Anyone not know / care about their MPG?
Discussion
Never know or take any notice of it on any car I've owned. After a long trip around Europe for instance I sometimes try to remember how much fuel I've put in but give up after a couple of minutes.
I do notice that where people always used to say "How fast does it go?" they are now much more likely to say "How much petrol does it use?".
I do notice that where people always used to say "How fast does it go?" they are now much more likely to say "How much petrol does it use?".
donkmeister said:
I would say that any petrolhead knows the useable size of their fuel tank, and the range that will get them in various scenarios. I.e. cruise, pootle, mixed hoon, full hoon, and therefore knows their mpg even if they don't bang on about it.
donkmeister said:
I'm yet to meet a petrolhead (in person) who doesn't know the above..
You will have met one if we ever meet 
Not that I knew the MPG (low 20's I would imagine) but I only ever knew my Westfield with a small tank would empty it in around 80 miles if being worked really hard.
I used to keep large cans of fuel in the garage for the odd blat.
On anything else, I honestly couldn't tell you. As someone also mentioned, I pay no attention to the price of fuel, yet I know people who will drive five miles out of their way because it's 2p cheaper a litre.
My lack of attention / caring is probably due to the fact that if I find myself in a petrol station, I obviously need petrol and have to pay for it regardless. But then if I need bread, I am happy to buy that from a petrol station for a price that would make careful shoppers cry.
I know fuel is expensive compared to the 'old days', but that's about it.
However, as I said at the start, I would still get something "Better on fuel" over something terrible if I had to have one car and had to drive large distances every day. I still wouldn't ever be able to tell you exactly how good it would be, though.
Nanook said:
M1C said:
This thread comes across as a bit "ugga bugga me not care about mpg, me drive big fast car, me REAL petrolhead"
I'm a petrolhead, i am interested in mpg too. You can be both!
You can be. I'm a petrolhead, i am interested in mpg too. You can be both!
But I'm not.
I live 8 miles from the place I work at.
I used to live further away, I used to have more of an interest in fuel economy, but these days I really don't. I use maybe £35 of super unleaded a week, not enough to get excited about it.
Only reason I knew what it was is I had to figure it out as the little needle which goes down to 16 (I think its 16) was always wedged below that. Wanted to know out of curiousity really, wasnt bothered by what it was.
I care enough about mpg to drive economically, but not enough to calculate actual mpg between fuel stops. At one point I did try to make an effort to record mileage on my fuel receipts, but I quickly got bored. I occasionally glance at the trip computer to see what it thinks is going on, usually it's somewhere between 45-50mpg which is fine by me. On a motorway I'll cruise at 70, conditions permitting, which I reckon is a good blend of economy and journey time.
No not really. I knew both my petrol E39's (2.8 and 3.0 Sport) would like a drink, especially being autos. Around town who cares about mpg? Surely it doesn't matter what mpg a car does around town, which mine mostly did.
That's not to say I wasn't impressed with the MPG they were capable of. The 528i once averaged 42 mpg on a 200 mile round trip to London, and I'd get about 37 mpg out of the 530i on similar runs.
That's not to say I wasn't impressed with the MPG they were capable of. The 528i once averaged 42 mpg on a 200 mile round trip to London, and I'd get about 37 mpg out of the 530i on similar runs.
tuffer said:
My Diesel X5 goes a long way between fill ups and costs a lot, my 911 goes a short way and costs a reasonable amount.
We do get about 550-600 miles from our X5 3.0sd, but the trip computer is showing a very efficient 21.7mpg combined, which is very far off the claimed combined mpg of 34.4mpg! We don't bother though, we just fill it up when needed and its never too often, which is fine for us. However, our XC90, which is much bigger, does seem to get about 24-27mpg combined, which is much more impressive considering it is 13 years old now.The (now retired) E39 did get about 16-18mpg on the work run, which was only 7 miles a day, and it thus led to filling up every 4 days, which wasn't impressive. Had amazing motorway economy, but was retired of motorways a very long time ago.
Digby said:
But not once have I ever deduced an issue from MPG figures.
