Mid 20s around town is rather ambitious if there's much stop-start driving. 20 is more realistic in this scenario but who does this for 20,000 miles per year unless they're a taxi driver? 
Who owns a Mondeo ST220 / ST TDCI?
- Thread starter Howard
- Start date
I'm sure once the new car novelty wears off you'll find yourself hooning it less. My average MPG has gone up just by driving with economy in mind while commuting, changing gear earlier for example, without labouring the engine. Make sure your tyre pressures are correct too.
It'll cost you much more to run another car than it will to fuel this one.
What do you do for a living? Aren't work paying for fuel?
The air box mod basically helps it breathe cooler, denser air
It'll cost you much more to run another car than it will to fuel this one.
What do you do for a living? Aren't work paying for fuel?
The air box mod basically helps it breathe cooler, denser air
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Well your missus needing a car is a little bit different to wanting it solely for work use, so yeah 
Just because you own a performance car doesn't mean you need to drive it like it's on a race track 24/7. To insist that someone isn't "driving the car how it should be driven" because they don't do 200mph on a motorway and treat every set of traffic lights like a quarter-mile drag race is a bit juvenile really.
My commute is dull. Very dull. I drive through town a bit, onto a motorway for a bit, and then through another town a bit. It's boring, so I just sit back in the nice comfortable environment that my car offers, listen to some good music and drive in an economical, stress-free manner. Motorways are boring whether you're doing 70 or 100mph, so I sit back and relax and drive at the speed limit. Find me on a deserted countryside B road, however, and I challenge you to try and keep up.
Maybe yours is broken then, because I can manage 35mpg quite easily by sitting at 70 on a quiet motorway. Sitting at 60 in 6th would achieve nearer 40. Obviously if there's lots of traffic, necessitating acceleration to overtake and whatnot, it goes down a wee bit.
Just because you own a performance car doesn't mean you need to drive it like it's on a race track 24/7. To insist that someone isn't "driving the car how it should be driven" because they don't do 200mph on a motorway and treat every set of traffic lights like a quarter-mile drag race is a bit juvenile really.
My commute is dull. Very dull. I drive through town a bit, onto a motorway for a bit, and then through another town a bit. It's boring, so I just sit back in the nice comfortable environment that my car offers, listen to some good music and drive in an economical, stress-free manner. Motorways are boring whether you're doing 70 or 100mph, so I sit back and relax and drive at the speed limit. Find me on a deserted countryside B road, however, and I challenge you to try and keep up.
That's quite strange, I've found mine is accurate to around 0.5-0.7mpg. Maybe I'm just lucky or my car really wants to be a diesel.
I have found that adjusting my commuting driving style to be less right-foot-heavy has netted me about 1-1.5MPG, which doesn't sound like much but when it goes up from ~25 to ~26-27 it feels better at least.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to cry into my cornflakes about the economy and sell up for a diesel, that's for damn sure. But it's nice to experiment and whatnot!
I have found that adjusting my commuting driving style to be less right-foot-heavy has netted me about 1-1.5MPG, which doesn't sound like much but when it goes up from ~25 to ~26-27 it feels better at least.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to cry into my cornflakes about the economy and sell up for a diesel, that's for damn sure. But it's nice to experiment and whatnot!
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If your MPG is low then so will your range be. I can get 275-300 miles to a tank when commuting and probably approaching 400 on a long range drive although I've never done a journey long enough for that, but the range is always 380 odd if I start a long drive.
I use 42PSI front 38 rear. I 36/33 is under-inflated. The manual doesn't make it particularly clear IIRC that you have to use the 'fast' settings for the ST models.
Well, 40-42 ish.
34 for a standard Mondeo with 16" balloon tyres probably
Since I upped mine it drives much sharper and helps a little with the old fuel economy.
Gosh I sound like an old man. I'm not crazy, I promise.
I wish I only weighed 80kg.
34 for a standard Mondeo with 16" balloon tyres probably
Since I upped mine it drives much sharper and helps a little with the old fuel economy.
Gosh I sound like an old man. I'm not crazy, I promise.
I wish I only weighed 80kg.
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My motorway economy was still good even before I started putting more air in. The grip levels are as good as they were but turn-in is much sharper. I think a lot of it is trial and error for specific cars and what owners prefer. They're certainly not over-inflated IMHO. 33PSI looks flat with my CS5s.
If you look on the ST/Talkford forums most people use more than Ford's "recommended" pressures
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I don't actually run them at 42/38 tbh, I've just tried them that high in the past. 40 for the fronts and 35-36 for the rears I find to be the sweet spot. It does depend on tyres and weather (temp) too
Will be interesting
I did make it quite clear in my post I wasn't saying you need to drive like that all the time.
I was merely saying that buying a performance car and then worrying about breathing on the accelerator is no way to own this car.
And I am serious that is how i need to drive it to get anywhere near 30mpg.
I drive economically most of the time and this car does not do 30mpg (do you live in holland
I average about 22/23 mpg add on 2/3mpg to account for the fact i run on gas gives me a figure of around 25mpg
I might try putting a bit more air in the tyres and see if that makes any diff, but I won't be running 40PSI in them (seriously 40 PSI ???)
I'm not worried about anything, it's just a discussion over what people are achieving economy-wise and what's the norm. OK maybe I get a couple of MPG higher than the "norm" but there's plenty of factors that contribute towards it, and tbh why would you accept the fact that the car might not be performing as efficiently as it *could*? You say you drive economically and yet you say you cannot better 30mpg. Understandable in urban environments of course, but yours will do better than 28-30mpg on a run, I'm sure of it. If not then perhaps there's an underlying problem. Sticking rear caliper, for example. They're famous for it, and I replaced one of mine the other week.
Or the fact you're running on gas which is likely to be not as efficient a setup as the factory petrol setup.
And what's so outrageous about 40psi? It's only a small handful more than the 'recommended' figures, and it's a heavy old thing. You should see the tyre pressures modern BMWs with their rubber band tyres use!
Anyway without us all recording how we drive it's very difficult to measure by describing driving styles alone
Phew. Glad I'm not alone.
Told you I wasn't crazy.
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Time for you nay-sayers to get yer tyre inflators out
You won't have poor traction unless you have poor tyres. I know I certainly don't
Jesus, do the Germans fill the propshafts with cement or something?
Niiice :/
Apparently when I was young, like 2 years old, my brother had a brand new Peugeot 405, and he brought it over about a day after getting it, for us to look at it. I sat in the back and promptly chundered everywhere. I still don't think he's forgiven me
http://www.fordwiki.co.uk/index.php?title=Instrument_Cluster_Self-Diagnostic_Mode might help if it's a certain error.
So how are we all getting on with our revised tyre pressures?