mpg (+ 3 or 4 mpg) if I use 97 octane or V-Power all the time.

My main hobby these days is trying to drive economically, since I have to pay my own expenses, it benefits me greatly if I can improve my average mpg.

NotoriousREV

Feckin' 'ell, that was hard work. After 3 days of staying off boost and below 4000 rpm, reducing my motorway cruising speed by 20mph and trying not to use the brakes etc. etc. the results of all my hard work are:

Last tank:
191 miles
36.54 litres
125.9p/litre

23.76 mpg an improvement of 4.21 mpg (21.5%)
24.09p per mile
£3372.60 per year

So I'd save about £60 a month driving like that. To be honest, I'd pay £60 a month to be able to drive normally, so it's back to flooring it at every given opportunity from now on

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I just came back from Darlington (to Wilmslow) and did a mixed dawdle with a few blasts, it says 33 at the moment, got about 320 from the tank, so maybe nearer 30.

I lost the will to live in traffic on the A1 and diverted across the Yorkshire Dales, not sure about the economy but it was a lovely drive, stunning scenery and virtually no traffic, no gatsos, no trading estates, no retail parks, ok it took a little longer but really glad I made the diversion. I got carried away at one point on a fast undulating road and managed a little bit of air time which was nice, not every day you see a Saab taking off.