We did a round trip of 750 miles at the weekend. Mainly motorways at 70+mph and around 120 miles over the North Yorkshire Moors, so plenty of hills. Car performed great, but returned around 42mpg which isnt brilliant but OK. Computer lied as it said over 44mpg:rolleyes: As a comparison, I had a 1995 Passat 2 litre with well over 100,000 on the clock which returned 38mpg in similar conditions, so progress isnt such a good thing!

Sounds about right, mpg drops when going over 70 and going up hills. My Fabia I 1.4 petrol did 45mpg at best, no better than cars I had 30 years ago. Catholithic convertors cut mpg. I now have a diesel, 1.4TDI and get over 55mpg overall and best is 67 mpg. I get about 50% more mpg than my old petrol.

Mr lemon,

The 1.2 is a super engine, and quite capable of spinning along at illegal speeds for hour after hour. The price you pay is not quite so good fuel economy. A 1.2 spinning along at 70 in the estate is begining to work a bit harder than say the 1.4 or 1.6 petrol at those speeds. If you drop your speed by just a few mph, you will get a disproportionate improvement in fuel economy of upto 48-50mpg on a run like that. Trouble is, the 1.2 is just so lovely to spin along in and a joy to drive, why worry about fuel economy! Good luck.

Youre so right, you get to say 70 and then it kind of wants to keep going and wont let you slow down:thumbup: I just cant believe it has so much oomph, Im truely astounded by its willing nature. Only once in the whole trip did I feel I needed a bit more, but a quick downshift cured that. Unless you carry more than two people and fully load the estate I cant see a need for any other engine.

We also did some seriously steep inclines at 1 in 4 that had huge potholes where the road has sunk, the high ground clearance made sure we coped well. Only once did I get stuck, in a pothole on a 1 in 5 hill, the wheels just spun as it was damp, so I backed up and took a bit of a run and away she went.

Agreed the engine is really suprising and feels much larger than it is. Think it is partly due to the nice noise when you rev it a bit. However if you are careful and slow down to cruise at 60 you should see 50+ mpg even with air con on and passengers and still manage the odd blast for overtaking lorries etc. at 70 this drops to about 42-44 mpg. Suprising the difference 10mph makes.

Very true, I just cant cruise at 60 though:)

lol, yes can be difficult at times its like having a devil on one shoulder saying go faster and an angel on the other saying think about fuel economy.