Hi all,

I bought my Monte Carlo (1.6 TDi 75ps) a couple of months ago now and absolutely love it,although I have just had the glow plug light start flashing (brake lights are ok) and now the engine management light stays on (dealer says its because the glow plug problem has not been fixed yet and its escalated the problem to engine management). However, my biggest gripe is fuel economy. My dealer says I should only expect to get around 40mpg as a driving instruction car but I was expecting more. I do get 43mpg on average per fill but the urban figure in the brochure was 55mpg. Does anyone think that this is the correct mpg?

Thank you in advance for any help or advice you can give me.

43mpg isn't bad at all- surely there all short journeys as well and no disrespect but I know when I was learning it wasn't exactly proper economic driving. What do you get when you drive the car?

There's a Monte Carlo in my area! What colour is yours? And where are you from?

43mpg isn't bad at all- surely there all short journeys as well and no disrespect but I know when I was learning it wasn't exactly proper economic driving. What do you get when you drive the car?

There's a Monte Carlo in my area! What colour is yours? And where are you from?

Thanks for your reply, was just looking for a bit of confirmation really, I can only compare it to my previous instruction car (Peugeot 207 1.4 petrol) in which I was getting around 30 mpg, I just thought the diesel would have been up nearer 45-50 mpg.

Mine is Red/Black and certainly turns peoples heads, I don't actually use the car other than for instructing so can't really say what I would get but I should imagine over 50 depending on usage, what is alarming me at the moment is that on my last fill up the trip meter only said 310 miles left in the tank, when new it said 470, I hope this is the trip meter 'learning'.

I'm from the Isle of Wight which only has about 1/4 of a mile of dual carriageway! I am sure a trip to mainland England would do it the world of good.

I have same engine as you but 105bhp and get 60 mpg 3k on the clock

Oh right... What have skoda said about the mpg? I know you said to expect 40 but i can see where your coming from- steady driving sould see more... How many miles are on the clock? I can confirm that the trip metre does learn your driving style and adjusts the milage left til fill up.

lol.. I use my vRS for instruction and get 41 mpg from it! it is a bit spread out up here though

seriously though.... how many miles? it wont give it up until about 10k......

I pick my Monte up this week and will be using it for instruction. I hope to get more than 40mpg especially once it's run in. Given the urban figure is quoted at 55 I would expect that as a minimum as I do a reasonable amount of dual carrigeway driving and it will be used as my own car as well.

As a driving instructor I guess you are driving differently to the norm though. When I was learning it was pure stop starts with manoeuvres, I guess that would be bound to affect it. Mine is the 105CR. I took it through town to my mums place. It was just stop start all the way. It still managed 52mpg and the car only has 62 miles on it.

I pick my Monte up this week and will be using it for instruction. I hope to get more than 40mpg especially once it's run in. Given the urban figure is quoted at 55 I would expect that as a minimum as I do a reasonable amount of dual carrigeway driving and it will be used as my own car as well.

I would hope so... I'm not joking when I said I get 41 mpg on a lesson in the vRS this is cumbria though, lots of open roads, and not mainly town stop start ect... its mostly open apart from doing manouvers

Thank you all for your replies, Skoda said because of the style of driving I do, not to expect more than I am getting, I thought that was incorrect as I was getting the 'urban' figure from my petrol car previously so thought I should expect to get the 'urban' figure from this car also.

My car has now done nearly 4000 miles since July 6th, the mpg is consistent each fill, when I drive between lessons (10 miles at most), I can't remember exactly but I am 99% sure I have not managed to get the average above 50mpg. My lesson don't consist of too many miles doing 40mph+ but it's not all stop start either, I think I will give it a little longer, maybe get the car on the mainland for a good run myself and then contact Skoda to see if they can explain why I don't get anywhere near their quoted figures, other instructors in my driving school all use Ford Fiesta's and get 50mpg+, with varying engine sizes.

I also think there might be a couple more Skoda Fabia's being used locally as instructing cars so hopefully one of them will have the same engine as mine to compare figures

Thanks so much for all your input, greatly appreciated.

In every diesel car I have owned mpg figures always improved after 10k and then got even better up to 20k only settling down between 25k and 30k. After that there were minor changes around service and tyre change time.

i would still say that 40mpg for a 1.6 tdi engine is terrible, instruction or not.

i would expect you to get 50+mpg on lessons and over 55mpg for yourself.

lots of people of here report that on a clear run the car is capable of 70mpg

i would think there is something wrong with your car... it affects your lively hood therefore i can understand your annoyance.

i suggest you try a 45mins drive in the car then go to your ,local dealership and do the same 45min drive in one of their 1.6tdi demo cars and see what the difference is, if it's more than 10mpg i suggest you demand they look at your car

i would still say that 40mpg for a 1.6 tdi engine is terrible, instruction or not.

i would expect you to get 50+mpg on lessons and over 55mpg for yourself.

lots of people of here report that on a clear run the car is capable of 70mpg

i would think there is something wrong with your car... it affects your lively hood therefore i can understand your annoyance.

i suggest you try a 45mins drive in the car then go to your ,local dealership and do the same 45min drive in one of their 1.6tdi demo cars and see what the difference is, if it's more than 10mpg i suggest you demand they look at your car

That's a great idea, thank you for that, I will speak to the dealer and see what they say.

The cr1.6 engines all like to be revved a little more than the earlier longer stroke diesels. If you have maxidot it asks you to change up into the next gear far too early at times, and this actually gives you worse fuel consumption rather than better as the engine is working too hard at too lower a revs. If you get your pupils to stay in the lower gears a bit more or get the speed up more where possible before changing up, the fuel consumption will gradually improve.

