Fiat 500 Twinair fuel economy

Fiat 500 Twinair fuel economy

Author
Discussion

Alfahorn

7,758 posts

207 months

Wednesday 25th January 2012
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Who are 'they' ?

I drove the Twinair for week and achieved 53 mpg, which I think more than reasonable.


crostonian

2,427 posts

171 months

Thursday 26th January 2012
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My mother's averages around 46 mpg, was only 38 mpg when running in. She does lots of short journeys and the thing hardly gets warm. Her old 1.2 did 50 mpg from day one but was much slower and cost more to tax

Rrroro

388 posts

154 months

Friday 27th January 2012
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Bought my TA back in November and have since covered just under 2,500 miles. The car seems to be averaging 40-45mpg, and that's a mixture of A/B road and motorway 80mph cruises. Great little car, planning to keep it for a while. The mpg wasn't a big factor in deciding to buy the car (it was more the 0 congestion charge, road tax and low insurance and income tax liability). However, must admit I did think mpg would be much better given Fiat's claims so it is a bit disappointing in that regard.

surrey7er

3,925 posts

268 months

Saturday 28th January 2012
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Rrroro said:
Bought my TA back in November and have since covered just under 2,500 miles. The car seems to be averaging 40-45mpg, and that's a mixture of A/B road and motorway 80mph cruises. Great little car, planning to keep it for a while. The mpg wasn't a big factor in deciding to buy the car (it was more the 0 congestion charge, road tax and low insurance and income tax liability). However, must admit I did think mpg would be much better given Fiat's claims so it is a bit disappointing in that regard.
How do find the TA on the mway? Is it ok or a bit harsh?


Rrroro

388 posts

154 months

Saturday 28th January 2012
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surrey7er said:
Rrroro said:
Bought my TA back in November and have since covered just under 2,500 miles. The car seems to be averaging 40-45mpg, and that's a mixture of A/B road and motorway 80mph cruises. Great little car, planning to keep it for a while. The mpg wasn't a big factor in deciding to buy the car (it was more the 0 congestion charge, road tax and low insurance and income tax liability). However, must admit I did think mpg would be much better given Fiat's claims so it is a bit disappointing in that regard.
How do find the TA on the mway? Is it ok or a bit harsh?
Absolutely fine, it will happily cruise at 80/90mph all day. Very stable at those speeds, engine isnt as loud or obtrussive as you might think, although tyre noise can get a bit tiresome. Suspension is quite soft and seats are comfy too. Fortunately it has a decent stereo so i just whack on some tunes and dont even notice the noise :-)

surrey7er

3,925 posts

268 months

Tuesday 31st January 2012
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Well, I've just part-exed my Honda accord tourer (huge) for a 500 twinair plus with duallogic (tiny). Can't wait for delivery!

Rrroro

388 posts

154 months

Wednesday 1st February 2012
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Excellent! I'd be interested to know what the dual logic is like. I quite fancied it but never test drove one - if its any good then may get that next time round!

surrey7er

3,925 posts

268 months

Thursday 2nd February 2012
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On the test drive the car hadn't been 'PDI'd' whatever that means. Rev limit of 3500.

Changes felt pretty smooth though.

Will post up when I've had a proper go!

Save Ferris

2,683 posts

212 months

Thursday 2nd February 2012
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surrey7er said:
On the test drive the car hadn't been 'PDI'd' whatever that means. Rev limit of 3500.

Changes felt pretty smooth though.

Will post up when I've had a proper go!
PDI = Pre Delivery Inspection smile

surrey7er

3,925 posts

268 months

Thursday 2nd February 2012
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yeah! that makes sense I guess! I thought it was sthg far more technical...

CatJ

9,586 posts

242 months

Sunday 19th February 2012
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Should have a twinair coming in early March. Quite looking forward to it.

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Monday 20th February 2012
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A friends wife has a Fiat 500 twin air, and she gets about 38mpg from it. They aren't overly concerned as it's fun to drive and she's only doing about 8k miles year, but it's certainly no where near the official figures. The tailpipe is always black (even after a long run) and the back of the car gets sooted up very quickly, which suggests it's running quite rich but it's been back to Fiat dealers a few times and they have said it's perfectly normal.

