Miles to the gallon

Kar086

I was told today that on average my car does 40 miles to the gallon, can any of u car buffs out there tell me is that good or bad? I feel I'm always filling the car!! It's a 2009 ford fiesta 1.2 L
Thanks

Alanstrainor

The MPG you do will depend entirely on how you drive. The next time you fill up the tank, reset the odometer and see how many miles you get until it's more or less empty. Then you can figure out your mpg.

Kar086

Yeah mechanic advised me to do it for a week or 2 & c how I get on. Is 40 mpg normal? Thanks

kebrosnan

There are many different variables that will effect your mpg from state of the car (servicing, tyre pressure, extra weight in the car etc), driving style, and roads, speeds and distances that you are driving.

I have never owned one of those but I would have thought that figure would not be that far off the mark. Have you tried to calculate what you are currently getting?

.Longshanks.

Kar086 wrote: »

Yeah mechanic advised me to do it for a week or 2 & c how I get on. Is 40 mpg normal? Thanks

I would say so for a 1.2 petrol fiesta

colm1234

Thats about average buddy to be honest its kinda heavy considering its only a 1.2 I get same with my 1.6 honda hrv (jeep) maybe you need to get the car serviced and try using a different petrol station I find topaz about the best, as the fuel is better quality so more miles, if your concerned about petrol bills you should have gone for a diesel i know the likes of the skoda octavia 1.9tdi 90bhp gets anything up to 65mpg

Kar086

Car was serviced 6 weeks ago & I'm
Not doing any extra driving than what I was doing since I got it! Next car will definately be a diesel! Thanks for all ur advice guys

ottostreet

Really? 40mpg is my definition is great fuel economy!

Alanstrainor

If you are actually getting 40mpg then it's great! The cost to change your car to a diesel will completely negate the tiny benefits!

wersal gummage

according to this website, you should be getting a combined of 48mpg if you are driving the 1.25 dura whatever its called

ps - i've never got the mpg out of my cars that that website says i should....

Atlantic Dawn

If your doing loads of city driving the figures will be even less, some tips to conserve fuel would be to try to keep the revs between 1500 and 2000rpm by changing up the gears quickly as you drive and using 5th and/or 6th gear as much as possible.

Alanstrainor

wersal gummage wrote: »

ps - i've never got the mpg out of my cars that that website says i should....

That website says i "should" be getting 43.5mpg. I actually get 23...

wersal gummage

Alanstrainor wrote: »

That website says i "should" be getting 43.5mpg. I actually get 23...

in normal enough driving conditions ???

i've found that it usually says i should be getting say 27 around town and i tend to get 22 - stuff like that. its never 20 out though !

Divorce Referendum

Alanstrainor wrote: »

If you are actually getting 40mpg then it's great! The cost to change your car to a diesel will completely negate the tiny benefits!

When it comes time to selling it off though surely a second hand diesel would be worth more. Would that not go against the cost of a new diesel.

Alanstrainor

wersal gummage wrote: »

in normal enough driving conditions ???

i've found that it usually says i should be getting say 27 around town and i tend to get 22 - stuff like that. its never 20 out though !

All my driving would be Urban stop start stuff, lots of short runs. It's a crappy 4 speed auto which would play a big role in that figure to be honest.

Alanstrainor

Divorce Referendum wrote: »

When it comes time to selling it off though surely a second hand diesel would be worth more. Would that not go against the cost of a new diesel.

Yeah you could think of it that way, but that means that buying the diesel equivalent of the car the OP has already would be a lot higher. And for the sake of an extra 15 or so miles per gallon it's madness.

wersal gummage

Alanstrainor wrote: »

All my driving would be Urban stop start stuff, lots of short runs. It's a crappy 4 speed auto which would play a big role in that figure to be honest.

well when you find your car, it should give you a combined figure. if you then click on that link it will break it down into urban and extra-urban.

pippip

Websites says i should get 34mpg on my 1.8T

I get low 40's on motorway drive and mid 20s in city

so pretty accurate for my car.

Very much down to style of driving and time of year (i.e. air con always on in the summer)

Divorce Referendum

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Yeah you could think of it that way, but that means that buying the diesel equivalent of the car the OP has already would be a lot higher. And for the sake of an extra 15 or so miles per gallon it's madness.

