Realistic MPG of older small engined cars?

Soldato
Joined
27 Aug 2003
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Location
West Midlands
Hey all,

My brother is looking for a car for sub £1000 which has good mpg around town, and can generally be a bit of a crap car, he doesn't mind.

I suggested a 306 HDI/DTurbo like myself, but they seem to have gone up equally with the price of fuel! How would a 1.4/1.6 compare MPGwise to the 1.9TD around town? My own 306 Dturbo does around 40mpg around town if I'm not driving too erratic, so yeah how would a petrol variant compare?

Thanks
 
My 1.2 2000 Mk2 Punto did 50mpg easily round town. This was worked out over my 2 years of personal ownership brimming and then seeing how many miles I did to the tank and working it out.

I got nearly 60mpg on a trip down to Devon and back.
 
Just how many miles is he planning to do around town that makes the fuel economy so important? It might be important to a taxi driver, but it makes little difference if you aren't driving far.
 
Just how many miles is he planning to do around town that makes the fuel economy so important? It might be important to a taxi driver, but it makes little difference if you aren't driving far.

Absolutely this. Can't understand why people care about town mpg. Like you said unless you are a taxi driver it's pretty hard to rack up signicant mileage around town - you can't exactly do a 60 mile trip around your citycentre!
 
I will be filling up again today so will report back with the MPG for town driving on my fiesta 1.3 which is 13 years old!

What happened to the 330Ci :confused:

Don't expect the 1.3 to be economical, it's a terrible engine which serves no purpose - slower and more thirsty than the 1.25. Horrid thing.
 
my 1.6 '93 polo get's horrendous mpg around town :D

£20 will get me maybe 100 miles if I'm gentle, 150 if I'm doing motorway stuff though.
 
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Sorry but I drive around town all day going from site to site, and not including my journey to and from home, I can easily get 50miles in a day, then 18 round trip from home, trips to the shops, girlfriends, mothers, friends etc. I would say I average around 60miles a day. Yes, business mileage is paid for, but the better the mpg, the better it works out.

He too has similar circumstances to myself, town mpg matters, so don't question why I need to know, just answer please.
 
Finally I can suggest a 106 diesel without a wry smile. :D

Thrashed to within an inch of it's life for 337 miles non stop (solid 85mph all the way) and still returned 38 MPG.

Round town this is a 55mpg no brainer.
 
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[TW]Fox;18217848 said:
What happened to the 330Ci :confused:

Don't expect the 1.3 to be economical, it's a terrible engine which serves no purpose - slower and more thirsty than the 1.25. Horrid thing.

Sold the 330Ci.

Fiesta is my run around for now while I look for something else and get my business started.

Managed 45MPG on a trip to Devizes in December, that was ~130 miles each way with around 30 miles of that on country A roads and in Town.
 
A slight tangent I know, but have more modern petrol engines really improved much in this respect?

Yes and No.

They probably have got better but new cars weigh so much more.

I could get 50MPG easily on my 1.2 2000 Punto, on the OH's 1.2 2006 Grande Punto I can get about 42MPG.
 
My old '00 0.8 Matiz was cracking for mpg, a tenner would last 60-80 miles of delivering pizzas, constant start-stop. Horrible in every other way though.
 
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