Vauxhall Astra ecoflex mpg
Vauxhall Astra ecoflex mpg
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Discussion

smileymikey

Original Poster:

1,446 posts

255 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
quotequote all
Ive just been onto the Vauxhall uk site. I'm in the envious position of being able to trade my Astra company car for ........another Astra company car. I've noticed that Vauxhall are stating a combined fuel economy figure of 76.3mpg for my model, which on the face of it seems brilliant. However I cover one thousand motorway miles a week in sixth gear at 73mph ( our vehicles are tracked by a very bored fleet boss, and as a consequence I drive like a nervous nun). I'm pushed to achieve 55mpg! ..... how in the name of god did they manage to squeeze another 21mpg??

Poetic licence I can accept....this however is so wide of the mark its a joke

bp1000

873 posts

208 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
quotequote all
Joke isn't it

Make sure the car is fully warm, find a nice flat 40-50mph road, reset the trip computer and see what you get. Even with a few slow downs and speed ups I reckon you will get closer.

Still a bit of a joke

CarlT

3,424 posts

276 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
quotequote all
Combined fuel consumption is not calculated at 73mph!!!!

snoopy25

2,107 posts

149 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
quotequote all
CarlT said:
Combined fuel consumption is not calculated at 73mph!!!!
What is it calculated at out of curiosity?

kambites

71,458 posts

250 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
quotequote all
snoopy25 said:
CarlT said:
Combined fuel consumption is not calculated at 73mph!!!!
What is it calculated at out of curiosity?
It's over a set driving cycle, but it's a very gentle one.



So the highest speed is a brief period at 120kph (which actually isn't far off 73mph).

Edited by kambites on Saturday 7th June 19:58

Fox-

13,572 posts

275 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
quotequote all
CarlT said:
Combined fuel consumption is not calculated at 73mph!!!!
No, but it always used to be the case that by happy co-incidence you could hit the 'extra urban' figure on a gentle 70mph trip. All of my previous cars have acheived the Extra Urban figure on a Motorway run, the Urban figure around town and Combined has corresponded to about the average on a mixed run.

These days however you are lucky to hit 'combined' on a Motorway run. I can in my current car - just.

EngageSportMode

41 posts

167 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
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This is why you see people tailgating trucks at 55mph on motorways, desperate to achieve mpg figures from official testing.

Ever since manufacturers started playing to get the best possible test result, they're hardly representative of real world driving. But the do allow like-for-like comparison between competitors.

kambites

71,458 posts

250 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
quotequote all
Manufacturers are getting better and better at designing engines to do well on the test. I can just about beat the official combined figure for our Octavia on a long motorway run. I doubt I could achieve the official extra-urban number, even slip-streaming lorries at 60mph.

The Elise manages its official figures if you drive it extremely gently.

AgentZ

301 posts

157 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
quotequote all
My experience is this:

2000 Ford KA: 35MPG best on urban and 42MPG best on long run
2002 Ford Fiesta 1.4 TDCI 49MPG best urban 65MPG best on long run motorways or a-roads
2007 Peugeot 107 50MPG best on urban and 65MPG best on combined (matched official EU test)
2012 Citroen C1 50MPG best urban
2013 Fiesta ST2 34MPG best urban (matched the official urban test even with a bad engine)
2014 Seat Mii currently 49MPG urban

I think diesels especially are affected worse in real world driving by being over geared. Try 5th gear at 70MPH instead of 6th and feather the throttle?


Who me ?

7,455 posts

241 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
quotequote all
smileymikey said:
Ive just been onto the Vauxhall uk site. I'm in the envious position of being able to trade my Astra company car for ........another Astra company car. I've noticed that Vauxhall are stating a combined fuel economy figure of 76.3mpg for my model, which on the face of it seems brilliant. However I cover one thousand motorway miles a week in sixth gear at 73mph ( our vehicles are tracked by a very bored fleet boss, and as a consequence I drive like a nervous nun). I'm pushed to achieve 55mpg! ..... how in the name of god did they manage to squeeze another 21mpg??

Poetic licence I can accept....this however is so wide of the mark its a joke
I once had a finance director who thought servicing was not essential and our vehicles got serviced when they broke down . As predicted mine broke down and I was given the company spare, a dilapidated Ford Estate, which had a history. I took it ( under duress) on the condition that they accepted I would not exceed 50 mph. After a week of complaints from customers about late attendance, I got my own vehicle back .

smileymikey

Original Poster:

1,446 posts

255 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
quotequote all
In fairness I had to use an Astra 1.6 auto for a few weeks.I couldnt quite believe it was only showing 30mpg so I reset the trip meter at the start of a dawn motorway run....after seventy miles at a constant 65mph (without touching the brake pedal)it managed 32mpg eek


I lost interest in the experiment..and life at that point. I speak with no small amount of experience when it comes to modern Vauxhalls, when I say they appear to have been designed by a man that discovered that his wife had been having an affair with his best friend and that out of his six children he had in fact only fathered the ginger one, half way through the design process