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Post by Tim on Jan 9, 2024 16:24:33 GMT
I know there was a fuel economy thread somewhere but I can't find it! For Christmas Mrs Tim and I drove down to the Czech Republic and for once on a long journey I remembered to zero the trip. Results are 2,635 miles at 55.2mph (48 hours and 53 minutes) and average consumption of 46.6mpg. To be honest I'm slightly disappointed by the latter as I remember Racing getting into the 40s with his 340i - I would've expected a bit better from a diesel. Having said that we did do a couple of hundred miles down there on local roads/through town and we did detour to the Lake District on the way home for a couple of days so these probably knocked a little bit off the economy. I wish I could also say that sitting on the speed limiter on the Autobahn dented economy but we never went above 160 (km/h  ) because a) I kept forgetting to check the speed rating on the winter tyres and b) there was a bit of a whine from what sounded like the front left which made me suspect a wheel bearing at end of life and I didn't want it to fail at maximum attack speeds! I'm also conscious that diesel economy is usually a bit worse in cold weather and winter tyres have always resulted in slightly lower economy than summer ones. I'll probably have a chance to put that latter claim to the test later this year with another Czech road trip. |
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Post by alf on Jan 9, 2024 16:42:06 GMT
Sounds excellent! Whats the Czech connection? It's a great way to drive for sure, I was annoyed with myself for not going the additional 5k or so into the Czech Republic when I was in the Saxon Swiss national park, I didn't realise until later, how close I was! Do it again but boot it - we might have to ban you if the MPG is better  |
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Post by Tim on Jan 10, 2024 8:43:05 GMT
We were visiting our 7 year old niece and her mum (my brother-in-law's ex-partner).
Last Christmas was a bit of a shitshow so the excuse to get away was welcome.
On the ecomommy front I actually thought it would be better because we spent a lot of time at 50mph in roadworks and the roads were pretty quiet so there were no pre-roadwork queues as you'd get here.
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Economy 7
Jan 10, 2024 16:29:40 GMT
via mobile
Post by racingteatray on Jan 10, 2024 16:29:40 GMT
Ah, I think you are not comparing apples with apples. I used to get mid-40s on the 440i on the motorway runs to and from Italy, not overall.
By contrast, our Mini Cooper (1.5 petrol) gave us an average of 43.9mpg for our Christmas travels over a probably similar overall distance (we did London to Fano, then up to Courmayeur and back down to Fano, plus all the interim trips here and there). And that’s nearly what you might term “fast driving”. I can report that you can do at least 175kph in our Mini without particularly noticing (Mrs M didn’t).
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Post by Tim on Jan 10, 2024 17:00:00 GMT
This was from leaving the house on 18th December to returning home on 2nd January so just the duration of us being away.
In normal use its been doing about 43.5.
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Post by johnc on Jan 10, 2024 17:19:22 GMT
Tim, on a good day the best I can get starts with a 3 and probably not a very high one either. Glad you had a good trip - that is a lot of driving!
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Post by Tim on Jan 10, 2024 17:35:39 GMT
Racing, do you mean you only measured 40+ for the motorway sections so if you included, say, driving from Central London to wherever the motorway starts your average would be lower?
John, 30 something for a chunky 4wd saloon with 600ish BHP is almost miraculous.
The best I ever got out of my lighter, less powerful M5 was 30.?? on a 60mph cruise up an empty M90.
Most of the driving on this trip was on very quiet motorways as we left the house at about 1 am to get to the Eurotunnel for a 4pm train. The M74/M6 has always been pretty quiet for us.
Evening driving across France and Belgium was reasonably quiet too and the continental lane discipline assists with being able to keep a decent average speed.
The roads coming back were quiet too and we weren't travelling when there was any chaos caused by Eurostar and Tunnel striking.
It WAS irritating to land back in the UK and travel along the empty 4 lane section of the M25 at midnight and see 75% of the fe cars that were on it cruising along in Lane 3 at less than 70mph.
Are they just too special to use lane 1?
