Fuel Economy

[JayEss]

Just done 312 miles on a full tank which has just taken 39.54 litres to refill. That gives me an mpg of about 36, but the display on the dash thought it was 46. Are they normally that inaccurate?

Not too impressed with the 36mpg. I've been pretty light with the right foot and at least half of it was on the motorway. Is that likely to improve? It's only done about 1000 miles so far.

[mikeverso]

I got 400 miles from my first tank, very light right foot. took 50 litres to fill approx. Anyway worked out to 41mpg, display was around 47.

[RodM]

Just done 312 miles on a full tank which has just taken 39.54 litres to refill. That gives me an mpg of about 36, but the display on the dash thought it was 46. Are they normally that inaccurate?

Not too impressed with the 36mpg. I've been pretty light with the right foot and at least half of it was on the motorway. Is that likely to improve? It's only done about 1000 miles so far.

Diesel engines do take a while to loosen up so you will see an improvement over time.

As far as the mpg meter goes it does sound a good way off. Our Verso seems to measure 2-3 mpg over. For example, On a recent long run it registered 43mpg but measuring by the tank gave 41. In town driving it registered 39mpg but returned an actual 36. This is with a 1.8 petrol model so it is possible that it is easier to measure petrol consumption compared to diesel.

My other car is a Yaris and the mpg average appears to be practically spot on. I see a difference of +/- 1mpg over the actual measured so I would put this down more to variation at the pump than the guage.

[hertsnminds]

Having just noticed a step change in how far a tank can take the car I would say it takes at least 9,000 miles for the engine to get into its stride. Used to struggle to get 450 miles from a tank, now with 10,000 miles on the clock and just after the first service 500 - 530 miles from a tank is no problem.

[bobbo7070]

The guage on my 5 year old T3 is miles out (literally) and always has been.

It constantly reads around 43 to the gallon but I actually get about 35...

[IainM]

Having just noticed a step change in how far a tank can take the car I would say it takes at least 9,000 miles for the engine to get into its stride. Used to struggle to get 450 miles from a tank, now with 10,000 miles on the clock and just after the first service 500 - 530 miles from a tank is no problem.

What kind of driving/use was that? I filled mine (2.2D) this morning & on the last tank of premium diesel (46L to fill) it did 398 miles - so about 38.5 mpg. Usage was a mixture with at least 100 miles being on Motorways at sensible speeds (ie. not thrashing it). Car has done about 18K miles & had the ECU replaced (they tried to flash/update the software & "bricked" it so it had a whole new one!). It also recently had the EGR valve cleaned out & has since been on a 400mile round trip up the motorway (averaged about 44mpg). The tyres are set at the correct pressure (36psi).

I can see I could get 500 miles out of a tank - but only by driving up the motorway on cruise control at about 60 all day! We seem to see huge disparity between different people's fuel consumption on the D4D's. I reckon mine will do between 380 & 450 out of a tank depending on what I'm doing with it from full to the brim down to yellow light which is invariably around 45-47 litres & yet we see people reporting 500 & even 600 miles out of a tank. When I spoke to Toyota about it they reckoned around 40mpg real world with 45-47 on the motorway & 50mpg if you drive like yr granny - and that's about what I'm getting.

The last 3 or 4 tankfulls in mine have been on Premium Diesel. I am going to switch back to standard Diesel next & see what happens - and then see what I get from Supermarket DIesel after that.

[hertsnminds]

Around town only motoring and I can get 450 miles from a tank with no problem (usually closer to 480-490) On a long motorway trip (over 300 miles) then reaching 550 miles from a tank is achievable without trying (70mph, sixth gear about 2,100 - 2,200 revs, cruise control where possible). Mixed driving town/motorway then I usually get around the 500 miles per tank. These figures have only been after the first 9,000 miles. Before that I was getting between 400 and 450 miles from a tank.

[Blurt]

My 2.2 D4d will do about low to mid thirties around town, and around 44 on the motorway. This with 2 adults / 2 children and the usual buggy and other stuff. Whilst the motorway figure is fine, I've always found the town figure low. That's on a 2 year old car with 10,000 miles on the clock.

[cabcurtains]

Ours does 44-45 mostly in town the dispay shows 48/49. The recent tuning box/panel filter has moved things from 41.

Dont forget to manually reset the display after each fill up!

[JayEss]

Ours does 44-45 mostly in town the dispay shows 48/49. The recent tuning box/panel filter has moved things from 41.

Dont forget to manually reset the display after each fill up!

