Unexpected thirsty cars.

Unexpected thirsty cars.

Author
Discussion

zafbandicoot

Original Poster:

47 posts

64 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
Got a hire car last week.
VW Polo 1.0tsi DSG. I was expecting it to be good on fuel. How wrong i was.
It managed Leeds to Birmingham return in a tank (Just about)

Got me thinking. Have you ever bought/hired a car expecting x fuel economy and you have been proved very very wrong?

Shaw Tarse

31,543 posts

202 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
How big is the tank?

Mr lestat

4,318 posts

189 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
I used to have Vauxhall Corsa courtesy car from the garage when I had a company insignia and that would drain the tank quite happily on the motorway. I imagine it’s something to do with the fact that they’re not meant to be sat at 75 to 80 miles an hour all day long. To go up the slight inclines on the motorway you had to have your foot right to the floor to keep up speed

Olas

911 posts

56 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
tyre pressure and throttle posisiton and coolant temp and air intake temp make measurable differences.

you werent driving it for economy, so it did not perform econimically. biggest change you can make to improve mpg is your driving style.

Triumph Man

8,670 posts

167 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
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2011 MINI Cooper Countryman S All4 - averaging about 30 mpg, does reasonable runs everday, would have thought it would be better than that. my BMW 530i isn't far off that, and I cane it. Of course I am a smoother driver than she is, so that might help...

GregK2

1,651 posts

145 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
Shaw Tarse said:
How big is the tank?
This. The Polo probably isn't thirsty at all, just has a small tank.

warch

2,941 posts

153 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
A Polo only has a 40 litre tank. I had the opposite experience with a brace of teeny three cylinder hire Polos I drove (one petrol one dizzal) which would drive for days and days without refuelling then cost sod all to refuel because the tank was so small. It was a nice change coming from my usual work truck (an L200 Warrior).

austinsmirk

5,597 posts

122 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
I had a G40 polo once. with a leaking fuel tank- around the filler neck joining the tank. Not that easy to get another tank- but until I did- if I parked it with one wheel on the kerb, that worked, equally putting no more than £6.00 was ok.

which back then was about enough to drive 120 miles in.

yes, I did find another scrap/spare tank and yes I did swap it over.


back then, looks like they had a great bit of design where the wheel generously coated the filler neck in mud/rain causing rot at some point


so there is a thirsty polo tale for you.

RB Will

9,662 posts

239 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
zafbandicoot said:
Got a hire car last week.
VW Polo 1.0tsi DSG. I was expecting it to be good on fuel. How wrong i was.
It managed Leeds to Birmingham return in a tank (Just about)

Got me thinking. Have you ever bought/hired a car expecting x fuel economy and you have been proved very very wrong?
Wrong car for the task I expect. My wife used to have a Suzuki Swift 1.3. You could get 60mpg out of it doing 50-60mph but plonk it on the motorway at 80mph and it would do about 38mpg I think as it was thrumming along at about 4,500rpm.

journeymanpro

753 posts

76 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
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Other half's 1.2 puretech 130. 27mpg round town. Barely better than the 12 year old vtec crv it replaces.

Mr_Megalomaniac

852 posts

65 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
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Expected bad but it was indeed unexpectedly bad - a 1974 Ford Fairlane 500. The 5.8 litre V8 Cleveland block.
Had, iirc, an 80 or 85 litre tank and would be done in far less than the expected 400km. So worse than 20l/100km.

Still fun though.

Byker28i

58,852 posts

216 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
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Nissan Primera 2.0 Petrol - never did more than 24mpg no matter how carefully you drove it. It didn't have any performance either, but it was the family car for 10 years, covering 160K miles before I traded it in.

I struggle to get a 2.0MX-5 above 30mpg on the daily commute

donkmeister

7,998 posts

99 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
The issue with hirecars is some cheeky sods return them as full but in reality have done considerable miles since they refilled.

A former colleague used drive back from Heathrow airport and turn in his hirecars without refuelling... 50-60 miles without the needle coming off the "F". No cost benefit to him but he saved 5 minutes.

I had a c-class Merc that only did 250 miles of sedate motorway driving before needing a fill-up... The tank was small but I suspect it had been returned with a couple of gallons missing.

ae2006

178 posts

96 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
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The Smart Fortwo 453 Brabus, did about 27.5 mpg with a heavy foot. Combined with a 23l tank resulted in a range of about 150 miles

Ron99

1,985 posts

80 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
RB Will said:
Wrong car for the task I expect. My wife used to have a Suzuki Swift 1.3. You could get 60mpg out of it doing 50-60mph but plonk it on the motorway at 80mph and it would do about 38mpg I think as it was thrumming along at about 4,500rpm.
I had a Swift Sport a few years ago and it was similar to yours, with high-30s mpg at 70-odd mph. The crazy thing is that my two-ton 2.8 slushbox 4wd Insignia manages the same motorway mpg as the Swift did.

The Swift Sport was unsatisfactory and disappointing for a number of reasons so I swapped it for the Viva I have now, which, despite being underpowered, slow and only five gears - so it needs 3500-4000rpm on the motorway - it still manages low-50s mpg at 70-80mph which is much better than the Swift.


Olas

911 posts

56 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
I have measured 44mpg over 100 miles at 65mph in lane 1 of the motorway.

I’ve also measured 25mpg by filling up en route to a track day, zeroing the odometer, driving the track day and stopping at the same pump on the way home, dividing the volume of fuel pumped by the distance covered.

Driving style is the biggest factor in MPG


zafbandicoot

Original Poster:

47 posts

64 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
quotequote all
Olas said:
tyre pressure and throttle posisiton and coolant temp and air intake temp make measurable differences.

you werent driving it for economy, so it did not perform econimically. biggest change you can make to improve mpg is your driving style.
Just worked the mpg out from the fuel receipt 35.2.
I didn't drive it like i stole it. . Sat on the M1/M42 in 1st/2nd lane.
I would have expected mid 40s from it. But apparently not

Johnnytheboy

24,498 posts

185 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
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My Golf R has vastly lower CO2 rating than my mk2 Focus RS, yet paradoxically returns roughly the same MPG.

scratchchin

Drive it fix it repeat

1,046 posts

50 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
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1.6 mk2 mx5 used to average 26 mpg, normal mix of roads, not motorways. Driven fairly hard often though.

BopoWarls

137 posts

83 months

Tuesday 25th February 2020
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My 2019 Volvo V90 T5 has so far returned an average of 26.4 mpg (10 months ownership so far). I know its a big heavy car but that MPG still came as a shock.

Not far off the mpg I get from my E92 m3...