Drive a Zafira 1.6? Get 7 more mpg!

Well this is what I noticed with 6 different cars actually. All N/A, infact the most noticeable difference came on my first car when I tried it on Optimax, a MK3 Ford Fiesta 1.4. The Other 5 have all been 3+ litre 6/8 cylinder N/A cars and all have behaved much the same.

My other 2 cars were diesel, and they are the only turbo charged cars I have ever had. And when I had those they didn't have 'premium' diesel to try.
 
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Very likely yes, that's what I have heard from many people. But a nigh on 30% increase is just unprecedented and unbelievable, it's a huge amount to gain by changing your fuel.
 
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Jonnycoupe said:
Is it not normal to use your car to go to Bingo once a week in town, pop to the shops twice a week and go to play bridge with your friends each Sunday. All trips less than 5 miles across town? You can imagine thats exactly what Dorris might do.

Oh yes we have NO IDEA what the test routes are.
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LOLz.. you are just getting unreasonable now.

I'm merely saying that 'their' driving style, 'their' as in Thorney's test people, which I may be going out on a limb here, but I doubt that would be your hypothetical 'dorris', is not a normal mix of driving based on the simple fact they are at getting over 30% less MPG then the combined average for the car (1.6 Focus)..

So it's conceivable (and highly likely if you wanted to slew the results) to think they might just be finding out where the largest gains are, and ensuring their test driving largely exploits that mode.

:)
 
MikeHiow said:
Actually, I have experience of the kind of fuel economy offered by a 1.6 MK2 Focus. I achieved 31MPG driving normally (no spirited driving), so I don't see it as ridiculous that they achieved less than 30MPG, but then, neither am I defending their results.
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Actually, I also have experience of the fuel economy offered by a 1.6 focus as my brother owned one for 3 years. Funny then, that my experience is completely at odds with yours, given that the average he got was general around 37mpg with mixed driving. On 95RON. To get even 31mpg would take a significant change to the drive, let alone 29mpg.
 
Demon, whilst I see what you are saying, they have no need to manipulate the results in this way - if they wanted to do this, it would be far easier to manipulate them before they go to paper. That said, the differences in economy between different driving styles and different routes are huge.
 
Trojan said:
Actually, I also have experience of the fuel economy offered by a 1.6 focus as my brother owned one for 3 years. Funny then, that my experience is completely at odds with yours, given that the average he got was general around 37mpg with mixed driving. On 95RON. To get even 31mpg would take a significant change to the drive, let alone 29mpg.
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Thanks, you've now confirmed my initial impression of what you have to say. That is that I should ignore it because you haven't a clue what you're talking about.

Sure, your brother may have achieved 37MPG mixed, but then his driving patterns are likely largely different from mine.
 
I want to see the full dataset, they have obviously hand picked data that shows them in the best light.

In other companies marketing claims will have much more substantial data behind them, most places will run fuel economy tests in a controlled environment such as a chassis dynomometer with full atmospheric control, measuring fuel consumption via carbon balance of exhaust emissions.

Not just driving it around until the fuel light comes on :D
 
I would suggest that a Focus 1.6 doing 30mpg is simply broken. My gf only drives locally, with bad clutch control and with the engine barely warming up. She does this in a......Focus 1.6.

I have never bothered to work this out, but i know her driving patterns, and how much fuel she puts into it, and i think that she is doing between 40-45mpg on average.

Even allowing for error in my estimates of her usage, that is rather different to 30!
 
I see, so you're basing the 6 month old, 4000 mile Focus I had being broken on your guess of your other half's fuel consumption?
 
MikeHiow said:
I see, so you're basing the 6 month old, 4000 mile Focus I had being broken on your guess of your other half's fuel consumption?
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No, i am saying that along with everybody else, i do not believe you, or you drove it so ludicrously hard that the figure is meaningless.
 
Yes, how could I miss the amount of people that have written it on here as a percentage. Or, you could look at it another way - I experienced a 22% loss of fuel economy by switching from SUL to NUL, which is in fact more accurate as if anything the engine is adapting to the 95RON rather than vice versa.

Given how much people slate Vauxhall on here, and that the VXR is 'mapped' for 98/99RON, I find it amusing how many people are inadvertently defending them here, by claiming you couldn't possibly lose 22% in fuel economy by switching from the recommended fuel.
 
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