Grande Punto fuel consumption
Discussion
This is possibly the dullest thread started in a forum that covers Alfas as well as Fiats, but here we go...
One of my mates just bought a Fiat Grande Punto. He went poverty spec, 1.2 engine, but was happy enough. Nice wee car, nippy enough. Anyway, he was complaining about how much fuel it was using. Disturbingly I worked out his consumption to be around 16mpg. Now either he's completely lying/being-stupid about how much fuel he uses, or something is very amiss here.
How in the name of holy hell does a one year old Punto like that much of a drink?
One of my mates just bought a Fiat Grande Punto. He went poverty spec, 1.2 engine, but was happy enough. Nice wee car, nippy enough. Anyway, he was complaining about how much fuel it was using. Disturbingly I worked out his consumption to be around 16mpg. Now either he's completely lying/being-stupid about how much fuel he uses, or something is very amiss here.
How in the name of holy hell does a one year old Punto like that much of a drink?
lionrampant said:
I suppose a 22 mile round trip to and from work (steady cruising on the motorway) each day isn't exactly going to give it a chance to warm up. I just assumed these new fangled tree hugging engines would be past that issue.
Our 1.6 147 (which according to the figures should be less economical than the GP) returned about 30-32 over a similar distance each day, on mostly dual carriageway.So unless they go everywhere in 2nd on the redline, I'd say there's something wrong either with the figures they've given you or with the car.
lionrampant said:
I suppose a 22 mile round trip to and from work (steady cruising on the motorway) each day isn't exactly going to give it a chance to warm up. I just assumed these new fangled tree hugging engines would be past that issue.
That should be fine. How are you working the consumption out? From brimmed tank to brimmed tank?Thanks for the replies guys. Yeah that was my question last night "are you spanking it everywhere or are you just cruising a motorway in 3rd gear?". The rather indignant answer was of course, no. This is a guy who asked how much boot space there was before he asked about the performance stats.
We did the numbers based on him putting in 25 quid each time, and burning all of that per week (he's anything but slack when it comes to details like where his petrol gauge is). He does, at most 125 miles per week. I did it for 100 miles last night, but lets use 125 here:
£25/ 0.899ppl = 27.8 litres
27.8 Litres = 6.11 Imp. Gallons
125miles / 6.11gallons = 20.5 MPG
And the infamous spreadsheet that was posted on Pistonheads way back (that does it all for you) agrees with my numbers. I don't know how he's doing it, but he's doing it nonetheless.
Even if we're slightly off by about a few litres or so (i.e. the needle not exactly on the line), it's still awful consumption. I think we'll have to do a little road trip to see what's really going on.
We did the numbers based on him putting in 25 quid each time, and burning all of that per week (he's anything but slack when it comes to details like where his petrol gauge is). He does, at most 125 miles per week. I did it for 100 miles last night, but lets use 125 here:
£25/ 0.899ppl = 27.8 litres
27.8 Litres = 6.11 Imp. Gallons
125miles / 6.11gallons = 20.5 MPG
And the infamous spreadsheet that was posted on Pistonheads way back (that does it all for you) agrees with my numbers. I don't know how he's doing it, but he's doing it nonetheless.
Even if we're slightly off by about a few litres or so (i.e. the needle not exactly on the line), it's still awful consumption. I think we'll have to do a little road trip to see what's really going on.
Is it something basic like the thermostat being jiggered? Little petrol engines tend to warm up very quickly so if it's not up to temperature after a few minutes that might be worth looking at. Failing that I suggest he gets it plugged into a dealer's diagnostic machine to see if any sensors are down. If he's bunging that much petrol through it he could be wrecking the catalyst.
My bet is either:
1) Stuck open thermostat so its always running cold
2) Lambda probe is up the duff - but he'll be getting an idiot light up
Tell him to take it to an mot station, if it fails on the emissions that'll confirm one or both of the above.
I very much doubt you get sub 20mpg in a fully working one even if you tried
1) Stuck open thermostat so its always running cold
2) Lambda probe is up the duff - but he'll be getting an idiot light up
Tell him to take it to an mot station, if it fails on the emissions that'll confirm one or both of the above.
I very much doubt you get sub 20mpg in a fully working one even if you tried
Keeping with this I regularly drive from Durham to Dover and find
the GP 1.2 rather thirsty! My own car is an alfa 156 2.5 V6 and will
manage to average 30mpg on that run, and thats not hanging around. The
Punto hire cars I use also manage 30 to 31 mpg? Apart from that I rather
like them. The consumption was measured by refilling the tank at my local garage not on the trip computer, I've also driven a fair few different puntos
so its not an isolated case.
the GP 1.2 rather thirsty! My own car is an alfa 156 2.5 V6 and will
manage to average 30mpg on that run, and thats not hanging around. The
Punto hire cars I use also manage 30 to 31 mpg? Apart from that I rather
like them. The consumption was measured by refilling the tank at my local garage not on the trip computer, I've also driven a fair few different puntos
so its not an isolated case.
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