1996 straight six or v8?
1996 straight six or v8?
Author
Discussion

napoli101

Original Poster:

111 posts

198 months

Wednesday 9th May 2012
quotequote all
which would be better on fuel econemy, straight six 3.2 or v8 3.2?

Jaguar steve

9,232 posts

236 months

Thursday 10th May 2012
quotequote all
Driven thoughtfully on long cross country trips at reasonable speeds both cars will return in the region of 26/28 MPG. Holding a steady 70 MPH the 6 cyl car trip computer indicates an average consumption of 32 and the V8 34MPG. The 6 cyl car has identical gearing to the V8 in top (around 30MPH/1000RPM) but it's less powerfull and is a lot heavier than the V8. It's also hampered by a crude 4 speed gearbox that only locks the torque converter up in 4th gear at speeds over 50MPH. Under this speed you're driving round in third gear all the time...

In general use, especially at higher speeds, when making progress or when heavily laden the V8 is more economical and has much better and more useable performance than the earlier 6 cyl car. With 4 adults + luggage touring round Wales my old 6cyl car managed just over 19MPG. On an almost identical weekend away a couple of year later my current V8 did 24.9.

Last time I checked with a brim to brim fill from the same pump over some 400 gentle but not slow miles I calculated 27.2 MPG from my current V8

nikolarun

74 posts

187 months

Friday 11th May 2012
quotequote all
The AJ16 6 cyl 4.0 is pretty good as well smile I get about 440 miles on a full tank on the motorway doing a bit more than 70 smile