HI i have took delivery last week of a 61 plate fabia scout in white, 1.6 90 bhp diesel.

I am only getting 42 mpg around town and 62 on a long run at 55-60mph. I used cruise control for the long run

I am not overally impressed with the fuel consumption around town, any tips or advice?

Also on the display there are two lots of m.p.g which confuses me, i can flick between the two using the stalk near the steering wheel.

I put 60 pounds diesel in last week, and run the tank down to one bar, which is what the car came with, and i got 410 miles out of the tank

It will get better and better as the engine wears in. Those figures don't sound particularly bad to me for a new (tight) diesel engine.

My Greenline II was giving an average of 10mpg more at 6000 miles than it was when new.

Around town you need to keep rolling. Getting the car going from a standing start uses noticably more fuel than rolling up to lights/junctions and then just accelerating to go. Difficult to comment further as I don't know how you drive, but it's basically just improving technique.

Also trying to get power out of the engine under 1500rpm uses more fuel, it's happier and more fuel efficient when accelerating between 1500 and 2000 rpm, so try and drive in that range or a little higher unless coasting or slowing when you can use the highest gear possible as you're not asking the engine for any power.

agree with the above... it could take up to 6-10k for it to loosen up properly, you will notice an improvement with every 1000 miles you put on it...

when my vRS was new, I couldn't better 35 mpg, now I can get it over 50 mpg if I try hard!

don't be afraid to rev it and use full throttle as you run it in..

also agree with the above about "keep it rolling" let me explain it this way, braking kills your economy, you use fuel to accelerate, if you then brake you have wasted that fuel... if you let off the gas earlier, by looking ahead and predicting, or even 9and try this it works) just letting off the gat 50% further away from a roundabout than you usually would (keep it in gear , dont coast) you will see the economy rise.... when off throttle the ECU cut fuel flow to the engine... I rarely brake at roundabouts unless I'm in a hurry

keep the faith!

edit; your two displays are two seperate memorys for your stats... you may reset one for each journy for example, and keep two running permenently ect...

I have started to change up gears when the display tells me too , to see if this makes any difference. I will change gears now 1500 rpm as you suggested. Some one suggested that driving at 45mph in fifth gear reaches good fuel consumption??

I have started to change up gears when the display tells me too , to see if this makes any difference. I will change gears now 1500 rpm as you suggested. Some one suggested that driving at 45mph in fifth gear reaches good fuel consumption??

I find the display asks me to change up a little early, sometimes dropping to 1400 (or so) rpm as it can't allow for the gradient.

Not sure on your rpm, but in the Greenline II economy drops if I sit at 45mph, It's a little low for 5th.

I need to get to about 52mph before dropping into 5th (top gear) at just over 1500rpm. Then it'll sit doing great mpg until I go over 60mph.

Does using cruise control have any adverse effect on fuel consumption

i have the 105bhp version, dont leave it in cruise use the gearbox you will just glaze the bores, however around town keep it in a lower gear or you will soon block the DPF system, try and keep the revs up and dont change when the maxi dot tells you only on a motorway, not on A&B roads or you will just use fuel try and keep it around 2,000 rpm and stay in 4th until 55-60 mph, i get around 650 miles on a tank full

Does using cruise control have any adverse effect on fuel consumption

YES & NO depends on the terrain but on a new engine its a no no, generally fuel consumption on cruise balances out over a long journey but dont set it 2 high

I i use 4th gear upto 55-60 as you suggested wont i use more fuel than using 5th gear. The same round town if i keep it in a lower gear and use 3rd gear a lot at 35-40mph.??

So what everyones saying is to keep the engine at 2000rpm when changing gears??

I must admit i am lazy in the car moving from junctions using 2nd gear, I am too lazy to use 1st. I guess this isnt helping my consumption

As already posted your mpg figures are reasonable and will improve. It is more important now to concentrate on running in than mpg. Aim to vary both the load and revs so avoid the cruise control while lots of gear changing is good.

It is difficult to compare around town figures due to so much variation in journeys.

On a long motorway run I get 60mpg cruising at 70mph. On cross-country runs of 30 - 50 miles travelling at road limits of 50 - 60 mph I get from just over 50 upto 60 mpg depending on how much slowing down for junctions, towns and villages plus how freely the traffic is flowing. I'm sure someone posted a while ago that they got better cross-country mpg keeping in 4th gear.