What do you reckon? About two or three grand?

Alanstrainor

wersal gummage wrote: »

well when you find your car, it should give you a combined figure. if you then click on that link it will break it down into urban and extra-urban.

The urban figure is 32, but that's with the manual transmission i suspect the auto in mine would knock some off that too.

Matt Simis

ottostreet wrote: »

Really? 40mpg is my definition is great fuel economy!

In a slow little 1.2 litre petrol in a small car, its not all that great (pending driving area and style as noted).

wersal gummage

Alanstrainor wrote: »

The urban figure is 32, but that's with the manual transmission i suspect the auto in mine would knock some off that too.

yeah it prob would. surprised they dont have the auto box listed. when you select year car model etc - when you pick the last bit - i think auto is A4 or M5 would mean manual five gear etc.... anyway - its a little closer than 20 off i suppose.

Flesh Gorden

Kar086 wrote: »

I feel I'm always filling the car!! It's a 2009 ford fiesta 1.2 L
Thanks

Small Tank Syndrome?

I work with a woman who has a 1.2 Corsa who used to think the same,
she'd only count time between filling up and was convinced the trip computer was wrong
because her husband didn't fill up as often in his 2 liter petrol A4

took a little bit of maths but mainly pointing out the 25 extra liter capacity in the fuel tank of the Audi

C4Kid

Here are some useful tips that are free to undertake and can contribute to better MPG. The aim of that site is to change Your driving style to get better MPG.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/EM-hypermiling-driving-tips-ecodriving.php

colm1234

to be honest guys until our government decides to stop being such greedy bastards and drop the price of petrol non of us are going to get good fuel economy at the moment im testing fuel from 3 local petrol stations by filling up with only 10 euro from empty resetting the trip meter and seeing the miles i get before empty so far ive done 10 in topaz that got me 70 mile previous I filled in emo and that only got me 57 ive just filled up with esso no result just yet

I might add i drive the same route every day at the same speed all gear changes around 2400revs also gear down when breaking, and car completly empty just for the purpose of my little test lol

ottostreet

colm1234 wrote: »

to be honest guys until our government decides to stop being such greedy bastards and drop the price of petrol non of us are going to get good fuel economy at the moment im testing fuel from 3 local petrol stations by filling up with only 10 euro from empty resetting the trip meter and seeing the miles i get before empty so far ive done 10 in topaz that got me 70 mile previous I filled in emo and that only got me 57 ive just filled up with esso no result just yet

I might add i drive the same route every day at the same speed all gear changes around 2400revs also gear down when breaking, and car completly empty just for the purpose of my little test lol

Well, we'll always have the same fuel economy as long as we're driving the same car! We'll just get less petrol for our dosh!

beazee

Kar086 wrote: »

I was told today that on average my car does 40 miles to the gallon

According to this site 87 different (mostly German) users do between 5.99 - 8.96 l/100km (averaging 7.06 l/100km).
Which calculates to: 47mpg - 32mpg (avg: 40mpg).

Low thirties to high forties - plenty room for improvement. Try some hypermiling tricks. They let me get from low to high thirties doing mostly in town.

Matt Simis

colm1234 wrote: »

to be honest guys until our government decides to stop being such greedy bastards and drop the price of petrol non of us are going to get good fuel economy

Fuel Economy is a rating of efficiency of the amount of work done per unit of fuel. It has nothing to do with the cost per litre. If you keep counting fuel by the value (a tenners worth) you will find it utterly impossible to compare Petrol stations as you are trying to do.

zilog_jones

Alanstrainor wrote: »

The MPG you do will depend entirely on how you drive. The next time you fill up the tank, reset the odometer and see how many miles you get until it's more or less empty. Then you can figure out your mpg.

A more accurate way of doing this is to fill the tank, reset the trip counter, then when you go to refill make a record of the amount of petrol you've taken from the pump (you have to fill it again), then you'll know exactly (more or less) how much fuel you've used. There's websites like fuelly.com and www.spritmonitor.de/en/ that will do the maths for you.

Eric Cartman

depends on what type of driver you are and cars you buy , im a lead foot who likes large 4x4's , i consider 25mpg average and 30mpg spectacular (diesel)