vRS MPG... stuck at 48ish!

[stuninho]

Firstly hello! Got my fabia vRS in October, and am loving it so far. Based in the York area, one of a few black ones I see about!

One thing that bugs me a bit (other than keeping the interior clean) is the fuel economy. I hear of up to 60mpg, but on the overall mpg counter I can only ever get between 47-49mpg. Is this about right? I do see more like 70mpg when motorway driving on the instant mpg counter, but I have never seen 50mpg on the overall counter. Obviously, the cold weather is making things worse, but only by 1 mpg on the overall counter, if that.

I am not a slow driver but not a hooligan by any means!

I have checked tyre pressures and adjusted a touch as per the recommended settings but this didn't really help.

The car has covered 62k, oil was changed by the seller (a suzuki garage) when I bought it but I don't think anything else was done. I have read about having the MAF changed but this seems a bit expensive for a maybe... and other people complaining about knacked MAFs seem to get 35mpg-ish. Will changing the airfilter help? And if so, will getting a sports panel filter help the economy or just make the car more responsive?

Cheers!

[Babs]

Are you not happy with 50mpg?

[stuninho]

Coming from a petrol Renault, its pretty good... but 48 isn't 55!

I guess after owning a Renault I just worry about every little thing that isn't perfect...

[Babs]

48 is fine, mine averaged 40!

[Dr Zoidberg]

48 is certainly in the "normal" range that people get , but without knowing your driving style and typical journeys we can't say for sure that it's good enough.

At this time of the year I expect it probably is just fine.

[Ad Lav]

Sounds about right... reset all the trips, on numbers 1 and 2 on the MPG/MPH etc counters and try again

[DGW]

My vRS has averaged 46.34 mpg over the past 14651 miles - based on accurate records of fuel actually used and mileage driven. The trip meter is consistently over-optimistic in the mpg readings it shows to the extent that I reduce these by 25% to arrive at a real world figure.

[TeebsVRS]

Assuming the trip computer is out then 48mpg indicated may actually be quite low. might be high 30s calculated? Have you (OP) worked out the "real" mpg by filling up, resetting trip then noting how many miles you covered to next fill-up and doing relevant MPG calculation?

To be honest I am very sceptical about all these high 50+ MPG claimants, I only ever see above 45mpg (real world, not computer) on very long steady runs. It's mostly between 42 mpg (lots of short trips / supermarket fuel) to 46mpg (mixed trips / decent bp fuel) and I drive conservatively about 80% of the time!

If you do a real world MPG calculation and find you are getting under 40mpg something is probably not right, otherwise I would say it's normal.

[*tim*]

You can view my actual verses trip mpg for the past 20k at the following link if you so desire....

http://www.spritmonitor.de/en/detail/244989.html

But basically its 46mpg on average

[Wardy]

As said, do a brim-to-brim calc, then consider some solutions if necessary.

A new panel filter may well help things, and I'd fit a reusable one from the likes of Green or Pipercross etc if it were me. Also do a search for the 'cage mod' people (myself included) have found this can make a difference to improving economy as well.

That aside the very cold weather currently will be improving your car's performance with the cold dense air, but not economy - your car will have increased fuelling.

Steve

[matt_theforce]

Personally 45-50mpg sounds much more realistic than 60mpg+ , My Fabia vRS always reads 60mpg+ on the onboard computer but as you can see from my signature it doesn't get anywhere near that. My commute to work is just over 30miles of town and b road driving in each direction, the MPG is boosted on my days off when i take my son to school and then its nearly 15miles in each direction of motorway and b-roads

Edited 11 January, 2010 by matt@theforce

[RADIOTWO]

Hi stuninho

If we are talking average figures, I get 55mpg ragging it round town about 70mpg on the motorway, and if I do it very carefully on the motorway 60mph with cruise,

I can get 80mpg

Radiotwo

[TeebsVRS]

This is trip computer indicated right?? So thats probably more like 40-45mpg town and 55-60mpg at the very most on the motorway. Let's not kid ourselves that the VRS is some kind of magic economy AND performance machine. It's a good sleeper car but not that good!

[dfullb]

I have never seen 48 Mpg & that is 30 Mpg more than my last car ....

Stop worrying about it & enjoy the drive... Just put fuel in when you need it & be hapy in the knowledge that you can go further for less than most road users

Dean

[stuninho]

Main journey is 11 miles twice a day averaging 40-50mph.

all sounds decent advice to be honest. I'm due a trip to Leeds tomorrow evening (lucky me!) so I'll fill 'er up and work it out.

Thanks for the advice on the panel filters - are they easy enough to clean/re-oil?

Cheers

[BRUN]

its fine mate, multiple threads on here about it, even started one myself

[MEDIX999]

Main journey is 11 miles twice a day averaging 40-50mph.

Doing only 11 miles to work will have a big impact as you are barely warming the engine up.

To put things in perspective I get around 35mpg average if I just nip a couple of miles down the road to the shop, however I commute weekly from Lincoln to Kings Lynn mainly on single lane A roads and never going above 60 and I average on that journey (90 miles) 53-55mpg.

[Jim H]

I average about 45-50 mpg. It's poor in winter as the engine takes longer to warm up and therefore uses more fuel. I summer I have averaged over 50mpg in 3 tankfuls, however that was a gentile 30 mile journey to work (50 & 70mph).

As mentioned above there are many Fabia mpg threads around, also do a tankful to tankful calculation to be accurate. I use a spreadsheet to work it out.

Oh, Welcome to the forum aswell.

[daveface]

I do around 120mile round trip to work every day down the M25 and then the M4 most of the time my car will return a steady 54.3mpg which tbh is not to bad, and that's me not pushing it either!

It's a long drive every day lol

Dave

[MoggyTech]

48 MPG is fine if it's a calculated MPG rather than a figure from the car computer.

[Rob.]

11 miles each way to work and back.

1st half is residential, 2nd on the A40, 50mph, then 40mph.

Did a click to click tank this morning.. 47.7 mpg!

Have had the Air con on to dry out the car for about 3 weeks solid now. Think the best I've ever got from my vRS (60k) is 51mpg.

am I the only person who doesn't see a big step up in MPG on motor way trips? Or does that say more about my motorway habbits than I should mention

Seriously though, I have to drive at 54 to 56ish to get the big numbers.. 70 & over taking and I'm back down at my daily MPG.

[MoggyTech]

Have had the Air con on to dry out the car for about 3 weeks solid now. Think the best I've ever got from my vRS (60k) is 51mpg.

am I the only person who doesn't see a big step up in MPG on motor way trips? Or does that say more about my motorway habbits than I should mention

6th gear is too short IMHO, should have been set so as no boost used at 70MPH My A and B road MPG is similar to motorway at 75 MPH.

[Rob.]

Guess that's the biggest argument for finding an earlier vRS.. the longer overdrives. If ya want MPG, that is

[stuninho]

got kept late at work in the end. To cut a long story short I forgot to reset the mile counter, and didn't note how many litres I had put in :zzz: dopey git.

On the plus side, I have sussed what the difference between mpg calculator 1 and 2 is (I didn't realise the difference and was using 2), but cheers so far!