M@'s MPG Disappointment....
Discussion
Hi all... for those of you following my car change from S to Chim (and anyone else who's intersted..) I thought I'd share my latest Chim experience.
This basically consisted of a "family" weekend in Whitby, N. Yorks, but I thought the long journey would be ideal proving ground for a reasonable MPG out of the Chim.
Before I bought it I had some ideas about MPG and Pbrette and others gave me some good pointers on what to expect. With all that in mind I had been expecting 23-26 on my daily runs, and getting around the 30 mark on long easy trips such as this weekend.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, we travelled 460 miles at a nice sedate pace (80ish on the mway (just under 3000rpm) and 60-70ish on the remaining A and B's (not a huge %).. no rush just a good long run.
Having calculated all the distances using some maps etc to get it right (as the mileometer seems to have a sense of humour) the 4.0 managed to consume almost exactly 20 gallons to do the 460 miles, or in other words a poultry 23mpg.
..I therefore guess I must be getting sub 20mpg on my daily trips to work, and with a 60 mile round trip every day I can see that this Chim won't end up being the car for me afterall
>>> Edited by M@H on Thursday 3rd October 12:53
This basically consisted of a "family" weekend in Whitby, N. Yorks, but I thought the long journey would be ideal proving ground for a reasonable MPG out of the Chim.
Before I bought it I had some ideas about MPG and Pbrette and others gave me some good pointers on what to expect. With all that in mind I had been expecting 23-26 on my daily runs, and getting around the 30 mark on long easy trips such as this weekend.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, we travelled 460 miles at a nice sedate pace (80ish on the mway (just under 3000rpm) and 60-70ish on the remaining A and B's (not a huge %).. no rush just a good long run.
Having calculated all the distances using some maps etc to get it right (as the mileometer seems to have a sense of humour) the 4.0 managed to consume almost exactly 20 gallons to do the 460 miles, or in other words a poultry 23mpg.
..I therefore guess I must be getting sub 20mpg on my daily trips to work, and with a 60 mile round trip every day I can see that this Chim won't end up being the car for me afterall
>>> Edited by M@H on Thursday 3rd October 12:53
I do the old "fill it up to full, note mileage, do journey, fill it up full again, note mileage again, take one from the other to get MPG" trick whenever I fill up (because I'm sad - you heard it here first).
Twice now my Chimaera 500 has returned a tank average of 23 mpg on long journeys. However, I also regularly get tank averages in the mid-teens.
My average overall for the past year has been 18 mpg.
Hope that helps.
Twice now my Chimaera 500 has returned a tank average of 23 mpg on long journeys. However, I also regularly get tank averages in the mid-teens.
My average overall for the past year has been 18 mpg.
Hope that helps.
Not wanting to come across the wrong way but when I bought my TVR the consumption was of little importance,I expected it to be poor, as obviously that is what big engines are about.I think you will find the majority of vehicles with similiar performance will return sub 20mpg.Its just part of the running costs.
quote:
M@H - have faith... maybe you just need to "enjoy" the car a bit less on the run to work!
C'mon, tell me that you don't relish every chance to drive her!
Seriously mate, it is fun to drive but I don't thrash it about much at all.. the MPG killer on the way to work is the traffic queues coming into cheltenham. I seriously can't use a car everyday for work if I get 18 to the gallon
.. 25 I can live with.. :sigh: quote:
Not wanting to come across the wrong way but when I bought my TVR the consumption was of little importance,I expected it to be poor, as obviously that is what big engines are about.I think you will find the majority of vehicles with similiar performance will return sub 20mpg.Its just part of the running costs.
Agreed, hence I wasn't expecting 40mpg.. the S2 (2.9) however would do 30mpg with a lower ratio final drive.
Dont forget that running at lowish revs (like no more than 2500) for a nice run will result in nice fuel economy. However, all it takes is a couple little "excursions" into the power range and the fuel consumption will drop through the floor....
