Fuel Consumption
 

This isn't really a topic that JW's known for and few would care but recently I've been keeping track & comparing my actual fuel consumption vs manufacturer's published MPG/KPL. The difference is a bit concerning. For example a '01 C-Class 200 Kompressor 'matic sedan is said to do 32.1MPG/13.7KPL but my experience has mine pegged at 15.3-17.6MPG/6.5-7.5KPL. This makes it pretty much half of what it should do. It's almost as bad as the Evo!

Would humidity & temperature have an influence?

To be honest it's best not to get to concerned about fuel consumption or it will become more important to you than driving itself! 8)

Yes, fuel costs a ridiculous amount of money and consumption is not a major issue in my little car, but you still have to enjoy every last gallon as much as possible.. or buy a 1 cylinder diesel engined Smart car :D

I keep track of my mpg, and I manage better mpg on both the highway and in the city than the EPA's estimate, even when I am not easy with the throttle.

city/highway
EPA: 22/29mpg

Me: 24-25/32-34mpg

I don't think I have ever managed to get 22mpg...I guess those EPA testers floor it a lot. ;)

Now that gas prices are starting to get a little high in the U.S. (everyone here is complaining about it, despite the fact the prices are still lower than most if not all of Europe) it makes me glad I have a reasonably fuel efficient car. :D

My SAAB computer says I am getting 26.2 MP(UK)G* Not bad for a tuned automatic that gets driven in the city most days IMO. This is the average over the last 1000miles or so (since i last reset the trip computer). The saab computer is supposed to be a little optimistic, but its not that far out.

Before I upgraded the software on the car I was getting about 28MPG.

*MP(UK)G = UK Gallons, UK gallons are 20% bigger than US gallons. Yes I know I buy petrol from the 'gas' station in US gals but UK gallon MPG means more to me.

If I press reset on the display at 55-60MPH I get about 43 MPG., IIRC, but that will only stay constant if you don't accelerate or hit a hill!

the dodge ram i drive once in a while does abour 15 miles to the gallon, this is driving slow, with no hurry at all. stepping on it i have seen 9 miles to te gallon no, i think i ve seen 8.
this is due to a biig thirsty 5.7 V8 HEMI :D

^ when I first moved to the US I was going to buy a Ford 150 Lightning. Fuel consumption on a long test drive (I topped off the tank) put me right off. 10MPG!

transam, i used to own a Saab 9000 turbo w/5 speed a while ago, and experienced the same thing....

with a 17.9 gal tank, i never once filled more then 15.8 gallons in it (i usually stayed in the red on the gas guage for a few weeks) my average consumption was about 550-600 miles per tank (34.8-38mpg) and hit similar constant velocity instantaneous mileage at 65 mph (2800 revs about)

i now average about 14 mpg in my Jeep... but i get about 21-22mpg highway, which is right on with the sticker

I've read somewhere that the manufacturer's published data are based on tests carried out on a machine similar to a dyno... which is apparently why it doesn't necessarily equate to the actual figures.

Whether or not that's true, I have no idea.

Dude thanks for pointing out the diff of UK & US gallons! I got the manufacturer fuel consumption for a UK site. A UK mile is still a US mile?


Manufacturer's stated is now 32.1MP(UK)G/11.4KPL

What Manufacturers say is what you could do if you drive only highway and dont ever go over 2k revs. That would be the only way to get very close to the suggested MPG consumption. On the other hand, if you live in the city and do several stops and drive like I do....

http://img67.exs.cx/img67/1849/mpg3rg.th.jpg

This is what I get. (According to Infiniti, I should do 38 I think but Im doing 9 to 13)

I hate driving like an old lady so I must pay a lot =/

BTW this is US Galons and yes 1 mile is 1 mile anywhere.

Like nthfinity said, they are done on a dyno in a labo. Those test are mandatory and imposed by the government. They are introduced to retrieve the emissions of a certain vehicle and its fuel consumption. Via this way the government can find out if a vehicle complies with the current emission standards.

I don't really know the US situation, but in Europe manufacturers have to publicise those figures in their brochures. They may not publicise other figures. The problem with those tests is the fact they aren't really accurate. The reason is those test don't ask really hard accelerations like in real life. I've uploaded a combined ECE/MVEG test cycle. It consists out of 4 'in city' cycles and one 'out of the city' cycle. As you can see, you can’t call those acceleration times fast :D So if your car isn't underpowered, those test figures are lower than in real life situations. Also the car manufacturers know this and engineer their cars so that they’re running really eco friendly in the regimes tested by those mandatory test cycles, so they don’t have to put costly exhaust after treatment systems onto their cars to comply with the emission standards.

http://img168.exs.cx/img168/1148/ecemveg8ky.th.jpg

Yes Evo, a UK Mile = a US Mile

In fact a US fluid ounce = a UK fluid ounce (fl oz - a measurement of liquid)

While the standard units are the same, in the UK there are 20 fl oz in a pint and in the US there are 16 fl oz in a pint.

Of course, 8 pints = 1 gallon so the 'difference' carries forward...

A question for you guys:How do you transform m per gallons in liters/100km?There is a formula?

1 mpg (US) = 235 l/100 km
1 mpg (UK) = 282 l/100 km


so for example 30 mpg (US) = 235 l/100 km / 30 = 7,83 l/100 km

You can also use google calculator to compute for imperial/us mpg to kpl and vice versa.