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Post by Martin on Jan 10, 2024 17:47:10 GMT
An old one but a good one….showing V8 petrol engined cars can be surprisingly efficient. The 750 weighs about the same as an E39 M5 and has a bit more power iirc.  |
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Post by alf on Jan 10, 2024 17:50:40 GMT
Yep many of my European trips end the same way - indeed I have the 2.5 hour segment from the tunnel back home, usually very late, crap roads with speed cameras and roadworks everywhere, and the M20 and M25 have apalling drivers. I think the way cars like John's M5, Martin's 750, and my XFR's can top 30 is miraculous - take out the Autobahn bits without speed limits and I could easily average 32 for the whole multi-day trip into Europe, and occasionally saw as much as below for the last car. It's incredidle given what else they can do. at motorway cruising speeds, performance cars really narrow the gap on supposedly more economical ones.... I haven't driven the Alfa enough to work out how much better it is, exactly - it is a bit. Also a track from one of my longer trips!!   |
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Post by Martin on Jan 10, 2024 18:03:12 GMT
They do love a long journey. This was the best full tank mpg on the 750, I guess it would have included a 300 mile round trip (at c40mpg) as I did that journey regularly at that time, but will have included local journeys into the office. The obc would have been 38.something as it was 5 to 6% optimistic. The Golf is much more accurate (0.5%) as is the Panamera (2%) Look at the price of full fat petrol back in 2019  |
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Post by Tim on Jan 11, 2024 9:06:27 GMT
Here's the photo of the trip readout.  Apologies to the car cleaning fetishists for the dust on the screen, etc - we live on the side of a hill and when its windy it blows straight in off the fields. Drives Mrs Tim mad that she can dust in the house and not long after there's a layer of dust again! |
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Post by racingteatray on Jan 11, 2024 13:13:03 GMT
Racing, do you mean you only measured 40+ for the motorway sections so if you included, say, driving from Central London to wherever the motorway starts your average would be lower? Yes. I meant on eg the motorway schlepp from Calais to Lugano, which is circa 1,000kms of motorway. There the 440i would happily give me 40+, and could, for example, get from Basel to Calais (around 750kms or 470 miles) on a tankful. And that's notwithstanding driving quite fast. The Mini gave me 44mpg for the whole three weeks. But probably doesn't do much better on the motorway, because it can almost do Basel-Calais despite only having a 45 litre tank (versus 60 litres in the BMW) which suggests an average of around 45mpg at a fast motorway clip. |
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Post by Grampa on Feb 2, 2024 17:00:52 GMT
I don't think I've ever had a car that gets into 40mpg territory - the old Mini used to be close, the Cooper S does more like mid thirties - the Scirocco gets into low thirties and I rejoice if the Nissan gets into the 20's!
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Post by racingteatray on Feb 2, 2024 19:47:58 GMT
The Macan averaged 30mpg on a run to East Sussex and back last weekend and says it has averaged 25mpg since new.
As for the Fiat, it does so few miles that you'd need the patience of Job to work it out, and I've never bothered.
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Post by racingteatray on Mar 22, 2024 19:46:45 GMT
This was today’s figure for a run from the NEC to Suffolk:  |
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Economy 7
Mar 22, 2024 20:21:03 GMT
via mobile
Post by Roadrunner on Mar 22, 2024 20:21:03 GMT
This was today’s figure for a run from the NEC to Suffolk: That's a decent figure. I am taking the Benz on a very similar journey from south Warwickshire to Aldeburgh and Orford tomorrow. Will be interesting to compare the stats. |
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Post by LandieMark on Mar 22, 2024 21:36:38 GMT
The last major trip in the Range Rover to the lakes and back towing and then to Matthewsons and back resulted in 24mpg average.
Heading to Staffordshire for the new van it averaged 36mpg mainly on Voodoo Cruise. I think that is pretty good for the type of vehicle.
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Economy 7
Mar 23, 2024 20:08:05 GMT
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Post by clunes on Mar 23, 2024 20:08:05 GMT
I had to do a along run in the RCF last weekend - Chalfonts to Truro and back - about 280miles each way plus a little extra around Truro and averaged just under 34mpg for the near 600miles (average speed for the motorway miles was about 65)
Not amazing but pretty decent for a 5L V8
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Post by johnc on Apr 5, 2024 15:22:19 GMT
We had to go up to Dingwall for a funeral this week and then across to Rosemarkie for the wake afterwards.
All in 387 miles at 31.7mpg - rather a lot of that was on cruise control because of the relentless average speed cameras. Also the placing of camera vans just at the end of dual carriageway sections as people are slowing back down to 60 feels a bit underhand. I reckon there were more Police monitoring speed etc on the A9 than were investigating crimes in the whole of Highland!