Rrroro

388 posts

154 months

Monday 20th February 2012
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I've now done about 3200 miles (since buying new last November), and I'm averaging about 47mpg, which is good, but still way off the claims. Mpg improved when I realised that I didn't need to rev much to make half-decent progress. The way I'm achieving this mpg figure is changing up around 2-2,500 rpm max in every gear in normal driving - obviously changing at higher rev ranges if I NEED better acceleration. I used the Eco button once when I bought the car but haven't used it since, it was as if it switched off 1 of the 2 cylinders, it was pointless and made the car too weedy to be useable. I wonder if the key to higher mpg is using Eco, but I'm not willing to sacrifice that much performance in order to achieve higher mpg figures. Overall a great fun little car though, it's really the only thing I find disappointing about it!

Rrroro

388 posts

154 months

Monday 20th February 2012
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Mr2Mike said:
A friends wife has a Fiat 500 twin air, and she gets about 38mpg from it. They aren't overly concerned as it's fun to drive and she's only doing about 8k miles year, but it's certainly no where near the official figures. The tailpipe is always black (even after a long run) and the back of the car gets sooted up very quickly, which suggests it's running quite rich but it's been back to Fiat dealers a few times and they have said it's perfectly normal.
I forgot to add that I'm not sure the above sooting is normal at all - I don't experience anything of the sort, and my TiwnAir's tailpipe is only a bit black. It could come down to driving style - if she's only getting 38mpg then I reckon she's probably driving hers a lot harder than I drive mine, hence the extra soot, etc. Maybe suggest driving for a month as per my previous post (ie changing gear at 2-2500 rpm) and see if that makes any difference? Hope this helps!

IanMorewood

4,309 posts

247 months

Monday 20th February 2012
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I drove one for 2 days, computer showed 38mpg average mind I was spanking it. Makes a interesting noise and is an involving drive for a little hatch.

surrey7er

3,925 posts

268 months

Monday 20th February 2012
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CatJ said:
Should have a twinair coming in early March. Quite looking forward to it.
Ours is allegedly arriving in March too. Also looking forward, though I think my wife will be monopolising the keys tbh!

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Tuesday 21st February 2012
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Rrroro said:
I forgot to add that I'm not sure the above sooting is normal at all - I don't experience anything of the sort, and my TiwnAir's tailpipe is only a bit black. It could come down to driving style - if she's only getting 38mpg then I reckon she's probably driving hers a lot harder than I drive mine, hence the extra soot, etc. Maybe suggest driving for a month as per my previous post (ie changing gear at 2-2500 rpm) and see if that makes any difference? Hope this helps!
She was getting nearly the same from a 2.0 TSi Sirocco, so I don't think her driving is particularly uneconomical.

It did previously have a fault that Fiat fixed, it was massively down on power and fuel consumption increased dramatically. After they fixed it, it was back up to it's original mediocre numbers.

stegt4

44 posts

173 months

Thursday 23rd February 2012
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Alfahorn said:
I'm a Fiat salesman. I love the Twinair, it's my favourite version of the 500. The Twinair has a £1200 premium over the 1.2, therefore I tend to sell more 1.2's as the justification for buying a Twinair is similar to that of a diesel.
Alfahorn said:
I drove the Twinair for week and achieved 53 mpg, which I think more than reasonable.
Really? Wow! You should be teaching everyone else to drive them!
A salesman who attempts to achieve reasonable fuel economy? nah!


Fantuzzi

3,297 posts

145 months

Friday 24th February 2012
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Anyone else heard of a lady in the United states suing honda for the misrepresentation of mpgs.

Surely Fiat are going to get a few complaints? Shame really given that its showing the future of motoring, cars need to get lighter engines need to be smaller (and turbo charged as ford are doing)

Any one run a Abarth 500? The offical fuel figures are in the low 40s, would be odd to think that if this is correct the eco car is harder on the wallet than the range topper!


Rrroro

388 posts

154 months

Saturday 25th February 2012
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It's not just about the fuel economy re the Abarth. TwinAir purchase price, insurance, road tax are all a lot cheaper and there is no congestion charge for those of us living in central London. All those costs outweigh the fuel argument for me personally. However having said that I am mildly miffed that the mpg is nowhere near the claims. When buying the car I did think I would easily achieve around mid-50's, maybe 60, but generally achieving about 45ish which is way off (after about 3300 miles since new)