What Mpg Are You Really Getting?

[Jeffrz]

Hi,

So far I have had 51, and 52mpg from the tankfuls I have put in. I have a 40 mile varied journey to work about 10 miles M/way 15 miles a roads the rest stop and start. Quite happy with that. I am now trying to be super smooth ang gentle on the throttle and not break 65 on the motorway to see what diff it makes. I may also consider putting V-power in as an experiment. My previous Alfa retirned worse mpg on V-power (?) but my Celice used to get more on V-power!

Ho hum

Jeffrz

Well,

My economical driving returned 58.5 miles. 444 miles from 34.5 litres. Moving over to V-power to see if that improves.

Cheers

Jeffrz

[walfice]

Thats good economy jeffrz, keep us posted if v-power improves your economy. Im considering switching to v-power, my calculations say for it to make financial sense its got to give an extra 25-30 miles (not including other benefits such as it being better and cleaner for your engine)

[adilmon]

V power is made using GTL (gas to liquid) technology, where short gas molecules are joined together to form longer useable molecules. It means that the V power diesel molecules will be a more consistent size. However non-GTL fuel (from fractional distillation) has a greater variety of molecule lengths

Although GTL fuel molecules are more consistent size, larger molecules contain more calories per mole. This is the only reason I can think of why I get different mpg between Shell V power and BP ultimate (diesel). The different I got was about 50 miles per tank

I don't know if petrol has the same discrepancy in mpg between V Power and ultimate. But, I don't think the difference will be significant because GTL is easier to do with the relatively short petrol molecule

[Cokeman]

...... Have put in 34 litres......

Wow, you ran that low on fuel. :o The tank capacity is only 35 Litres!

Date : speedo : miles : cost : litres : avg mpg

08/12/2007 5499 368 £36.32 36.00 46.47

01/01/2008 5852 353 £34.31 34.00 47.20

02/02/2008 6212 360 £35.67 35.00 46.76

20/02/2008 6642 430 £38.52 37.80 51.71

24/03/2008 7025 383 £38.44 37.00 47.06

34 litres leaves plenty left really, as you can see I regularly squeeze more than that in, but varying driving techniques, (3 of us now drive the car at different times, 1 who has just passed her test), but still averaging around 47.8 which isn't at all bad. Longer runs definately better though, for obvious reasons. I might try the V-challenge to see exactly what difference it will make. (I know I am a bit sad keeping records like this, but I have done it since I bought the car to monitor just how good it is) These are all from full tank to alerting beep, plus a bit to the nearest filling station. :)

[PaulGP]

Have just filled up for the first time from new (full tank of standard unleaded from dealer) - have got about 52mpg - mainly A-roads & some town & not doing more than 65mph(as still running in). Am very pleased so far. Have put in 34 litres of v-power today & will look to improve on the first tank.

Have done about 120 miles since filling up yesterday & the guage is still on 6 bars - is it usual to get this much or should I be looking for more?

[PaulGP]

Has anyone tried Tesco 99 petrol?

[walfice]

My first bar usually goes out around 110-120 miles, wish all of them did that lol

[PaulGP]

Have just filled up for the first time from new (full tank of standard unleaded from dealer) - have got about 52mpg - mainly A-roads & some town & not doing more than 65mph(as still running in). Am very pleased so far. Have put in 34 litres of v-power today & will look to improve on the first tank.

Have done about 120 miles since filling up yesterday & the guage is still on 6 bars - is it usual to get this much or should I be looking for more?

Got 131 miles before the first bar went. How does this compare?

[Cokeman]

This fill I managed to get 113 miles on the first bar, and so far, 201 miles and the second bar has just gone. (Shell std unleaded)

[Projectzip]

150 miles done this weekend which made two bars dissapear. refilled the tank from texaco at 107.9 a litre and put 15 litres back in the tank!!

Still I only have 1700 miles on the clock.

From calculations ive been getting roughly 45 - 50MPG

[froopy]

Just filled up for the first time from new, 33.1 Litres after 329 miles = 45.1 mpg(uk) on Shell standard petrol. MMT box, been driving fairly tamely, mixture of long & short runs.

[PaulGP]

...... Have put in 34 litres......

Wow, you ran that low on fuel.  :o   The tank capacity is only 35 Litres!

Wasn't so brave this time. Filled up after about 25 miles on 2 bars - 27.3 litres of V-power to the brim (prev. filled to the brim) so only used the 27.3L & actually covered 370 miles. To my calculations, this works out to 61.5mpg. I'm pretty pleased with this. The car is now on 891 miles so is well run in. Have been mainly on A/B roads doing runs of between 60-80 miles a time & some town. Not exceeding 70mph very much - will do so more after 1000 miles.