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Post by Roadrunner on Apr 5, 2024 15:48:49 GMT
This has reminded me of my comment above regarding our visit to Suffolk a couple of weeks ago. We left later than planned on the outward journey, so the first A road and B road sections were a bit more 'on it' than I would normally be with wife and daughter on-board. Settled down into cruise control mode for the A421 and A14. 41.6 MPG. The journey back included some scenic Suffolk lanes and villages, then a pleasant non-dual carriageway A road amble back west. 42.8 MPG. These are fairly typical figures for the Benz on a run. A recent A road and motorway trip to Bradford produced this, which again is typical for the type of journey  A long motorway trip with the cruise set at 75 will get it up to around 47 MPG. Very happy with that for the type of car it is. |
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Post by Martin on Apr 5, 2024 17:16:29 GMT
That is pretty good, but it is a diesel. I’ll just leave this reminder of what a 4.4 litre V8 petrol engine can do….at a decent average speed too   |
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Economy 7
Apr 5, 2024 22:17:19 GMT
via mobile
Post by Alex on Apr 5, 2024 22:17:19 GMT
That's about what the Octavia manages with a 1.4 turbo so Porsches hybrid system must be a tad more effective than Skodas!
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Post by Martin on Apr 6, 2024 6:38:00 GMT
That's about what the Octavia manages with a 1.4 turbo so Porsches hybrid system must be a tad more effective than Skodas! That was the 750i. The Panamera does 36-37mpg on the motorway when the battery is empty. |
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Post by Alex on Apr 6, 2024 7:52:18 GMT
That's about what the Octavia manages with a 1.4 turbo so Porsches hybrid system must be a tad more effective than Skodas! That was the 750i. The Panamera does 36-37mpg on the motorway when the battery is empty. That's still pretty good if doubling the cylinder count, tripling the capacity and putting it in a heavier car only results in a 10mpg deficit. Perhaps it's more a poor showing from the VAG plug in hybrid power train. I've got colleagues with Octavias as well as A3 and Golf PHEVs and they're getting similar figures. |
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Post by racingteatray on Apr 7, 2024 8:06:36 GMT
That is pretty good, but it is a diesel. I’ll just leave this reminder of what a 4.4 litre V8 petrol engine can do….at a decent average speed too Yes BMW achieves a level of cruising parsimony with its larger engines that is apparently unobtainable witchcraft for other manufacturers. Much of that methinks is the 8spd ZF auto but then again other makes use that box too without the same results. I did a run from Mantova to Fano before Easter in the Mini (1.5 turbo triple), a distance of around 170 miles and nearly all motorway, and used roughly one-third of a 45 litre tank, so that's something like 50mpg, albeit at an average speed of around 70mph. |
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Post by Martin on Apr 7, 2024 9:04:10 GMT
Maybe EfficientDynamics wasn’t just marketing guff! Relatively light weight for a car if its size, high gearing, plus decent aerodynamics and it lowered at motorway speeds…all helps.
My son’s MINI has the same engine and even with 3 x 6 footers on board it would easily do over 50mpg on the motorway. The Golf will do 45mpg (have seen more) though, so equally impressive.
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Post by racingteatray on Apr 7, 2024 13:14:28 GMT
I am of course talking about Italian motorways - the cruising speed is, shall we say, more spirited...
We were also three up with luggage, but I confess I don't drive with even half an eye on economy. Mrs Racing eeks far better mpg figures out of any given car than I do.
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Post by Martin on May 7, 2024 18:33:07 GMT
Not really a post about economy, but not worth starting a new one…. As I’m sure I’ll have mentioned before, I hate having to fill up and with a reduced mileage and longer range, it’s thankfully happening a lot less often as it used to. I was so tempted to drive another 8.5 miles to get the number, but didn’t have the time on Friday. Add in the 50 miles petrol and 16 mile electric range and that’s nicely over 1,000 miles. I’ve had a few more trips into head office in the last month which is a 80-90% electric journey, that’s helped the range but there were still a few 150 mile + journeys in the month. I used £29 of electricity in the month, so it works out at 13.9p a mile which is the lowest I’ve seen (average is 16.5p over 13,500miles). At 14p a mile, a normal petrol engined car would have to average 50mpg to cost the same to run. The next tank won’t be as good, having spent the weekend in Norfolk and enjoyed some fairly quiet roads at times. The journey we did on Sunday morning was low 20s mpg (despite having some charge and a number of 30mph zones), but a lot of fun and got a “I love this car” from Lindsay.  |
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Post by Tim on May 8, 2024 7:38:42 GMT
Porsche driver boasts about economy........ Would never have imagined that 10 years ago |
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) because a) I kept forgetting to check the speed rating on the winter tyres and b) there was a bit of a whine from what sounded like the front left which made me suspect a wheel bearing at end of life and I didn't want it to fail at maximum attack speeds!
