MPG how true are the manuals?

Our man in Havana

I have just got myself a 00 escort 1.4L estate after the trusty Micra bit the dust and has gone to become coke cans.
I notice from the owners manual that she does 40mpg for open road driving. I have noticed that it takes from between 35-38 liters to cover 300 miles, I make that around 35 mpg.

I take it the quoted 40mpg is simply unattainable and is only possible in a lab. How do they work out those figures.

Also are my figures typical for a car of its type?

embraer170

2.0 auto. Avensis, just did a pump calculation today and averaged 36mpg over the last 300 miles, mostly out of town. The owners manual claims 39mpg.

It also really depends how it's driven... using the trip computer (which I don't believe to be at all accurate)... a heavy foot takes it down to the 26-28mpg while driving it as gently as possible long distance, late at night with no traffic I've seen it show a trip average of 42mpg. Hmmm.

peasant

The consumption figures of a vehicle are quoted according to EU regulation exxwhyzedslashsomethingorother and are obtained by running a car on a dynamo at certain set speeds.

They bear very little similarity with actual driving conditions. Nonetheless, the figures are useful when comparing different (new) cars which each other before buying. while the quoted figures are usually lower than what is realistically achievable in real life, they are at least fairly accurate for comparison purposes.

Out of two cars, the one that uses less on paper, will also be the one that uses less in real life.

mukki

its impossibal for anything to be 100% accurate, ie

you speedometer is based on how many rpm your wheels are doing, but their circumferance gets smaller as the tire threads wear down

the ammount of fuel in your tank is measuerd using a float, so all you need is a slight slope to convice your guage that the tank is due a refill to early,

things expand on hot days, so fill the tank when its warm,and you'll have less fuel when its cold

fletch

I had a '98 Ford Escort for 2 years. Over the 2years I averaged 32.5mpg (fill to fill method every time). Best I saw was 37mpg and that was driving a constant 50-60mph straight from one petrol station to another. Mine was a hatchback so I'm guessing your's being an estate it would be slightly less economical.

Our man in Havana

So I should be happy with my 35mpg?

EIN

my volvo s40 2.0 diesel was giving a book figure of about 50-55mpg!!

erm nice thats one of the reasons i bought the car.,...

anyays after putting 18,000 km on the car and doing the fill to fill method the best was around 47-mpg and averaged 42-44mpg pretty crap for a 2.0 diesel!
and that was driving it easy on the motorway!

so i sold it would nt buy another one,


my friend has a 2.0Diesel avensis the new model with 6speed gearbox and he is getting around 50mpg! average.. not bad considering the car has only 5000km on it and not bedded in yet!

311

Its not a great time to calculate milage at the moment ,very windy.

mike65

I as far I know, they 'bench test' fuel economy so its all crap. No real life wheels turn in real life conditions.

Mike.

fletch

Bond-007 wrote:

So I should be happy with my 35mpg?

It's not bad considering how old-tech the engine is (its an 8valve with a single cam)
My current car is a 1.9TDI and regularly averages 55mpg