How many miles are you getting out there from the last 2 bars??? I want to let it run down a bit more next time (to get a free Ferrari for 30 litres - missed out this time).

The price of V-power has gone down from the last time I filled up - 3rd April from 112.9 to 111.9. Has anyone else noticed this? It was a different station mind! 

[aygo-bloo]

I have clocked up 312 miles on the trip meter and have just gone down to two bars, so I can let you know next weekend.......... maybe!

[PaulGP]

I have clocked up 312 miles on the trip meter and have just gone down to two bars, so I can let you know next weekend.......... maybe!

Thanks aygo-bloo - look forward to the update.

[aygo-bloo]

I have clocked up 312 miles on the trip meter and have just gone down to two bars, so I can let you know next weekend.......... maybe!

Thanks aygo-bloo - look forward to the update.

UPDATE:

On the way home today the second bar disappeared and the warning buzzer came on; 398 miles done since the the first fill up.

I was lucky enough to find a Shell station within a mile so I put 31.48 Litres in (6.92 Gallons) and this equates to a consumption figure of 57.48 MPG. I have done mainly urban driving with some dual carriage way driving, but always at about 65 MPH due to the engine needing to be run in still. I have not been overly light footed and overall I am quite pleased with the consumption because as the engine loosens up the MPG should improve further. At least I know for sure that there are still 2.5 Litres left in the tank when the last blob flashes!

[PaulGP]

I have clocked up 312 miles on the trip meter and have just gone down to two bars, so I can let you know next weekend.......... maybe!

Thanks aygo-bloo - look forward to the update.

UPDATE:

On the way home today the second bar disappeared and the warning buzzer came on; 398 miles done since the the first fill up.

I was lucky enough to find a Shell station within a mile so I put 31.48 Litres in (6.92 Gallons) and this equates to a consumption figure of 57.48 MPG. I have done mainly urban driving with some dual carriage way driving, but always at about 65 MPH due to the engine needing to be run in still. I have not been overly light footed and overall I am quite pleased with the consumption because as the engine loosens up the MPG should improve further. At least I know for sure that there are still 2.5 Litres left in the tank when the last blob flashes!

You got 86 miles out of the last 2 bars - is that right??

As I said before - when I first filled up on the flasher (petrol station within a mile) I put in 34.1 litres - so less left in the tank than you. Mind, someone previously said they get more than 35 litres in their tank. What petrol were you using last time? I used v-power & got 61mpg.

I don't know yet if the type of petrol makes a difference - some people on this board have recommeded the higher grades. I tend to move up the gears as quickly as possible & leave in 5th wherever I can (over 40mph on a straight road). This was just the way I was taught back in the late 80s - it seems to be working for me. Does anyone else do this???

[aygo-bloo]

Yes, I only got 86 miles out of the last two bars, which just goes to prove that the gauge is not linear in it's output. I also change up early (at the expense of quicker acceleration) and only use 5th above 40 as the car seems to be slightly labouring otherwise.

Oh, And I am only using the basic petrol by Shell.

[Tibsie]

I filled mine up the other day and the first full tank gave me 48.7mpg.

Not quite as good as I have been expecting but not bad at all considering what I was getting in my old car. The only problem is that I've had to fill up relatively early, I was expecting the tank to last me a month but I have done more driving than I had planned. More than just the commute every day.

I haven't tried checking tyre pressures or anything like that yet and I do think I've been gassing it at times so there is still room for improvement.

[PaulGP]

I filled mine up the other day and the first full tank gave me 48.7mpg.

Not quite as good as I have been expecting but not bad at all considering what I was getting in my old car. The only problem is that I've had to fill up relatively early, I was expecting the tank to last me a month but I have done more driving than I had planned. More than just the commute every day.

I haven't tried checking tyre pressures or anything like that yet and I do think I've been gassing it at times so there is still room for improvement.

I got about 52mpg out of the first tankful & 61 out of the second - so yours might improve. I did keep it below 65mph until 600 miles. Am just over 1000 miles now & on my third full tank (5 blobs left) - so getting a good 400+ miles a tank.

[Jeffrz]

Hi,

So far I have had 51, and 52mpg from the tankfuls I have put in. I have a 40 mile varied journey to work about 10 miles M/way 15 miles a roads the rest stop and start. Quite happy with that. I am now trying to be super smooth ang gentle on the throttle and not break 65 on the motorway to see what diff it makes. I may also consider putting V-power in as an experiment. My previous Alfa retirned worse mpg on V-power (?) but my Celice used to get more on V-power!