Also traffic and stop start progress makes a massive difference too. Long runs at consistent speeds are good, but to be honest 23 aint bad at all. I get around 25-28 out of mine (a 4.0HC) but then again I am a wuss and dont cane it everywhere - when I do I see this drop to around the 20 mark, and the runs at Duxford resulted in much less than this (rough calculation is around about 17).....
Its so dependant.
Cheers,
Paul
--
Also traffic and stop start progress makes a massive difference too. Long runs at consistent speeds are good, but to be honest 23 aint bad at all. I get around 25-28 out of mine (a 4.0HC) but then again I am a wuss and dont cane it everywhere - when I do I see this drop to around the 20 mark, and the runs at Duxford resulted in much less than this (rough calculation is around about 17).....
Its so dependant.
Cheers,
Paul
--
IMHO, this comes under running costs, which for any TVR , no one would ever say they are cheap to run.
I see you have 2 options, live with it and enjoy it, you can accept 25 but not 18 ( 7 miles per gallon) not sure how many miles you do a year but the difference is probably a few hundred quid at most ( less than a lot of things cost to repair( or insurance)
Secondly , buy a banger for use in the week, ( say a 1.0 fiesta) and use the money you save to enjoy the weekends.
I see you have 2 options, live with it and enjoy it, you can accept 25 but not 18 ( 7 miles per gallon) not sure how many miles you do a year but the difference is probably a few hundred quid at most ( less than a lot of things cost to repair( or insurance)
Secondly , buy a banger for use in the week, ( say a 1.0 fiesta) and use the money you save to enjoy the weekends.
The MPG in our Chimaera 450 has always averaged about 20. I don't get all that much better from my Porsche. 24 on a run maybe. On track around 16 (or less 
).
I think you'll probably have to live with its conspicuous consumption, I'm afraid.
Actually fuel consumption is the least of the costs of running a TVR in my experience.
). I think you'll probably have to live with its conspicuous consumption, I'm afraid.
Actually fuel consumption is the least of the costs of running a TVR in my experience.
quote:
you can accept 25 but not 18 ( 7 miles per gallon) not sure how many miles you do a year but the difference is probably a few hundred quid at most ( less than a lot of things cost to repair( or insurance)
Err.. well the difference on a 400 mile week is 400/18 equals 22.22 vs. 400/25 equals 16, so thats an extra 6.22 gallons per week.
6.22 * £3.75 x 50 weeks = £1166.25
a bit more than a few hundred...
Cheers
Matt.
quote:
I seriously can't use a car everyday for work if I get 18 to the gallon
Just a thought... every 10k miles at 18 mpg is costing approx £500 more than a car doing 25 mpg. I don't know how many miles a year you do but unless it's a massive amount, the extra cost for the extra performance, smiles etc etc, doesn't seem so hard to justify... does it? (I'm not a rich bar steward either BTW
) See you are already one step ahead - just takes me too long to type!!
>> Edited by GarryM on Wednesday 25th September 12:26
quote:
in which case justify a cheap car, get something that does 35 plus (should be easy esp as unleaded) and you can probably have both
Sadly, those who have followed my threads for the last few weeks will realise that I just sold the TVR S2, and my everyday Puma is up for sale, for me to buy the Chim...
quote:
Get it tuned for UL that will save you about 20-40 p to the gallon and will help with the old pennies...
Steve
PS If it makes you feel better, the 520 has averaged an MPG of 9 so far this year. About 110 miles to the tank.
Thanks Steve..
9 mpg.. hmm.. wow that would cost me over £8,300 in petrol every year 
quote:
Cor.. now it looks like I'm whinging.. which wasn't the purpose of this thread.. I was hoping for some..
.."have you considered XYZ part.."
.."when was it last tuned.."
.."I find optimax gives me a better MPG.."
..etc
..etc
not... "stop whining and get on with it..." Oh well...
Sorry but there is no real answer to it. I bought a Cerbera for everday use and gave in after a month,not I might mention because of the MPG.I bought A BMW318i for £1400 and kept the Cebera for High days and Holidays.
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