Driving economically
Discussion
I'm amazed what I achieved this morning, I was low on fuel (15 miles remaining) and so I drove like a nun.
I improved the average mpg for the morning commute from the usual 44ish mpg to 60mpg!
I thought I'd get up to 50, but 60! I'm amazed.
So I can believe the real small cars with manual gearboxes can get 70+ mpg.
If I drove like that all the time, I'd get 192 miles extra out of a tank, for nothing, for free.
Then it got me thinking that everyone moans about the price of fuel, but I haven't noticed (including myself) anyone actually driving a little slower to save the pennies.
Strange, how we are not prepared to do this. That's about a 40% increase in fuel economy just by adopting a gentle driving style, and I wasn't even late.
Has anyone else been amazed what a difference driving style can make?
Having said all this, when I had a Jeep, it did 18mpg however I drove it, so maybe it's a diesel thing.
I improved the average mpg for the morning commute from the usual 44ish mpg to 60mpg!
I thought I'd get up to 50, but 60! I'm amazed.
So I can believe the real small cars with manual gearboxes can get 70+ mpg.
If I drove like that all the time, I'd get 192 miles extra out of a tank, for nothing, for free.
Then it got me thinking that everyone moans about the price of fuel, but I haven't noticed (including myself) anyone actually driving a little slower to save the pennies.
Strange, how we are not prepared to do this. That's about a 40% increase in fuel economy just by adopting a gentle driving style, and I wasn't even late.
Has anyone else been amazed what a difference driving style can make?
Having said all this, when I had a Jeep, it did 18mpg however I drove it, so maybe it's a diesel thing.
Yup... my daily runner is a Fiesta 1.6 TDCi, I average 55mpg, but can get it up to 65mpg if I really try!
I did a charity drive last year in a MINI Cooper D, taking it from BMW HQ in Bracknell to John O'Groats on one single tank - 676 miles on 40 litres of derv, the OBC showed over 75mpg average.
I did a charity drive last year in a MINI Cooper D, taking it from BMW HQ in Bracknell to John O'Groats on one single tank - 676 miles on 40 litres of derv, the OBC showed over 75mpg average.
podwin said:
Then it got me thinking that everyone moans about the price of fuel, but I haven't noticed (including myself) anyone actually driving a little slower to save the pennies.
I've noticed people driving slower. They don't usually make savings though as they still accelerate hard, allow their car to labour and brake far too late undoing their good work. Diesels operate at part load far more efficiently than a petrol engine ever can, because of throttling losses. That's the main advantage of the diesel engine in daily use, so yes, to a certain extent it is a diesel thing. Petrols, on the other hand, are most efficient at higher loads at low revs. But most people don't know this or like the idea of it, so it's rare to see good figures out of petrols these days.
That said, in answer to your main question, I think I have seen people trying to take it easier. Motorway speeds have dropped, and on short bursts of dual carriageway people just don't seem to bother topping 50mph.
That said, in answer to your main question, I think I have seen people trying to take it easier. Motorway speeds have dropped, and on short bursts of dual carriageway people just don't seem to bother topping 50mph.
Our problem is hills - lots of them, coupled with lots of rural roads.
It's resulting in slightly scary mpg from the Camper - yes it weighs over 2.5 tonnes but many people get well over 30mpg. My long term average (over 2000 miles from new) is 25. Trying hard to better that and it's improving as it runs in.
I simply can't drive the BM like a granny. I'm too addicted to the grin caused by flooring it. One day I might grow up.
It's resulting in slightly scary mpg from the Camper - yes it weighs over 2.5 tonnes but many people get well over 30mpg. My long term average (over 2000 miles from new) is 25. Trying hard to better that and it's improving as it runs in.
I simply can't drive the BM like a granny. I'm too addicted to the grin caused by flooring it. One day I might grow up.
I'm now squeezing about 100 miles extra out of a tank - just by accelerating gently (never more than half throttle), easing off early rather than braking late, and keeping below about 1700rpm most of the time.
I don't leave any earlier for work, and if I need to floor it to get past someone or out of a junction then I will, but these occasions are surprisingly few & far between.