I thought it automatically reset after a fill up?

[cabcurtains]

Ours does 44-45 mostly in town the dispay shows 48/49. The recent tuning box/panel filter has moved things from 41.

Dont forget to manually reset the display after each fill up!

I thought it automatically reset after a fill up?

The range will but not the others as far as i'm aware, hold down Disp on each display to reset each of the counters.

[HoneyBear1980]

My SR D4D 08 plate is just coming up to 18.5k miles and seems to have loosened up. After getting over 600 miles on a tank full a few weeks ago it now seems to be doing it on a regular basis - got 620 miles on the last fill up. Trip computer read 74 mpg average but I calculated a slightly more modest 61.7mpg.

Mine seems to do better mpg around town (when not in traffic) than it does on the motorway. 45 mph in 5th seems to be its sweet spot as even on gentle inclines the mpg computer rarely goes below 99.9mpg.

I plan to switch the Dunlop tyres (fronts only done 18.5k and down to 3mm) soon to get my usual Michelin Energy tyres. Hopefully with these on I might be able to push for 700 miles on a tank. On previous cars I have always found they made quite a difference.

[hertsnminds]

Be interesting to hear your experiences once you have changed tyres. Not just on MPG but on handling as well.

[IainM]

My SR D4D 08 plate is just coming up to 18.5k miles and seems to have loosened up. After getting over 600 miles on a tank full a few weeks ago it now seems to be doing it on a regular basis - got 620 miles on the last fill up. Trip computer read 74 mpg average but I calculated a slightly more modest 61.7mpg.

Mine seems to do better mpg around town (when not in traffic) than it does on the motorway. 45 mph in 5th seems to be its sweet spot as even on gentle inclines the mpg computer rarely goes below 99.9mpg.

I plan to switch the Dunlop tyres (fronts only done 18.5k and down to 3mm) soon to get my usual Michelin Energy tyres. Hopefully with these on I might be able to push for 700 miles on a tank. On previous cars I have always found they made quite a difference.

Hmmmmm... am I alone in thinking its seems quite improbable that you are getting nearly 50% more out of a tank than most other people and indeed significantly more than the manufacturer's own figures?

I do not doubt your calculations, but do you think its possible your odometer is screwed up & not reading correctly? It might be an idea to do some test runs along some known distances to be sure, because if it is wrong you are racking up mileage on the Odo at a far faster rate than you should be (with the obvious effect on the car's value).

My last tank of Diesel on a mixture of urban & motorway & not caning it gave around 40mpg

I.

[blue verso 56]

2-2 diesel Verso

I get about 46 mpg in everyday mixed driving !! on a long journey recently I got 64 mpg the car has about 40,000 miles on the clock and these figures are by the odometer.

I have found the mpg has improved after 30,000 miles

[hertsnminds]

On paper the Verso has an extra urban MPG of 53.3 with a tank of 55 litres this would give a range of about 644 miles even at the combined MPG figure of 44.8 MPG the range is around 542 miles so I would say 600 miles on a tank should be achievable.

I know from another owners forum that there are owners who can achieve way above manufacturer stated MPG and range on a single tank. People living in East Anglia seem to have an advantage with flatter terrain.

[IainM]

On paper the Verso has an extra urban MPG of 53.3 with a tank of 55 litres this would give a range of about 644 miles even at the combined MPG figure of 44.8 MPG the range is around 542 miles so I would say 600 miles on a tank should be achievable.

I know from another owners forum that there are owners who can achieve way above manufacturer stated MPG and range on a single tank. People living in East Anglia seem to have an advantage with flatter terrain.

Mathematically, if you run it dry I suppose that's possible. I run mine down to when the fuel warning light comes on + 10 miles or so & that means it needs maybe 46/47L to fill it - and that's "brimming" it.

On a diesel with a 55L tank I think that's low enough to take it on a general basis - I don't think it would do the fuel system much good to run it dry - so I call that a "tankful"

To get 600 miles out of 47l you'd need to be averaging nearly 58mpg. That's way, way more than most people seem to be getting. A huge amount more in percentage terms.

Mine has done just shy of 20K miles & still has the Dunlop tyres on it. We will be going on a 1000 mile+ schlep down some French motorways towing a trailer with bikes on top of it in the next few weeks so I will be interested to see what it returns - I'll be surprised if it does 35mpg!

Also bear in mind that the speedos on these cars over-read horribly (this is the second one I've had). At 70mph on the clock my old car was doing 63mph on the Sat Nav - this one does maybe 64mph - so when people say they are getting 50mpg driving at 70mph, if that's based on the speedo then you are actually getting 50mpg at 63mph!!