Edited 14 September, 201114 yr by Estate Man

4000 miles is not yet loosened up, I couldn't get 41mpg on a lesson in the vRS at that mileage... give it until over 10k and see what you think...

I'm off to do a 1.5 hour lesson, with a pupil from hongkong (she has a full english liscence, but wants to learn our roads, and drive an auto...) she also has problems parking in carparks, so we will be doing a typical "manouvers" part of the lesson too...

I'll record the ,mileage I get and take a pic , just for experimental puposes.. remember mine is the 180bhp twincharger running superunleaded! its at 16,000 miles... I'll post up later

Thanks for the further replies

@Estate Man, I know what you mean about the gear change advisor, I don't use it (or teach to use it) as I found it would be labouring the engine if I gears were changed when it advised, far better to 'listen' to the engine to change gear I think.

@SharkRider, funnily enough I have done 3.5hrs this morning, 1 hour pre-test lesson, 1 hour on test and 1.5hrs general driving/teach left reverse,trip 1 reads 42.8, trip 2 reads 40.1 and the remainder in tank 300 miles.

I spoke to the dealer this morning about the fuel and they are going to check the softwareis up to date as they agreed that the mpg does seem low, he laughed (in a nice way) when I told him I filled up and it read 290 left in the tank after 25 miles (this is now at 300 as stated earlier in this post)

ps: How do I attach photos, do I need to make a certain amount of posts first?

4000 miles is not yet loosened up, I couldn't get 41mpg on a lesson in the vRS at that mileage... give it until over 10k and see what you think...

I'm off to do a 1.5 hour lesson, with a pupil from hongkong (she has a full english liscence, but wants to learn our roads, and drive an auto...) she also has problems parking in carparks, so we will be doing a typical "manouvers" part of the lesson too...

I'll record the ,mileage I get and take a pic , just for experimental puposes.. remember mine is the 180bhp twincharger running superunleaded! its at 16,000 miles... I'll post up later

I was getting 45.5 at about 6000 miles in my VRS That was a very timid drive home mind you haha!

Okay i just spoke to my local Skoda deal that is currently runnig a red monte carlo 105 1.6tdi as his demo car and he told me that even when the car is used from cold for a short 20min test drive with the customer not being used to the car the lowest his ever sees on his trip is 47mpg,

he even had a client get 63mpg on a short test drive before... he said 40-45mpg is not right even for the heaviest footed people.

ok my little experiment.. not quite as good mpg as I hoped , as loads of roadworks, and a fair time sitting in traffic! but here ya go... bear in mind I live 25 mins away from this pupil, so some of the drivivng was me, but all simply done in 'drive'.... some stop start through town, some carpark work...

note: I also reset the fuel economy once the engine had warmed up, so it gives a more realistic reading, removing the opverfuelling in the cold engine from the equation.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

not too bad for a 180bhp twincharged engine

note to OP: go to imageshack.us, choose to resize for 17 inch monitor, upload your pic, and copy and paste the "forum code" .. no account or sign in ness..

edit: I think this is relevant to the original post as the 1.6tdi should give much more under the same circumstances as a vRS!

ok my little experiment.. not quite as good mpg as I hoped , as loads of roadworks, and a fair time sitting in traffic! but here ya go... bear in mind I live 25 mins away from this pupil, so some of the drivivng was me, but all simply done in 'drive'.... some stop start through town, some carpark work...

note: I also reset the fuel economy once the engine had warmed up, so it gives a more realistic reading, removing the opverfuelling in the cold engine from the equation.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

not too bad for a 180bhp twincharged engine

note to OP: go to imageshack.us, choose to resize for 17 inch monitor, upload your pic, and copy and paste the "forum code" .. no account or sign in ness..

edit: I think this is relevant to the original post as the 1.6tdi should give much more under the same circumstances as a vRS!

EDIT:- Can you explain what the 'forum code' is and where I use it please, I have the images uploaded to imageshack ready to go.

Thank you for going to the effort to help, I will be interested to see what the dealer comes up with. Many thanks.

ps: I just done half an 1.5hrs (45mins pre test and 45 on test) with a return of 38.8 :(

Edited 14 September, 201114 yr by MilgeS

Okay i just spoke to my local Skoda deal that is currently runnig a red monte carlo 105 1.6tdi as his demo car and he told me that even when the car is used from cold for a short 20min test drive with the customer not being used to the car the lowest his ever sees on his trip is 47mpg,

he even had a client get 63mpg on a short test drive before... he said 40-45mpg is not right even for the heaviest footed people.

Thank you for that, I really appreciate everyones input, I will print these off and show to the dealer. Many thanks.

Just a quick update, car has been in for testing to check the flashing glow plug warning light, it turns out to be an engine temperature sensor which is now on order.

As for fuel economy, they think the sensor may have an adverse effect on it so will see when it's fixed if fuel economy improves, there were no software updates for the car at this moment in time either.

Will report back when it's sorted.

I took my Monte 105CR out for a spin the other night and gave it some beans. Mixed a bit of town driving, trip to the supermarket and a bit of bypass. I didn't look at the mpg till I got home and managed 58.7mpg. I seriously wasn't taking it easy and the car only has 100 miles on it so it has more to come!

Just had my engine sensor fixed, will reset my trips and see if there is any difference in fuel economy on this fill,fingers crossed!