I don't leave any earlier for work, and if I need to floor it to get past someone or out of a junction then I will, but these occasions are surprisingly few & far between.
I can get 75+ mpg out of my golf bluemotion if I do a steady motorway cruise, but because of having to accelerate from a round about every 2 miles on my dual carriageway commute my long term average is on 56 mpg. I say "only", but the car it replaced (3.2 A3) would do around 30 mpg if you drove like an undertaker.
This is something I have started recently as I was getting too wound up with MLMs, OLMs and the like. So now I sit at 60mph, in lane 1 with the lorries, because I don't see the point in driving quickly when commuting, might as well just sit back and relax.
Economy has now improved from just under 50mpg to 58ish, so an extra two round trips to work from each tank. Boring but its only work so might as well save money!
Economy has now improved from just under 50mpg to 58ish, so an extra two round trips to work from each tank. Boring but its only work so might as well save money!
In the last 2 days I've taken my pre LCI 330i 340 miles. A good mix of clear motorway, lots of stop start motorway, urban including central london and bit of a country road blast. Its managed 36 mpg. Not bad considering the Diesel Skoda it replaced would have managed 45 or so in the same conditions. Amazingly I still have over 1/4 of a tank left.
I quite enjoy the challenge of driving as economically as possible.
Yes, there is always a time when it’s appropriate to plant the right hand pedal and to hell with the economy, but when you’re stuck in heavy ish traffic I really can’t see the point in thrashing your engine between traffic lights… I must be getting old!
I don’t have a fuel computer thingy on any of my cars – in fact I’ve never owned a car with one fitted – so it’s difficult to gauge fuel consumption accurately, but I find if I drive normally/fast/soditputyerfootdown in my Sierra then I get 95 odd miles out of 30 litres of fuel (urban driving only). If I drive like a Nun on her driving test, I can increase that figure to 125 + miles… not bad for a 22 year old 2.9 V6 with four wheel drive.
It's quite a torquey (is this a word?) engine which does help though - 5th gear at 20mph shows as 1300 rpm. Which is nice.
Hey, leaves more money to pump into the local economy, or the ‘pub’ as most people call it.
Yes, there is always a time when it’s appropriate to plant the right hand pedal and to hell with the economy, but when you’re stuck in heavy ish traffic I really can’t see the point in thrashing your engine between traffic lights… I must be getting old!
I don’t have a fuel computer thingy on any of my cars – in fact I’ve never owned a car with one fitted – so it’s difficult to gauge fuel consumption accurately, but I find if I drive normally/fast/soditputyerfootdown in my Sierra then I get 95 odd miles out of 30 litres of fuel (urban driving only). If I drive like a Nun on her driving test, I can increase that figure to 125 + miles… not bad for a 22 year old 2.9 V6 with four wheel drive.
It's quite a torquey (is this a word?) engine which does help though - 5th gear at 20mph shows as 1300 rpm. Which is nice.
Hey, leaves more money to pump into the local economy, or the ‘pub’ as most people call it.
I can't be arsed to queue for petrol so seeing as I filled up prior to this blip of a crisis (normally, as I always do rather than in a panic buy) I've just been taking it easy, dropped about 5 miles off my normal motorway speed (70 indicated [65 by GPS] rather than my usual 75 [70 by GPS]).
I'm far from the slowest thing out there and so far I've upped the fool computers estimation from my normal 31-32 to 39.9 (and from previously measuring it I think it under-reads by 1-2mpg). So now 390 miles estimated remaining, or about 6.5 days of commuting.
I did have to smile when I got overtaken by a 205 GTi on the way in though who was obviously not saving fuel, felt like giving him the thumbs up.
I'm far from the slowest thing out there and so far I've upped the fool computers estimation from my normal 31-32 to 39.9 (and from previously measuring it I think it under-reads by 1-2mpg). So now 390 miles estimated remaining, or about 6.5 days of commuting.
I did have to smile when I got overtaken by a 205 GTi on the way in though who was obviously not saving fuel, felt like giving him the thumbs up.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff