Honda Civic 1.6 iDtec - Poor Economy of 2014 cars

Honda Civic 1.6 iDtec - Poor Economy of 2014 cars

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Discussion

Jifen

Original Poster:

91 posts

229 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
quotequote all
As the owner of a 2014 Civic 1.6 iDtec I have been very underwhelmed by the 48 mpg it is consistently averaging.

I did hold the belief that it would improve with age but after checking various 2013 cars of spritmonitor it is quite clear that they show no improvement whatsoever as their ODO climbs.

I have an open complaint case with Honda at the moment and are collecting VIN# for 2013 and 2014 1.6 iDtec cars, together with their average mpg and ODO readings (from those who have kept such records).

This information will be treated with the strictest confidence and only shared with Honda

If you own one then please PM me with your details (as above) or if you have friends with one then please point them in my direction.

Edited by Jifen on Wednesday 21st May 21:43

anonymous-user

54 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
quotequote all
What are you expecting it to return? It's only rated at just over 60mpg in the stupid EU tests so nigh-on 50 in real driving seems pretty good.

Willy Nilly

12,511 posts

167 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
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My Jazz tells me it's doing just about 49mpg and freak gusts of wind keep blowing above the speed limit. Your Civic will likely do mental MPG if you drive it in the right way.

Jifen

Original Poster:

91 posts

229 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
quotequote all
Claimed mpg is 78.5 (combined), I am aware these are acheived in relatively artificial rolling road / lab conditions.

After months of research before buying and as Tonka indicates my real world and reasonable expectation were 64 mpg from a very carefully driven car doing non city centre mixed driving - backed up by a pessimistic setting of whatcars 'true mpg' which stated 64.2 mpg.

alistair1234

1,131 posts

146 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
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Must be your driving. I got 53mpg today over 190 miles in my 123D.

Jifen

Original Poster:

91 posts

229 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
quotequote all
Just looked at fuelly and there is something wrong with the maths on there...

It says 53.5 mpg for a 50 l capacity car (that you will struggle to empty below 44 litres) reportedly doing 590 miles - If I pro rata that has to be nearer 63 mpg

Ha Ha - It's not my right foot ! Honest Officer :-)

jackh707

2,126 posts

156 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
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Well the 2.2 unit is a favourite among hyper milers. People on those forums can get 80+ out of them.

The 1.6 should in theoretical be better!

Matt Clay

100 posts

119 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
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Civinfo 9G forums are rather lacking on threads relating to poor mpg in the 1.6 Diesel. They're mainly raving about it.

Jifen

Original Poster:

91 posts

229 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
quotequote all
Matt Clay said:
Civinfo 9G forums are rather lacking on threads relating to poor mpg in the 1.6 Diesel. They're mainly raving about it.
From the data I have collected already Matt, there is clearly no issues with the mpg on 2013 cars [VIN
SHHFK37?0DU######] (The 10 cars I have details on have a combined average of 68 mpg)

It is only the 2014 cars that seem to be struggling [VIN SHHFK37?0EU######], the four cars I have details on are averaging 48 mpg - 40% Less !!!

Hence the reason I want feedback from more 2014 car owners

rallycross

12,787 posts

237 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
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When I was using a (horrible) Golf GTiD 170 DSG it was averaging about 27-29 mpg. The offical stats said it should be 47.9 combined.

It comes down to how you are driving it and in what conditions.

If you can afford it, dont drive a diesel!

Matt Clay

100 posts

119 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
quotequote all
Jifen said:
From the data I have collected already Matt, there is clearly no issues with the mpg on 2013 cars [VIN
SHHFK37?0DU######] (The 10 cars I have details on have a combined average of 68 mpg)

It is only the 2014 cars that seem to be struggling [VIN SHHFK37?0EU######], the four cars I have details on are averaging 48 mpg - 40% Less !!!

Hence the reason I want feedback from more 2014 car owners
Ah I see, sorry to hear that. Didn't quite get that from your first post.

Maybe they accidentally fitted the 2.2? Mine averages 48 wink

Northernchimp

1,282 posts

132 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
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Swapped an Ibiza 1.6 TDI that averaged 48mpg for the 2.0 TDI which easily gets 60. I think it's due to its lower stress levels at like for like speeds, maybe you should have got a 2.2.

Jifen

Original Poster:

91 posts

229 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
Matt Clay said:
Maybe they accidentally fitted the 2.2? Mine averages 48 wink
Ha Ha, I have data on about fifteen 2.2's and they are comfortably averaging 48+ (many averaging 55).

The 2013 cars are fine(averaging 68 in 'real world' driving) I think Honda have either changed a major engine component of been playing with the ECU MAP and EGR usage on the 2014 car - I obviously hope it's the latter and hope it can be resolved.

LouD86

3,279 posts

153 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
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Without being grumpy, are you sure its not down to your driving? As a Salesmen, we used to have customers complain all the time about MPG on vehicles not getting whats claimed. I set a route, and would go with the customer so they drove it. I would then drive the same route, with the customer in the car, and normally gain 20% fuel economy, if not more!

How are things like your tyre pressures? Boot empty?

Jifen

Original Poster:

91 posts

229 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
LouD86 said:
Without being grumpy, are you sure its not down to your driving? As a Salesmen, we used to have customers complain all the time about MPG on vehicles not getting whats claimed. I set a route, and would go with the customer so they drove it. I would then drive the same route, with the customer in the car, and normally gain 20% fuel economy, if not more!

How are things like your tyre pressures? Boot empty?
Not grumpy at all, they are all reasonable (but obvious) questions you would discount at an early stage and I did.

In my 11th week of ownership now, I reported not happy at week 2 after doing research which shows the car's mpg does not improve with age (which was my belief for the first 2 weeks).

Have covered 3500 miles in that time so it's well used, mixed journeys and all driven with eco efforts, I am a 47 y/o skilled driver (have the certs to prove it) driven 30 years with the last 27 on a clean license and only interested in saving money these days - hence buying this car.

Never carried any load, at most 1 passenger (or 2 kids), but driver only 80% of time. No spare wheel, no jack, tyre pressures perfect to book, ECO mode with no aircon on very gentle throttle openings.

Given all the 2013 owners i have spoken to I am in no doubt I am comparing eggs with eggs

conkerman

3,298 posts

135 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
Some observations.

1, Buying a nearly new car seems an odd way to save money. Surely an older Focus or similar would be a better way to go. Man maths? smile

2, Try accelerating using around 1/2-2/3 throttle seems to work. I get about 55mpg from my Exeo and 50MPG from a 2.0TDCi focus, and I don't hang about too much.

3, Ask the dealer to reflash the ECU with the latest version of the map.




elephantstone

2,176 posts

157 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
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Shocker..

Person buys 1.6 diesel econobox and complains it is not returning the quoted MPG.


thatdude

2,655 posts

127 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
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On my daily commute (7 miles of mixed town driving, 18 miles of M25 / A1) I'm managing about 48 mpg from my 2005 1.6 petrol civic. Usually sit at about 65-70 mph on the NSL stretches

C.A.R.

3,967 posts

188 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
Does seem pretty piss-poor for something which clearly isn't going to set the world alight with its' performance. My knackered old 2.0 Pug will do 55mpg all day long - more on longer journeys, and it's had a remap.

Seems like you're going to be doing around 17k miles a year so it does make sense to get a diesel over a petrol, but the one you've bought isn't saving you much.

What I've found from hire cars is the modern 1.6d engines (Ford / Peugeot / Citroen etc all the same) require a good thrashing on motorways to keep up with traffic which sends the MPG into a nose-dive. A bigger-engined car may not be as good for the environment but it would be under so much less stress at motorway / A-road speeds it would probably return more on average.

My experience with the 1.6D cars hasn't been that good so far, the best we've sampled being the latest 308 HDi with the 6-speed, the worst a Kia C'EEd. The worst part is that these hateful little eco boxes are so common now what with CO2 emissions that the market will be absolutely littered with them in years to come, making 'good' cars very difficult to find.

Jifen

Original Poster:

91 posts

229 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
C.A.R. said:
Does seem pretty piss-poor for something which clearly isn't going to set the world alight with its' performance. My knackered old 2.0 Pug will do 55mpg all day long - more on longer journeys, and it's had a remap.

Seems like you're going to be doing around 17k miles a year so it does make sense to get a diesel over a petrol, but the one you've bought isn't saving you much.

What I've found from hire cars is the modern 1.6d engines (Ford / Peugeot / Citroen etc all the same) require a good thrashing on motorways to keep up with traffic which sends the MPG into a nose-dive. A bigger-engined car may not be as good for the environment but it would be under so much less stress at motorway / A-road speeds it would probably return more on average.

My experience with the 1.6D cars hasn't been that good so far, the best we've sampled being the latest 308 HDi with the 6-speed, the worst a Kia C'EEd. The worst part is that these hateful little eco boxes are so common now what with CO2 emissions that the market will be absolutely littered with them in years to come, making 'good' cars very difficult to find.
It is pi$$-poor

I took the wife's Pug 207 1.4 petrol to work (which is notably thirsty) and drove it how I drive the Civic (very gently + coast down hills)and even it managed 47 mpg !!!

Don't be fooled though - they are not an ordinary 1.6D as they have armfulls of torque and are not your stereotypical 1.6D slug, they have similar torque to the 2.2D

Edited by Jifen on Thursday 22 May 17:43