For UK: 1 mile per imperial gallon to kpl
For US: 1 mile per gallon to kpl

It also works with l/100km to kpl or imperial/us mpg

When I was in the army in Stavanger, I had a 3,0l '93 Scorpio GLXi with 280.000km on the clock, to drive back and forth on leave. Other than long milage, it was in mint condition

I bought HALO sparkplugs and a K&N filter (both which are said to be fuel conserving) and improved fuel consumption from 13,65 l/100km to 10,20 l/100km (09,96 at the best) Was measured over a distance of 300km (Stavanger-Grimstad)

I think our 95 Aero gets something like 20 mpg. Although, on the motorway it is much better (obviously not hooning along like a loony). I'll double check the computer next time I am in it.

Didn't know that. I've been always counting with 235. Couldn't they make an agreement ? :)

Thanks for the enlightenment.

LOL - 30mpg.. ;) if I cruise in 6th at 60mph - maybe... :P

I get roughly 11 mpg lately in the T-bird and 17-20 in the Pathfinder.

The worst I have ever seen is 9mpg... after a really wild run through the woods with the rev counter pegged at 5500rpm and above.. ;)

My mom has a Toyota Yaris 1.0 69hp, so that's really no drag racer :mrgreen: but it does have fantastic fuel comsumption for a petrol engine. When my mom or sister drives it, it's usually something like 5,8l/100km, and about one third in the city. When I drive it, its more like 6,8l/100km. But that according to the onboard computer which is usually a bit wrong, you have to add about 0.2l/100km. The same goes for my dads car, there you have to add about 0.3l/100km.

When you really try to minimize the consumption in my moms car you get something like 4.5l/100km. And that's not too bad IMO.

last month when I was in the States we rent a Ford Expedition, with that V8 5.4 engine

the engine is great, 300 hp and plenty of torque, but man does it burn gallons of gas at each rev... after 2000 miles of basically road only and 75 mph average, we got a 13 mpg... each couple of days was time to fill the tank, paying 2.20 at least

and from our cars here in Brazil the worst fuel consumption we get is from the peugeot 607... 16 l/100 km / 15 mpg, which is also really bad for a V6 engine... but hey we only get traffic jams here, so this might move consumption up a bit

It _is_ possible in my experience in the TA, I drove back from Noor'leans to Fort Worth. For reasons I wont bore you with I did 6th gear at around 55-65 all the way, around 1800rpms IIRC.

That's what I ended up doing to get my 29mpg... :)

One day I did a fuel consumption excercise - and Inoted if you shift 1500rpm in every gear and never rev over 1800rpm you can get 23mpg in the urban cycle... :)

I swear the entire day I was still faster than a Honda Civic... :lol:

Pray for what you got...
I drive an 3.16i, in city just about 9L/100km..

but in my goood country 1 litre of 98 Octane unleaded fuel is $1,8.

Also the avarage salary of a man for a year is $4500.. Hmm.. over $30K in Switzerland n heard fuel is cheaper there..

Just pray for what you got :)

The trick for low consumption isn't keeping the speed steady, but keeping the gass pedal as steady as possible.

A computer doesn't think as good as a human brain. When you hit a small hill the computer "floors it" after loosing some speed, while I accelerate a bit before the hill, and accepts to loose some speed in the hill. That makes quite a difference on the consumption.

When your country joins the EU you have free rights to live and work in any EU country... :wink: By the way, we pay about the same for fuel in the UK...

I quite fancy Spain in 2006, myself.

haha we will never do that.. or. they will never let us :)
Luckyly I still can do that, live and work.. but I dont wanna.

you pay about the same, but you niether earn the same, nor pay the same tax.
oo my poor country..... :)
cant imagine I am driving a TransAm in here...


by the way.. witha Ford Explorer eddie bauer(?) eddition 5.0L
In computer ı saw 99L/100km a lot of times :)
but I am nearly sure about the consumption. sth like 40L..... OMG!!!

I'm the first to admit the flaws of the little Yaris, but that doesn't mean I agree with you. For it's price & it's purpose it's quite a good car. I'll summerize what I think of the car.

FOR:
- My mom got it for about 10.000euro, that's cheap!
- The 1.0 hasn't got much torque but it is very hapy to rev up to the redline.
- It's very roomy inside for a small car. I can take 4 friends of mine with me when we go out, and they're not small. Try finding a bigger car for that price.
- It may not look like a quality car (too much plastic) but it is, like all Toyota's
- For a petrol engine it's very very economic
- When it came out it was the safest small car

AGAINST:
- plastic interior + ugly interior color
- it's got the torque of a lawn mower. If you've got five people in the car, don't dare to drop it below 3000rpm.
- It's far from a drivers car, the steering is too light. The suspension is very very soft, so the car rolls a lot in corners. And the seating position is quite high
- the rear view mirror blocks your frontal vision a bit (at least when you're as tall as me)
- I don't like the digital speedometer

YOUR COMMENT:
- the shifter was weird as fuck: it's true that the shifter is very light but the throw is quite short so you can shift pretty fast. The only weird thing is that the clutch pedal is very deep.
- the quality of the car was ass: I've abused the little Yaris often, it has now got 70.000km, and we haven't had any problems yet.
- it was slowwww: true
- smalllll : try finding a bigger car for the money (and Lada doesn't count as a car :) )
- did i mention it was crap : a crappy drivers car for sure, a crappy car... don't think so. BTW, it's also the Top Gear's team favorite little car!!

Yaris - had one as a rental car here in the US (called an Echo here) it was an automatic but must have been a 1.5, got up to 110mph much quicker than I expected it to, at which point the acceleration started to tail off. Good little cars IMHO...

lol, i get 17-24 mpg regularly in my lexus. it has a fairly large tank so i can go about 350 miles.