Ridiculous MPG

[Rossmac]

Most people don't even consider it and prefer instead to simply assume the way they do things is best and anyone acheiving high MPG either lies or drives like an old man

Neighbour gets 13mpg in his e60 m5; madness!! in my brothers 1.4 clio from 95 we were regularly getting 43mpg - not too bad in my opinion!

 

[jaykay]

My dad if hes in a mpg mode drives soo slowly. When we went to london he managed 55mpg in a 320d with a load of suitcases. This is going at about 75mph.

 

[[TW]Fox]

.

If I paid the £17,000 price tag for this car out of my own money I'd be considering suicide right now.

I told you so

 

[Jono]

My dad if hes in a mpg mode drives soo slowly. When we went to london he managed 55mpg in a 320d with a load of suitcases. This is going at about 75mph.

That's not slow.

 

[merlin]

I told you so

Free car n all that, I thought it would be ok being a £17,000 car from a prestige (LOL) marque like VW.

 

[Rossmac]

That's not slow.

It's really slow compared to the 78 mph I once saw my dad do back in '92!

Fast doesn't even begin to describe it!!

 

[jaykay]

That's not slow.

Ok not really slow speed but the way he gets up to that speed. aka slowly presses the pedel with the force of a mouse. It takes a fair while to get up to speed.

 

[Doosht]

This is completely normal. There is so much rubbish posted about MPG.

What you are acheiving is par for the course with a manual 530d - you'll only ever see it dip below about 33mpg if you spend a whole tankload in town.

Many cars are suprisingly economical if you drive them in a decent fashion - It always amazes me how people seem to think I can pull amazing economy figures out of my car, and assume I must drive everywhere at 50mph.

Errr, nope, it just involves driving beyond the end of your bonnet.

I'm guessing you don't do any of these things:

a) drive at an indicated 80-120mph on the Motorway
b) Drive right up behind the car in front until he moves out the way, at which point you then nail it back up to cruising speed
c) Foot to the floor every time you accelerate
d) Approach traffic lights using throttle when you know you'll have to stop

etc etc.

Simple, non Grandad things like cruising at an indicated 75mph, backing off the throttle instead of braking and anticipating the moves of other road users and traffic lights can do wonders for fuel economy.

It's how I get 38mpg out of a 530i on a Motorway trip.

It's not rocket science.

Your so right about those points especially point "d". Why the hell do people do that??? Numb skulls.

I drive so steady that you could almost fall asleep but what i dont do is stop unless i have too. If i see a gap ....i keep going.

Including my moped on my 16th birthday ive been driving 20 years (36 last saturday) and never had an accident and even avoided ones that wouldnt of been my fault. Do i get a medal?

 

[Dangerous Dave]

I always find the best bit for fuel consumption is to be smooth and when slowing down go down the gears or simply take your foot off the throttle in a modern car it will use no fuel at all doing this its amazing how many people think you use less petrol by slipping it into netural and coasting. Also as said before look at the road ahead no point in nailing it up to set of red lights or a queue of traffic, I also find when over taking its uses less fuel dropping a couple of gears to do the move quickly than going past for longer with the foot down in top gear.

I go agree on the diesels benefit a lot from cold starts, mine shows under 30mpg at a steady speed for the first 5mins, my sisters TDI I'm using just now is showing 50mpg+ by the same roundabout at the same speeds. If you reset both trips and continue the journey to work mines is sitting around 45mpg the TDI 55mpg so shows how poor the petrol is on a cold start but once up to temp the gap closes with the diesels this was also the case with a 330i I drove poor on a cold start but once warmed up you could get the high 30s/low 40s without much trouble.

 

[commited]

With regards to the lack of power below 2K RPM, I'd make sure you get the car serviced if it hasn't been. A new air-filter and some fuel additive made a difference for me.

I'd recommend you get some of this: http://www.edirectory.co.uk/pf/880/mia/d/millers+diesel+power+plus+sport+4+500ml/pid/5589699

Obviously shop around as they can be expensive. Essentially its just like running expensive fuel.

So, service, filter, fuel and then see if that lag is still around. If so, remap. I had my Punto JTD done. A sports map allowed power from 1 to 4K RPM. Power delivery was very smooth. Turbo certainly had to work harder. MPG certainly went up - this obviously meant maintaining the same driving style.

It's got FBMWSH and its just been serviced. I am going to change the Fuel filter however when I can be bothered. I think the sub-2k lack of oomph is just the way the turbos programmed to boost. The later the turbo boosts, the better it is for economy, or so I've been led to believe.

Anyway - today was another day with a fully laden car (rear suspension seems lower now - hope I haven't done any damage ) and I got 45mpg, and I was in a rush all day - hard acceleration, high speeds etc. Not bad me thinks.