Ho hum

Jeffrz

Well,

My economical driving returned 58.5 miles. 444 miles from 34.5 litres. Moving over to V-power to see if that improves.

Cheers

Jeffrz

Well - vPower returned 54MPG. Not too impressed as I was being super super careful din't go above 3k or anything like that Fed it another tankful of v-Power in case it takes a while to pick up different fuel?? £1.20/l is a bit pricey for this to be viable though.

All the best

jeffrz

[PaulGP]

I paid £1.11 a litre last time I filled up with v-power - just over a week ago. Does the price vary that much around the country???

[Ullevi]

I paid £1.11 a litre last time I filled up with v-power - just over a week ago. Does the price vary that much around the country???

115.9p per litre in Coventry yesterday,so yes,seems to vary quite a bit!

Unfortunately I haven't noticed V-Power going down in price yet!!

Still,the little red Ferraris are nice

[zakelwe]

Personally I don't think what brand of petrol will help or what quality. Here's what I would do....

For economical driving the following could be considered

1. Reducing your cars weight.

To give slighly better consmuption you probably want to keep the petrol tank only half full. You might also wish to reduce weight by junking any sort of spare tyre, jack and toolkit supplied. In my old Yaris I got rid of the rear seats as well by removing two bolts, but for families this is probably too much hassle ( amazing how big the boot becomes though for the single man! ;) )

2. Use a lighter engine oil and not as much of it.

Yep, get rid of that 20w/50 liquidised bitumen you are currently using and pop in the thinnest totally synthetic oil you can. That will actually be better for your engine in the long term and much reduce drag.

3. Pump up the volume.

Sorry, meant tyres. Run them at maximum allowed pressure ( or possibly a bit over). This will lighten the steering as well for parking but will give you less grip and slightly harsher ride of course. Then when you come to replace them downgrade to a smaller width and fit some recommended as green. No grip but great economy!

4. Learn how to coast.

You've got rid of half your car, you have put the best technical and thinnest oil in your car, you have got 145/75's on at 40psi and just about resisted the temptation to cover up all the panel gaps with silver or black ( Platinum or Black Aygo of course) Duct tape and you are about to drive. The first lesson is the art of coasting. Now your engine has low mechanical drag and your tyres have too, thanks to your efforts, so your car will coast in neutral for miles and miles and miles. Probably. Seriously though, you will be amazed how little speed you can lose on just a medium decline when in neutral. When driving my Yaris on an A road into London I used to be able to do over 1.2 miles on one section at 5am in the morning with no other traffic about. Doing 1 mile at 700rpm saves loads of petrol.

You have to be careful though, there is a time and a place for coasting. The Wrynose or HardKnott pass in the Lake District is not one, neither is in lots of traffic.

5. Learn how to go slowly.

There is a nice equation about mechanical drag and aerodynamical drag. Put simply mechanical drag is more of an issue at low speeds but it only increases in a fairly linear way, where as aerodynamical drag, once it gets really going with increased speed, will pummel your car and it's fuel efficiency into the ground. The government decided a long time ago that 55mph would be a good speed to measure one point of a cars performance for fuel and that gave a big figure and so nowadays people think that driving around that figure is good. But it's not. Actually it's a lot lower than that. I'm not sure on the Aygo but I would say the 40-45mph in top would be the way to go. The other benefit of that would be on the motorway at 45mph you would be getting one back on all those lorry drivers that have, for the last 10 years, pulled out on you in the middle lane doing 70-80mph giving your brakes or high speed lane changing a workout. Now you can sit there in the slow lane doing 45mph whilst two lorries are approaching up the hill doing 56 and 58mph mph respectively and suddenly THEY will have to use their brain to get past you.

My car arrives next week. First thing to be done is the oil change. I'll use the new oil out of it to top up my wifes car so not to be environmentally unfriendly and then I'll let you know how I get on.

Regards

Andy

[walfice]

The oil change won't be necessary, the factory oil is 5w30 fully synthetic, and standard tyres are already a very skinny 155.

[zakelwe]

The oil change won't be necessary, the factory oil is 5w30 fully synthetic, and standard tyres are already a very skinny 155.

Interesting that they put fully synthetic in a 1litre car with 68bhp. Overkill considering the cost of the car to be honest. Can you provide a link for this

in relation to Aygo?

For the tyres 155 is not skinny, you can get a good 135 or 145 that will be far more economical and green for the car if that sort of thing floats your boat. The term"very skinny" only applies to if you "very young". Damn, I have had Cavaliers on 165's and they were considered more than adequate for the time! :D

If you can post the link to the Aygo using fully synth that that would be appreciated and save me some dosh.

Regards

Andy