MPG - sound reasonable?

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

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Bit of a quick and perhaps non issue here but one I'd like to ask nevertheless.

I've been worried about my cars fuel consumption. It seems to go through the litres like nothing else when, in the past I barely had to top up. I've been worried about slight fuel line leakage and so on.

Anyway, planned a long trip yesterday around 210 miles so roughly guessed I'd need circa £30 worth of unleaded. 90% motorway miles. Two people with two suitcases for 90 miles. Three people with three suitcases for the remaining mileage. Ended up averaging 38-41mpg for the entire run.

Do those figures sound okay for a small 1.2 litre hatchback? I'm aware it may sound ridiculous for those who get 20-30mpg on a run in a bigger capacity engine but I'm forever at the pumps when the whole purpose of having a small car is to cut down fuel and insurance costs.

Just thought I'd ask :)
 
More than reasonable imo. Small 1.2 litre hatchbacks aren't good on motorways as you'll be screaming the *******s of it which is why cars with bigger engines are sometimes just as good if not better on the motorway.
 
I averaged between 40 and 46MPG razzing our old Yaris (1.0 4cyl) 1000 miles around France.

Those figures seem quite good given what you were carrying.
 
Yeah that sounds about right.

When i had a terrible old rover 211 it did about 35mpg on my trip to work, a mate had a '99 fiesta 1.4 and that was about the same and pretty terrible on the motorway fuel wise. Infact i got better motorway fuel economy out of my DC5 with a 230bhp 2.0 than he did out of his poxy 1.4 fiesta.... go figure.
 
shifty_uk said:
Do those figures sound okay for a small 1.2 litre hatchback? I'm aware it may sound ridiculous for those who get 20-30mpg on a run in a bigger capacity engine but I'm forever at the pumps when the whole purpose of having a small car is to cut down fuel and insurance costs.

Just thought I'd ask :)
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Could it just be that the car has a small tank? So it feels like you're spending loads on fuel when actually you are just filling up more often, not necessarily using more.
 
What kind of figures does your cliosport fire out Mike? Heard a few forum members say they had similar figures in their 2.0, which got me thinking a bit more.

[TW]Fox;20930743 said:
I got 40mpg out of a Chevrolet Matiz 1.0 over a 120 mile trip so yea, sounds about right.
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Who on earth convinced you to drive one of those? :p
Minstadave said:
Yeah I'd be happy with three people and all their stuff.

What car is it and what speeds were you doing?
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9 year old clio and 60-70 for most of the journey. Pushed the speed a bit because of the rain and wet conditions.

Perhaps it is all to do with fuel prices as opposed to performance.
 
Conscript said:
Could it just be that the car has a small tank? So it feels like you're spending loads on fuel when actually you are just filling up more often, not necessarily using more.
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Perhaps but I've had the same car for three years. I just get the impression it drinks fuel these days and I'm at the pump far more often.

If I'm in a rush and quickly stick £10 in the tank, I'll without a doubt be back the next day filling it up. In the past that would've lasted almost a week in the little thing :p
 
shifty_uk said:
Perhaps but I've had the same car for three years. I just get the impression it drinks fuel these days and I'm at the pump far more often.

If I'm in a rush and quickly stick £10 in the tank, I'll without a doubt be back the next day filling it up. In the past that would've lasted almost a week in the little thing :p
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In January 2009, £10 would buy you 11.1 litres of unleaded fuel.
In January 2012, £10 buys you 7.69 litres of unleaded fuel.
 
My old 1.2 Punto did 46+mpg on the motorway but that thing used to run on witchcraft. Current 1.4 Grande Punto runs at about 40-42 @ 70mph. If I drop to 55mph I can see well over 50mpg.
 
I've never understood why anyone would put in a set amount of fuel in a car like that, for one you never know actually how much fuel you get as the prices change all the time so like fox said you're getting less and less as time goes on. Secondly you just end up at the pumps more often the you need to.
 
[TW]Fox;20930897 said:
In January 2009, £10 would buy you 11.1 litres of unleaded fuel.
In January 2012, £10 buys you 7.69 litres of unleaded fuel.
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Jeez, didn't realise it was that drastic!
sovietspybob said:
I've never understood why anyone would put in a set amount of fuel in a car like that, for one you never know actually how much fuel you get as the prices change all the time so like fox said you're getting less and less as time goes on. Secondly you just end up at the pumps more often the you need to.
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It was merely to test my recent worries about bad fuel consumption. I roughly guesstimated £30 worth of driving and I was about right. Unfortunately I don't have an accurate onboard trip calculator.
 
348 miles cost me roughly £80 yesterday in my Xk8 not fantastic but not all that bad either.
Of course that was at 70mph , ahem....

The big engined cars tend to go the other way good on motorways , poor around town (I get as low as about 16mpg around town).
 
Ultimately depends on what the car is, however I used to get 55mpg out of my 2010 Yaris (1.33, 100bhp).

Make sure your tyres are in good condition and at the right tyre pressure, switch off air con providing you have it, get any unneeded weight out of the car. You could even swap the spare tyre (presuming you have one) for an inflatable tyre kit which is much lighter if you're willing to compromise.
 
[TW]Fox;20931047 said:
Just fill the tank right up, drive, fill it up again, note mileage covered, bingo, worlds most accurate trip computer.
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That would indeed be a more logical solution!
wingman said:
Make sure your tyres are in good condition and at the right tyre pressure, switch off air con providing you have it, get any unneeded weight out of the car. You could even swap the spare tyre (presuming you have one) for an inflatable tyre kit which is much lighter if you're willing to compromise.
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Cheers for the advice. I'm not strictly looking for ways to save money just a comparison from the other board members. I use to get a lot of driving for the money, I'd say well above 50mpg on average. Tyres will need changed in the next couple of months I'd imagine, I could probably stick a new air filter in, got spares - current one is about 6-7 months old.

James_200sx said:
Sounds crap to me. All that punishment for so little gain.
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It's really not that bad for a small car and I've driven a few.
 
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