Running rich, running lean, misfire, bogging down, rough idle, hesitancy, sticking caliper etc.....all recognisable to a petrolhead, especially if they enjoy tinkering, surely?
Perhaps, had I not noticed or ignored certain issues, I would eventually have started to think I was filling up more, but it hasn't happened yet.
It would lead me to ask what kinds of problems those who do base the condition of their engines on MPG figures are facing.
And how accurate would it be anyway? I could get 50+ mpg showing constantly on the dash of my 330D, a half inch press of the pedal would see that drop in to the 30's. You would have to base it on the exact same journey and conditions, with the exact same amount of stop starts, the exact same traffic conditions, exact same inputs over the distance...
Inclined to agree. Jotting down mpg all the time in an attempt to analyse engine performance and detect potential issues is a little bit 'Clive from Human Resources'. To try and state that you can't be a petrolhead unless you do that is somewhat risible. Running rich, running lean, misfire, bogging down, rough idle, hesitancy, sticking caliper etc.....all recognisable to a petrolhead, especially if they enjoy tinkering, surely?
Perhaps, had I not noticed or ignored certain issues, I would eventually have started to think I was filling up more, but it hasn't happened yet.
It would lead me to ask what kinds of problems those who do base the condition of their engines on MPG figures are facing.
And how accurate would it be anyway? I could get 50+ mpg showing constantly on the dash of my 330D, a half inch press of the pedal would see that drop in to the 30's. You would have to base it on the exact same journey and conditions, with the exact same amount of stop starts, the exact same traffic conditions, exact same inputs over the distance...
Whichever car I use it doesn't get out of start up cycle, or at least not up to oil and water temps (3 mile nursery run before someone says "walk"), so I'm guessing they are about ~15-20mpg.
One has a full trip computer, eco gauge, etc, the other just a fuel gauge. I don't know how much I spend on fuel.
My ex father in law fastidiously noted down mileage and gallons/litres bought.
This was kept in a note pad in the glove box.
Reading this thread it seems that a lot of car enthusiasts couldn't really give a monkeys how much they spend on fuel. Or would rather not know.
Does a fat person calculate how much money they spend on food?
This was kept in a note pad in the glove box.
Reading this thread it seems that a lot of car enthusiasts couldn't really give a monkeys how much they spend on fuel. Or would rather not know.
Does a fat person calculate how much money they spend on food?
I know what it is for both my own car & my company car. I don't care about either. My TVR is 20mpg or less if I cared about economy I would get an electric milkfloat float car like a leaf.
My company changed our fuel claim policy where they pay for all the fuel & I buy back private miles at 10p/mile so there is absolutely no incentive to drive economically or fill it up with the cheapest fuel I can find. I much preferred the old system of using the HMRC claim rates as I could make enough each month if I drove carefully for a tank of Optimax for the TVR.
My company changed our fuel claim policy where they pay for all the fuel & I buy back private miles at 10p/mile so there is absolutely no incentive to drive economically or fill it up with the cheapest fuel I can find. I much preferred the old system of using the HMRC claim rates as I could make enough each month if I drove carefully for a tank of Optimax for the TVR.
Surely this has to depend on what car a driver has, and what the driver uses that particular car for. My Passat diesel is used for long distance heavy load jobs, and returns around 900/1000 miles a tankful of mixed urban and motorway driving depending on load.
My crossflow Caterham is doing well if it gets 17 to 18 mpg. I would not expect the Caterham to do what the Passat can, nor the Passat to do what the Caterham can. Once a person has bought a particular vehicle, they should just use it in the way it was intended. If I buy a 7.2 litre V12, I know it is not going to achieve good mpg, but if that is the car I want, I would just have to accept its mpg figures as part of the deal.
My crossflow Caterham is doing well if it gets 17 to 18 mpg. I would not expect the Caterham to do what the Passat can, nor the Passat to do what the Caterham can. Once a person has bought a particular vehicle, they should just use it in the way it was intended. If I buy a 7.2 litre V12, I know it is not going to achieve good mpg, but if that is the car I want, I would just have to accept its mpg figures as part of the deal.
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