I have now done almost 5000 miles and the engine seems to give more at low revs but still does not really pull much below 2000rpm. I've suggested several times the gear change indication points were probably reasonable for the 1.9PD but are too low for the 1.6CR as following them does not keep the engine above 1500rpm.

So what everyones saying is to keep the engine at 2000rpm when changing gears??

I must admit i am lazy in the car moving from junctions using 2nd gear, I am too lazy to use 1st. I guess this isnt helping my consumption

Yes, get the engine up to 2000 to 2250(ish) rpm before changing so it drops back to just over 1500rpm and is still in the efficient area with the turbo helping giving better economy.

When you try and accelerate in too lower a gear it takes longer to get the speed up and as the turbo is not working as efficiently it just seems to throw fuel into the engine, so is far less economical.

But having said that, doing what you said in 2nd is not a big issue as it'll pick up much faster than say, using 4th when you should be in 3rd. As the revs will pick up quicker.

I'm sure as you drive it and the engine starts to loosen up you'll get more of a feel for it.

A combination of familiarity and the engine improving as it does more miles.

It was me that posted travelling at 57 in 5th gave a recorded 75mpg and doing the same journey using 4th recorded 76.

As said do not bother with the gear indicator, in town 30 mpg zone use 3rd and travel at 30 or just below and try not to break. If driving in a hilly location leave enough space and speed to speed up at the bottom of a hill before going up the other side. 4th between 35 to 58 the 5th, the 1.6cr produces its max grunt between 230nm between 1500 and 2500 rpm and try to the rpm between the two- 2200 is about 70 and is based on my dodgy Greenline.

4th between 35 to 58 the 5th, the 1.6cr produces its max grunt between 230nm between 1500 and 2500 rpm and try to the rpm between the two- 2200 is about 70 and is based on my dodgy Greenline.

From my instruments ( I estimate at 70mph the speedo over reads at least 6% )

1500rpm is about 27mph in 3rd, 40mph in 4th and 52mph in 5th.

70mph is just over 2000rpm in 5th, so slightly higher gearing than the Greenline.

I guess all the 1.6CR engines have the same gearing.

I've averaged about 45mpg round town and about 60mpg on a run in my Monte Carlo 105Tdi. The car only has 235 miles on it though so I am pretty pleased with it so far, especially because people are saying there is more to come. I'm not holding back running it in though, not caning it either, just driving it normally and not faffing around. I doubt the car is going to get properly run in for a while though, I've had it 8 weeks and haven't driven it far at all.

From my instruments ( I estimate at 70mph the speedo over reads at least 6% )

1500rpm is about 27mph in 3rd, 40mph in 4th and 52mph in 5th.

70mph is just over 2000rpm in 5th, so slightly higher gearing than the Greenline.

I guess all the 1.6CR engines have the same gearing.

That sounds the same as the Greenline II to me.

I know the Greenline I has longer gears, but I believe they are the same on the GL2. They're made it more efficient in other ways.

I have a basic 105hp 1.6 diesel which has now done 11,000 miles. Fuel consumption is around 58mpg for mostly rural driving. I live in mid Norfolk so there only small towns apart from Norwich which I only visit every 2 weeks or so.

I agree with the driving suggestions but thought I would add a bit of technical information about diesel engines. When Diesel invented the engine, he was seeking to have an engine which burned fuel at the highest temperature and pressure - much higher than contemporary petrol and gas engines. This was to get the best economy.

With modern diesel engines, the non-turbo charged versions have a compression ratio of around 23-25 to 1. The turbo charged version (of the same engine) will only have a compression ration of about 18 to 1. However, once running at working speed, the turbo charger compresses the air to half its volume. This raises the effective compression ratio for the engine to 36 to 1 making it much more efficient. This is why you need to drive with the engine benefiting from the turbocharger.

It would be nice to have a pressure gauge on the engine inlet to be able to monitor the turbocharger. Then you could tailor your driving to get the best economy.

If you drive your diesel Fabia hard, it would also be nice to have an exhaust gas temperature gauge as this is where diesel engines can suffer if driven too hard. A high temperature indicates the engine isn't burning and using the fuel efficiently. Diesel fuel doesn't burn instantly and if the engine is running too fast, some of the fuel is still burning when it leaves the cylinder. This overheats the exhaust valves, cylinder head and turbocharger reducing their life. It also indicates fuel is being wasted.

SB