On Saturday i drove from my wife parents house in Dartford to my mums house in dumbartonshire a total of 482 miles from door to door. This involved about an hour or so stuck in traffic on the M25 and two 20 minute breaks to releive myself. As i had rencently thought about taking advantage of the car scrappage scheme i took a minute to work out my MPG So if i havent made a schoolboy error:

482 miles divided by 12 gallon tank (55lts) gives 40.17 MPG. Now more details

Driving time including M25 but not rest stops 7.5 hours give or take a couple of mins

gives an average driving speed of 62.26 MPH

I found this quite amusing as the newer cars are supposed to be more fuel efficent, and my car is a 1.6 Ford Escort 1995 model. As far as im concerned 40 MPG doing an average of 62 MPH isn't bad as i may or may not have been doing more than 80 MPH for extended period of times. :(

Though i would just share this info with everyone as i was looking at getting a Fabia but i may just hold out a bit longer.

i again nearly got 500 miles out of a tank of fuel in a petrol 2.0 this week.

that is very good, but its easy to fall into the trap of 'false enconomy', for example that is a cracking mpg to get, but im not really supprised, as the car has hadf not too much load, and sat at a steady speed. But remember your daily drive might be shorter and there for under more load (stop start etc) and that would put your mpg down to maybe low 30's, and remember the Fab dervs can do 40-50 mpg on shorter journies, more on longer ones

Just some food for though as they say

I actually don't do many short journeys as i currently only spend 4 or 5 weeks a year in the UK as i live in Cyprus and the reason i still have the car is that its always been reliable for me (touch wood!) and its cheaper than renting a car for the time i am here. When i do come back to the UK it is to see her family, and then drive north to see mine, finally returning back down south to drop the car off at a mates and then fly back out to Cyprus.

I am aware that round town i would be lucky to get high 20s but a the minute thats not a problem.

BUT one day hopefully when i return from Cyprus in a year and a half i will be buying a nice black or special edition blue Fabia vRS depending on what funds are avaliable.

Hi

I drove from Nantwich-Hawarden-Woodvale-Blackpool-Woodvale-Hawarden and back to Nant yest and averaged 42.2 MPG from my Mk1 Octy vRS, I sat at a steady 70mph on mways. Around town I can expect around 25mpg on average in stop start traffic.

Not really; I used to do almost the exact same trip (Orpington rather than Dartford) in a ZX 1.4, cruising at 70 mph, and got more like 45mpg.

DERV is the way forward if fuel economy is your goal. My last 3 cars have all ran on devil-juice. When I first got my Octavia 1.9TDi I was averaging around 112miles to 10 litres of fuel. Around town now, I am getting around 54.8MPG - although this is on the trip computer, so probably around 50MPG. It has showed an average of 74.2MPG on a run......

I drive like a grandad though.......

Just done 59.8MPG on a 1999 Felicia 1.9D GLX estate. 222 miles on 17 litres. Im a very happy bod. Vicar-like driving though..(my average speed on the satnav was 53.9mph with a top speed of 72.1 for the journey)

And yet the government tax me £190 claiming my car isn't environmentally friendly...:rotz:. This is a 10 year old car giving it better mileage than the 'new' breeds of caring cars...

My advice is to remember that petrol is cheaper than beer, and you can have more fun with it

I have recorded 49 mpg (52 indicated by car) Glasgow to Petersfield to Reading - total distance of 598 miles using 55 litres of standard diesel.

I was alone in the car, running at 70mph true (75 indicated by car) for the first leg, with 2 short stops.