Fabia VRS Trip computer MPG accuracy

[angusmillar]

Got my VRS in May and been a little surprised at how often I'm having to refuel so did a wee run to check consumption.

Topped up & recorded mileage, 126 mile round trip, 95% motorway and A roads at reasonable speeds, nothing mental.

Topped up again at same pump and calculated MPG. I reckoned 46, car reckoned 53. Either the trip computer is horribly

inaccurate ( approx +15%) or I'm losing diesel somewhere. Any comments ?

PS I also own / use a 2002 Octavia 1.6i and it's computer seems spot on so only conclusion I can come to is that Skoda have

deliberately bodged the Fabia to give ridiculously optimistic figures, bit disappointing.

[oilburninnut]

On my 04 vrs i reconed on a 10-15% inacuracy, on my 07 se it was more like 25% the trip computer lies

[JesVRS]

You must remember these key points:

The Trip computer's accuracy does not fall under any strictly governed regulation, with regards to the truth of it's reading. I'm sure there will be small print which covers their backs.

Its not a complicated piece of kit, worth £'s. Rather, it is just reading off (i suspect) the odometer and fuel flow readings, and running some simple algorithm to give you the figures. This could be drastically affected by little changes in atmospheric conditions and crap. All these small things could ultiamately make some discrepancy. Something else you should bear in mind, fuel pumps aren't 100% accurate either. My brother works for Tokheim, as a service engineer. He calibrates pumps, and sometimes comes tells me just how off some of them are! They must be accurate for standards, by law, but truth is unfortunately - a lot of them aren't.

There are so many variables on both sides of the equation that i get a headache thinking about it. Just safely assume that your trip over readers by ~10-15%.

Whether it has a built in discrepancy is another question.

Edited 6 September, 2010 by JesVRS

[CJS-90]

I did a 200mile trip back from Silverstone yesterday, and my trip computer was telling me i'd averaged 69.7MPG on the way back lols

[Lewwy]

Got an '07 Fabia vRS, and I think the accuracy of the computer is gash, my 2001 Bora TDi was spot on.

So dont worry Angus, your Fabia's trip comnputer is normal. Dont rely on any of its readings!

Lewwy

[Mike B]

Just think of your trip computer as an MP!

It tells you what you want to hear.

But in truth it's ramming you up the Khyber!

[DRJ]

My 2004vRS was MUCH more accurate than my 2007vRS.

['Little' John]

Someone line up the poor kittens and shoot them...

[Statto]

My wife's got a vRS SE and I too thought the fuel consumption reading was a bit iffy. Maybe Skoda calibrated it to give KILOMETRES per gallon rather than MILES per gallon!

Edited 7 September, 2010 by Statto

[Bezzy]

I managed 73 mpg on a 150 mile journey once. Needless to say I was very bored whilst doing the journey. This, was of course, according to the trip computer, in reality, it was probably closer to 60mpg, lol. I had 71 mpg recently too, on a 100 mile journey, but again, I reckon it was more than liekly to be high 50's or 60ish.

Yours isn't broken, don't worry!

EDIT: I've started using fuelly recently, and that says I do about 47mpg.

Second Edit: If you use this website make sure you change to UK in the top left corner, otherwise mpg looks really bad!!!

Edited 7 September, 2010 by Bezzy

[MarkMac]

all i know is that i get more miles that i did in my last car... and save £15 a week... thatl do for me

[angusmillar]

Thanks for all the informative comments folks, not sure what Little John's point is though

Pretty convinced now that the MPG figure produced by car / trip computer being optimistically massaged.

Only need to measure two things after all, amount of fuel injected and mileage. Manufacturers claim

the former being very accurately measured in the interest of economy / emissions blah blah and in my

case the mileage measurement was spot on ie there's no excuse for the inaccuracies everyone's experiencing.

Happy motoring folks

Edited 7 September, 2010 by angusmillar

[ap0gee1978]

Someone line up the poor kittens and shoot them...

No kidding! Maybe one of them can be spared to point to the link on here that tells you how to adjust the trip computer using VAG-COM?