re

the comment be 'Estate man' on the 'test on randomly selected cars'

(are they actually independently carried out now?)

That may well be,

but we are not buying cars to be driven on rollers in a laboratory.

http://cars.uk.msn.c...truth-about-mpg

I just look at the minimum MPG, (urban) and expect that,

if you can ever get to the Combined figure quoted while driving Extra Urban that is a bonus.

Extra Urban figures are often achievable while hypermilling,

but that is never really possible with a car carrying passengers and luggage etc.

A/C on and you are stuffed IME.

2012 now, surely we could expect more truthful MPG for real world conditions rather than the farce they have now.

george

Edited 6 April, 201214 yr by sk4gw

All covered before Sk4gw many times. Non of us can say anything now that hasn't already been said in other threads abuot mpg's, and it still doesn't make any difference to the comments and remarks that people make about how unhappy they are with their mpg's. They expect as if by magic their new car will do the book figures. They don't realise you cannot drive these new breed of diesels like you did your old diesel and get good mpg's in doing so. Some believe you don't have to run them in either. Some actually believe their car should always achieve the 'book' mpg's however they drive it. Few seem to actually understand why the figures are quoted in the first place and few have no idea why they cannot achieve them, at least to start with. But it has to be said that mostly everyone ends up getting the EU quoted figures, exceeding them or coming very close to them, but once the car has bedded in and they have learned to drive it (the most common reasons people don't get good fuel economy).

Good luck Jamjar with whatever you decide to purchase.

People would understand much better with a few lines of explanation on how they are achieved, ie , in a lab,

this should be in big writing beside the Economy figures.

When people stand in a showroom and the Sales person points to the Sheet on the wall, they seem to take offence when you laugh at the figures.

£0 & £35 road tax appears to be the biggest selling points, but cheap RFT & sh1te economy is a very strange thing about the EU & UK

& then there is the ECO tyres that last no time and are almost useless for winter use when it is a cold winter.

I just wondered about your comments

'Just bear in mind fuel economy figures are not Skoda's figures. these are independently carried out etc....

Do Skoda do them and have them certificated or not now in 2012, or has it changed again.

Makes no difference really, they are fiction anyway!

george

Edited 6 April, 201214 yr by sk4gw

Go BMW, no downsides apart from crappy fuel consumption

Go BMW, no downsides apart from crappy fuel consumption

You're kidding? Spent most of last night reading pistonheads and bimmer forums looking at owners issues as a Bimmer is my future car of choice, just trying to narrow it down. The best advice I came away with was.. "Do not own a used one without paying for the £400-500 a year BMW warranty with £100 excess", which some dealers don't even admit is available as they want you to pay the extra £2k for an approved used. After the recent VRS woes on this forum is it bad to say I was quite happy to hear of all the turbo failures on BMW models since 2007, the DPF failures, clutch problems, butterfly valve engine blowouts, vanos rebuilds, hpfp and injector failures, timing problems, £1k brake refits, £900 cheapo set of tyres, cracked 20-17" alloys etc. Even the enthusiasts seem to have a hard job of recommending a used diesel bimmer and I wasn't really after a petrol. M3's seem to have less downsides than your common diesels, especially the 330d/335d, just need to carry a petrol pump in the boot! Glad you got a good one but I can really see why BMW isn't topping the JD Power surveys right now with 3 star mechanical reliability.

Think might go plan B and work towards getting my wife an M3 for her 1 mile journeys with weekend use and drive a Toyota Yaris 1.3 petrol or something to work.

Edited 6 April, 201214 yr by RobL

...butterfly valve engine blowouts...

My 2002 BMW 320d SE suffered a swirl flap failure. Ingested by the engine. Game over.

Warranty paid for the replacement manifold (£48) but not the engine replacement (£7,000).

Needless to say I don't drive a BMW anymore.

People would understand much better with a few lines of explanation on how they are achieved, ie , in a lab,

this should be in big writing beside the Economy figures.

