Car returned from MOT showing 24.7mpg over 11.1 miles...
Discussion
Looking for a bit of advice here. Booked my car into a main dealer for it's MOT and asked them to collect and drop off my car from my office as it saves me time and I don't need a car during the day so a courtesy car is a waste of time.
Before the car was collected I reset the trip computer. When I got the car back, it had done 11.1 miles, which is roughly the right distance to and from the dealership. However the average mpg was 24.7. My car is a 1.6 petrol Civic, and driving carefully I can get 40-42mpg, normal driving in traffic at rush hour and the odd blast up a dual carriageway during the week gets 33-35mph. So the young lad who picked up and returned my car must really have been ragging it get it down to 24mpg!
Now the question - do I complain? I'm not happy with my car being driven hard from cold (no way it will have warmed up in 5 miles) by someone I don't know, and to get that mpg I would actually have to try bloody hard! It was a young lad that picked it up who was telling me about his S3 and I would feel guilty if he lost his job over it (not that I would probably ever find out) but I'm not entirely sure whether to ring the dealer and complain.
Before the car was collected I reset the trip computer. When I got the car back, it had done 11.1 miles, which is roughly the right distance to and from the dealership. However the average mpg was 24.7. My car is a 1.6 petrol Civic, and driving carefully I can get 40-42mpg, normal driving in traffic at rush hour and the odd blast up a dual carriageway during the week gets 33-35mph. So the young lad who picked up and returned my car must really have been ragging it get it down to 24mpg!
Now the question - do I complain? I'm not happy with my car being driven hard from cold (no way it will have warmed up in 5 miles) by someone I don't know, and to get that mpg I would actually have to try bloody hard! It was a young lad that picked it up who was telling me about his S3 and I would feel guilty if he lost his job over it (not that I would probably ever find out) but I'm not entirely sure whether to ring the dealer and complain.
Kiltox said:
Bear in mind that the trip computer is fairly inaccurate over short distances and that even just moving the car around at the garage can mean it's averaging single figure MPG without actually going anywhere.
Good point. How much of the fuel would have been used with the car idling? I.e. MOT emissions test.TTwiggy said:
Some of us can only dream of 24.7 mpg...
True! But some of us can only dream of only dreaming of 24.7mpg...It's made worse by the fact that I told the guy that it had a brake light out (I had only found out the previous day) and it would need to be replaced before the MOT, he didn't and so it was failed the first time. No extra charge but annoying nonetheless.
And they did'nt wash it - last time it was serviced they "washed it", returning it covered in bird s
t and mud on the interior. This time they didn't bother...ETA: I hadn't thought about idling during the test...see this is why I asked before I complained!
There have been several similiar stories like this on PistonHeads lately and yes it is concerning, especially the ones where cars have gone in for a service or work done and they obviously have been taken home for the weekend.
I would be most annoyed at this as our cars are very personal to us and we treat them with care only for some T**T to rag them about and risk smashing them up.
My own dilema is that i have been restoring a very special car for just over 3 years now and have put in many many hours of work and need to take it in shortly for some body prep and respray which means it will have to be left with a garage for some time, something i am not to keen on and will certainly have to disable the car engine or some other way of making sure it stays in it's place.
Complain, yes i would !!
Martyn
ETA
Sorry sigs are not allowed.
I would be most annoyed at this as our cars are very personal to us and we treat them with care only for some T**T to rag them about and risk smashing them up.
My own dilema is that i have been restoring a very special car for just over 3 years now and have put in many many hours of work and need to take it in shortly for some body prep and respray which means it will have to be left with a garage for some time, something i am not to keen on and will certainly have to disable the car engine or some other way of making sure it stays in it's place.
Complain, yes i would !!
Martyn
ETA
Sorry sigs are not allowed.
Edited by Big Al. on Tuesday 22 March 20:11
Kiltox said:
Bear in mind that the trip computer is fairly inaccurate over short distances and that even just moving the car around at the garage can mean it's averaging single figure MPG without actually going anywhere.
I'd go with this. The figure you're seeing doesn't prove anything.As far as 'courtesy washes' etc go, I wouldn't bother with the main dealer any more. At least you won't be paying for extras you don't really want and only sometimes get.
Martyn-123 said:
There have been several similiar stories like this on PistonHeads lately and yes it is concerning, especially the ones where cars have gone in for a service or work done and they obviously have been taken home for the weekend.
I would be most annoyed at this as our cars are very personal to us and we treat them with care only for some T**T to rag them about and risk smashing them up.
My own dilema is that i have been restoring a very special car for just over 3 years now and have put in many many hours of work and need to take it in shortly for some body prep and respray which means it will have to be left with a garage for some time, something i am not to keen on and will certainly have to disable the car engine or some other way of making sure it stays in it's place.
Complain, yes i would !!
Martyn
Seriously, you'd complain because the car had done a lowish (but not terrible)mpg (verified by an inaccurate gauge) on a short journey that had a long period of sitting idle/being warmed up in between?I would be most annoyed at this as our cars are very personal to us and we treat them with care only for some T**T to rag them about and risk smashing them up.
My own dilema is that i have been restoring a very special car for just over 3 years now and have put in many many hours of work and need to take it in shortly for some body prep and respray which means it will have to be left with a garage for some time, something i am not to keen on and will certainly have to disable the car engine or some other way of making sure it stays in it's place.
Complain, yes i would !!
Martyn
This is why I'm glad I don't have to deal with customers.
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