How important is fuel economy to you?

[BlueRich]

My diesel has never given more than 28 MPG (UK). Careful driving on mainly A roads, gives me 25/26 at best. Shorter journeys see around 22
BFG’s at 37psi cold.

That’s mighty impressive. Never got 26, even downhill with the wind behind me

 

[CRH]

That’s mighty impressive. Never got 26, even downhill with the wind behind me

Driving style has a lot to do with economy, you might drive slowly, 55mph, but your overall driving might not suit. I always look at the motoring reporters who claim to get Xmpg out of a vehicle I may own, I can then often easily beat them even when they claim to be driving carefully. I'm not criticising anyone's driving, so please don't think that, it is just something you learn to do.
I used to have a 2005 2.0TDI manual Skoda Octavia estate, it was a company vehicle & all fuel was paid for but I would enjoy trying to get max mpg and beat the official figures. If I remember rightly I would get over 60MPG and that was done using calculations and not just the onboard computer, which was always pretty close. My point is, I drove many thousands of miles each year back then and perfected how to get the best out of the cars. And, no, I'm not trying to be big headed either, I'm just an obsessive sad old git, even then
Wife has a Panda 4x4 twin air, motoring reporters claim mid to low 30mpg max, she averages about 42-44mpg
We might get better economy if we used the manual setting on the gear box?

 

[Michael_in_Baja]

Manually calculated or the number the truck provides?

From pump to pump (same 91 octane pump) dividing the miles driven by the gallons used averaging 56 mph. Over 62 mph the mpg falls off fast.

 

[anand]

From pump to pump (same 91 octane pump) dividing the miles driven by the gallons used averaging 56 mph. Over 62 mph the mpg falls off fast.

Ahhhh that makes a lot more sense then

 

[BlueRich]

So last night I had to run into town, my usual 30 mile round trip where at best I get 21mpg, driving like Miss Daisy.
I decided to look at the actual MPG rather than the average and feathered the accelerator accordingly. The big thing I noticed was that when going down my usual steep hills where I normally coast the MPG read ‘0’ , however as soon as I feathered the throttle it leapt to 250mpg , even 450 at one point. I therefore decided that rather than coasting I’d have my foot very gently on the throttle . The long and the short of it is that I managed a record 24.9 MPG over the 30 mile round trip. A record !

Therefore I can deduce that when coasting, the grenadier doesn’t register the MPG at all, it’s as if you’re stationary. Clearly a software glitch.

Anyone else find the same ?

I can’t believe I’m excited about gaining 3.5 MPG but I am !

 

[Sillius Soddus]

Therefore I can deduce that when coasting, the grenadier doesn’t register the MPG at all, it’s as if you’re stationary. Clearly a software glitch.

Anyone else find the same ?

I can’t believe I’m excited about gaining 3.5 MPG but I am !

Modern cars usually shut off the injectors when coasting in gear, so the computer just shows 0 mpg, what with division by zero and all that. If you calculate by the actual amount of fuel you have used you’ll probably find you have realized smaller gains.

 

[Cheshire cat]

So last night I had to run into town, my usual 30 mile round trip where at best I get 21mpg, driving like Miss Daisy.
I decided to look at the actual MPG rather than the average and feathered the accelerator accordingly. The big thing I noticed was that when going down my usual steep hills where I normally coast the MPG read ‘0’ , however as soon as I feathered the throttle it leapt to 250mpg , even 450 at one point. I therefore decided that rather than coasting I’d have my foot very gently on the throttle . The long and the short of it is that I managed a record 24.9 MPG over the 30 mile round trip. A record !

Therefore I can deduce that when coasting, the grenadier doesn’t register the MPG at all, it’s as if you’re stationary. Clearly a software glitch.

Anyone else find the same ?

I can’t believe I’m excited about gaining 3.5 MPG but I am !

Just to be certain, you have tried the manual method of brimming the tank, running a good distance ie. Most of the tank of fuel, before topping right up again?

 

[Tom109]

So last night I had to run into town, my usual 30 mile round trip where at best I get 21mpg, driving like Miss Daisy.
I decided to look at the actual MPG rather than the average and feathered the accelerator accordingly. The big thing I noticed was that when going down my usual steep hills where I normally coast the MPG read ‘0’ , however as soon as I feathered the throttle it leapt to 250mpg , even 450 at one point. I therefore decided that rather than coasting I’d have my foot very gently on the throttle . The long and the short of it is that I managed a record 24.9 MPG over the 30 mile round trip. A record !

Therefore I can deduce that when coasting, the grenadier doesn’t register the MPG at all, it’s as if you’re stationary. Clearly a software glitch.

Anyone else find the same ?

I can’t believe I’m excited about gaining 3.5 MPG but I am !

Conversely, when you give it a little wellie, in any situation, the worst mine will show is 8.x MPG.

 

[CRH]

So last night I had to run into town, my usual 30 mile round trip where at best I get 21mpg, driving like Miss Daisy.
I decided to look at the actual MPG rather than the average and feathered the accelerator accordingly. The big thing I noticed was that when going down my usual steep hills where I normally coast the MPG read ‘0’ , however as soon as I feathered the throttle it leapt to 250mpg , even 450 at one point. I therefore decided that rather than coasting I’d have my foot very gently on the throttle . The long and the short of it is that I managed a record 24.9 MPG over the 30 mile round trip. A record !

Therefore I can deduce that when coasting, the grenadier doesn’t register the MPG at all, it’s as if you’re stationary. Clearly a software glitch.

Anyone else find the same ?

I can’t believe I’m excited about gaining 3.5 MPG but I am !

Yes, mine is the same if coasting
As I said in a previous post, when fuel was free I used to drive to best economy, there is something fun/satisfying about it. Either that or it gave me something to do on long drives!!
Accelerate gently down hill, ease off going up, obviously long hills are bit different, hence the problem with economy on A30 in Cornwall. Drive without using the brakes is another way to reduce fuel use, just don't use walls for stopping, costs more in repairs than the fuel saved.
Using the instant economy does help train your driving style. You can now tell everyone who calls it a gas guzzler that it's economical As Clarkson proved on a very old episode of Top Gear, you could rag a Prius and get worse economy than a supercar being driven carefully. A big engine can be more economical as you don't need to boot it all the time to actually move at a normal pace rather than a very small engine thing trying to keep up with traffic.

 

[nuclearbeef]

Accelerate gently down hill, ease off going up,

Hmmmmm... I always did the opposite. Go fast uphill and slower downhill.
Spend less time with my foot in it going uphill, and more time on light throttle or coasting going downhill; hence yielding better MPG.

I must admit I came up with that strategy on my own (ie: pulled it straight from my rectum) so it's quite possible I was wrong.

 

[CRH]

Hmmmmm... I always did the opposite. Go fast uphill and slower downhill.
Spend less time with my foot in it going uphill, and more time on light throttle or coasting going downhill; hence yielding better MPG.

I must admit I came up with that strategy on my own (ie: pulled it straight from my rectum) so it's quite possible I was wrong.

If in doubt, just floor it