[*Rich*]

Also bear in mind that the speedos on these cars over-read horribly (this is the second one I've had). At 70mph on the clock my old car was doing 63mph on the Sat Nav - this one does maybe 64mph - so when people say they are getting 50mpg driving at 70mph, if that's based on the speedo then you are actually getting 50mpg at 63mph!!

Good point, for my car to be doing 70mph, the Speedometer reads 80mph!

[IainM]

Also bear in mind that the speedos on these cars over-read horribly (this is the second one I've had). At 70mph on the clock my old car was doing 63mph on the Sat Nav - this one does maybe 64mph - so when people say they are getting 50mpg driving at 70mph, if that's based on the speedo then you are actually getting 50mpg at 63mph!!

Good point, for my car to be doing 70mph, the Speedometer reads 80mph!

I know. I'd be quite tempted to "upsize" the tyres a step or two when I change them to make it read more accurately. Current tyres are 205x55 - but actually, according to this, http://www.kouki.co.uk/utilities/visual-tyre-size-calculator , you'd have to put a mental tyre size on to get close to wiping out the 10% over read. Changing to 215x60s (which would look like balloons!) would only sort out about half of it.

If you really are reading 80 at 70 then your car is outside the standard 10% tolerance & you should get it checked. I got my 1st verso checked & of course they said it was fine & within the standar10% tolerance.

The thing I can't work out though is that despite the speedo being wildly out, the Odo doesn't seem to bad. It certainly isn't over-reading by 10%

[IainM]

Filled mine again this morning - 39.04 L & 355miles = 41.18MPG - mixture of urban driving & a some motorway - about 50:50 (mostly driven by my wife with her elderly parents in the car!). Works out to be heading for dead on 500 miles out of a 55L tank if I were to run it dry.

[hertsnminds]

Most miles from a tank = 535.6, most fuel at a fill up = 49.5 litres. Best MPG figure from a tank full of fuel (calculated not trip computer) 51.39, worst MPG figure 36.83.

MPG over 12, 498 miles = 46

[yoast]

Not bad. Did you use the Odometer as the basis for mileage?

If the odometer is 10% off the same 271.695652173913 Gallons woul have taken you 11248.2 miles which would be 41.4 MPG.

From what I have seen: 10% off is almost exactly correct in my Speedometer.

Most miles from a tank = 535.6, most fuel at a fill up = 49.5 litres. Best MPG figure from a tank full of fuel (calculated not trip computer) 51.39, worst MPG figure 36.83.

MPG over 12, 498 miles = 46

[hertsnminds]

Not bad. Did you use the Odometer as the basis for mileage?

Yes, I have no other way to measure how far the car has travelled.

Are you saying the odometer always reads 10% under so a car with 50,000 miles on the clock has actually only travelled 45,000?

[yoast]

No I'm not saying that every car overreports 10%. Apologies if I caused confusion.

With regards to speed: my car (and several others) overreports by about 10%.

If speed is overreported it is not impossible that distance is overreported. There are discussions on the accuracy of the Odometer. The general impression I'm getting is that the Odometer is more accurate than the speedometer (though this is strange in itself).

I just wanted to indicate that if the distance travelled is off, then the mpg's are impacted in comparable percentages. There are odometer accuracy discussions which are in the order of magnitude of a couple of %.

It is a pity the accuracy of the speedometer and odometer is not higher. I think I'll just let the Satnav and Odometer register for a while and compare how much they differ.

Not bad. Did you use the Odometer as the basis for mileage?

Yes, I have no other way to measure how far the car has travelled.

Are you saying the odometer always reads 10% under so a car with 50,000 miles on the clock has actually only travelled 45,000?

[hertsnminds]

OK I have found a few websites discussing the issue and it seems that 4% inaccuracy is deemed OK by manufacturers and US Lawyers.

http://truckandbarter.com/mt/archives/2004...e_accuracy.html

http://www.newsnet5.com/consumer/14535385/detail.html

http://www.caradvice.com.au/1597/honda-odometers-inaccurate/

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-0...eter-usat_x.htm

On the up side it does mean when you are trading in a car with so many miles on the clock you could tell the dealer it has actually done less then the odometer shows, but I doubt they would go for that.

So a car with 50,000 miles on the clock could only have done 48,000 and my MPG figure of 46 could only be 44.16MPG which is close to the combined figure of 44.8MPG stated in the Verso brochure.