When people stand in a showroom and the Sales person points to the Sheet on the wall, they seem to take offence when you laugh at the figures.

£0 & £35 road tax appears to be the biggest selling points, but cheap RFT & sh1te economy is a very strange thing about the EU & UK

& then there is the ECO tyres that last no time and are almost useless for winter use when it is a cold winter.

I just wondered about your comments

'Just bear in mind fuel economy figures are not Skoda's figures. these are independently carried out etc....

Do Skoda do them and have them certificated or not now in 2012, or has it changed again.

Makes no difference really, they are fiction anyway!

george

At risk of going more off topic, Skoda technicians undertake the tests under strict supervision from EU agents. The EU agents choose the cars from the production line so there is no funny business. The EU's agents are in charge at all times. I would say that most people do actually get 'the actual' or very near to the EU figures. Many surveys have shown this. I regularly exceed the quoted figures in my Skoda, my wife comes close. The EU tests allow for just about everything, wind and rolling resistance etc, cold and hot running. I'm just back from touring a european car factory where I was able to see this process going on. I am part of a team currently developing a new type of diesel engine. As a result we took the oportunity to 'go take a look'. Very useful it was too. But there are always drivers who just don't ever get good fuel economy due to the way they drive mostly, but you cannot make them understand that is the reason. As far as they are concerned they are brilliant drivers (not aiming this at anyone here) and are convinced it's the car.

It could be down to the drives you do. I drive 7 miles into Swansea on a weekday morning and I see anything from 25-30mpg, all stop start traffic. I go to Ammanford once a week which is about 12 miles, more open roads and I'm going faster and 36-40mpg is easily possible. On a run it was about 48mpg.

Hey Estate Man:

" But there are always drivers who just don't ever get good fuel economy due to the way they drive "

Any headsup where we mere mortals can get instruction ( direct or written ) on this?

It could be down to the drives you do. I drive 7 miles into Swansea on a weekday morning and I see anything from 25-30mpg, all stop start traffic. I go to Ammanford once a week which is about 12 miles, more open roads and I'm going faster and 36-40mpg is easily possible. On a run it was about 48mpg.

Exactly the same for me, once it's warmed right up the mpg go right up, my best without trying too hard was 51 mpg and that was with only 1500 on the clock.

Edited 7 April, 201214 yr by hammer32

Hey Estate Man:

" But there are always drivers who just don't ever get good fuel economy due to the way they drive "

Any headsup where we mere mortals can get instruction ( direct or written ) on this?

We are all mere mortals....believe me! I'm the guy who polished his wife's car with the wrong polish and caused it to shed it's clear coat laquer!! In my defense I was having an off day... But it wasn't so bad living in the garage for 6 months or so, I soon got used to it!

In my experience it's a case of getting to know your own car really well and the driving technique needed to produce the goods. If anyone is having a big fuel economy problem and the car has been checked and found to be ok then it's a case of looking hard at how it's being driven and used. Some just don't understand how to achieve good fuel economy. I teched at a Honda dealership for years and we had loads of complaints about fuel economy on petrol and diesel cars all the time. The cars were always ok. I used to go out with the customer and watch them drive and it would nearly always be obvious the cause of the problem was the driver. Often labouring the engine in too higher gear, or revving it's nuts off all the time. Failure to read the road ahead etc etc etc. Too many things to list here in someone elses thread. Sometimes we kept a car for a few days and gave the customer a loan car so we could live with their car. Nearly always we never ever found a problem with fuel economy and I then went out with the customer to see how they were driving it. Often giving them a little pointer or two. This seemed to do the trick too. No more complaints and some even saying how good the economy had become. There are thread on here about fuel economy which give some good tips.

Yeah, don't buy a diesel BM, they are really unreliable but the good old straight 6 petrols are fine (I have had loads of bmws) also the 335 turbo is also bad news but 325i and 330 are great!