I would make this a more attention grabbing title, but I doubt what I wanted for the title would fit into the title field, but anyway, it would have been:-

"Either there is something wrong with my car, or its impossible to achieve anywhere like the claimed MPG figures without driving in an unrealistic manner"

Now, the only figures I can find for the Furby are:-

Combined MPG: 55.4

Extra Urban MPG: 67.3

Urban: 42.2

Now, I am aware that the later Furby has a lesser MPG, to the tune of around 52 MPG combined.

I did two tests tonight, driving exactly the same routes at exactly the same speeds. The drive was from where I live near Chester-le-street, along an approximately 3 mile route of 30 and 60 roads, at the speed limit, then probably 15 or so miles on the A1, again at the speed limit (70). Then down to a friends in West Cornforth, again another 2-3 miles of mainly 60 but some 30 roads, again at the speed limit. Then I reversed the journey exactly, maintaining the same speeds as before.

When I accelerated, I used 3/4 throttle to rapidly get up to speed and then dropping it in a gear that resulted in 2,000+ at higher speeds, or about 1,500 on the lower speed roads (and hence in lower gears).

On journey #1, the car was already warm. I achieved 51.4 MPG.

On journey #2, the car was cold when setting off. I achieved 48.6 MPG.

Now, that probably does not seem too bad, however, I was driving in a manner I'd consider to be the most economical I could, and I still cannot get near even the combined figure, now given that I spent most of the time on a motorway at 70 mph, those figures seem quite low to me.

Other people claim to get 55+ regularly, so I am wondering whether those people baby their car even more than I do - I think I'd have had to drive at 50 mph on a motorway in 6th to stand any chance of beating the combined figure. Or is there something wrong with car, MAF possibly? I still think its perhaps not as smooth or as nippy as it used to be, but that could be in my head...

It seems you have to try very hard to get the combined figure, and the extra urban figure seems a pipedream to me. The urban figure is a much more accurate indicator of what you can really expect in normal use, IMHO.

So assuming my car is actually alright, I'd have to say that the figures published are somewhat unrealistic.

We averaged 52mpg at 80+ mph!! up the M1 from London last month in our VRS Fabia 54 reg....Or so the trip computer said anyway..

charles & julie.

Liverpool to Brighton this week, trip computer reported 61mph average speed, 53.8mpg - using Shell Diesel Extra - oh and 23,000 miles or so done in the car. Can't be bothered to go out and look at the current totals for the vehicle as too late at the mo! (You know about this don't you, press the stalk's underside button when the trip computer display is showing average speed, mpg, miles or journey time to get the readings - it rolls over at 999 miles I think)

Mine has done 2.5k so there is still potential for improvement. Totally standard but lots of toys as per my sig so the weight is probably a little higher :(

I'm hovering around 43-46 mpg on an average week, depending on badness of traffic jams. M4/A34 don't help there. When the road is clear I do get up to speed, but you can help fuel consumption by NOT using the cruise control when going uphill. If instead of letting it drop to 20-odd mpg you just allow the speed to mildly drop (few mph at the most) I get 50+ mpg going uphill, then go back up a little faster again downhill.

On longer journey, down to Kent, we were doing reasonable speeds, M25 70ish mph included, and it was close to 48 mpg on that trip. Not hammering it by any means and on cruise a lot of the time for that trip.

I'm not gonna worry about it much as long as it's around 40mpg or higher over my normal commute

I was thinking about this on my way into work this morning strangely enough.

On my usual 10 mile drive to work I get around 48-50mpg, depending how bad the traffic is. But today I got 55.7mpg with no noticable change in traffic or driving style. The journey is basically all dual carriageway with a 50mph limit and lots of speed cameras, so my average speed is always around the same. Only the first 200yds & last

Paul, you might find the car has "learned" your normal driving style so is a bit confused by you "babying" it and is probably adapting. If you can reset the ECU and try your test again, it may adapt quicker and you'll see an improvement in economy? I have no idea how long it takes to learn though.........

Chris

Not sure how it compares to the furby but I drove a 110TDI Golf yesterday and over a 65mile journey I averaged over 65mpg. I admit I was driving for economy using gentle acceleration and doing 70-75mph when on the motorway. For the 65mile journey there I drove the car more aggresively leaving cars quite away behing from lights on NSL dual carraige ways but still averaged around 55mpg.

What was your average speed on your journey Paul?

Im getting 42MPG at the mo but my average speed is only 28mph! Taking that into consideration i dont think im doing that bad although i must admit that i do watch how i drive to get that figure. If i drove how i wanted to i would only be seeing around 33-35MPG.

I dunno what it was exactly, but I can say my speed was more or less constant for the entire journey, so it was clearly a best case scenario.

Strangely I managed over 46 MPG this morning on a short journey into town, lots of stopping and starting...

I've seen it down to as low as 27 MPG on a spirited drive home

My car has done 2200 miles and i seldom see 40mpg. 35-38mpg is my average so far !?!?

Usually the combined figure is quite wrong. I usually find combined less 10mpg is more realistic. My Saxo did 33mpg as apposed to 42.?? my volvo did 18 mpg as apposed to 28 mpg, and my Fabia is miles off. Still it is better than i have ever had so not all bad

I get 43-47 mpg over a week, depending on temperature and traffic. I've only ever got 50 mpg a couple of times - all of them on long trips on motorways and A roads, where the revs have been >2000 most of the time (either 75mph cruise @ 2300 rpm-ish on m'ways, or the same kinds of revs at around 40-60 to negotiate twisty A roads in a brisk manner)

I don't know if I'd get better if I turned the air con off? I keep it on all the time, as it's supposedly better for it...

50 in 6th will guzzle diesel. I find the car struggles at 70 in 6th. I see far better consumption dropping back down to 5th.

That said, the average on my trip comp is about 36-37 over the last 3k. I travel a 60 mile round trip to work each day, which mainly cmprises of motorway driving. I sometimes hit 46-48 on the way home. I never see 50.

Maybe a I am doing something wrong aswell, but the economy is nothing to write home about imo. Only time you will get anything spectacular is on a 100 mile + trip imho. Unless you wear leather driving gloves, a flat cap and slippers - and are actually looking forward to being pensioned off.

I must admit, I was expecting much more.

RCe

50 in 6th will guzzle diesel. I find the car struggles at 70 in 6th. I see far better consumption dropping back down to 5th.

It's to do with throttle position, if you're driving at 50 in 6th then you'll need to use more diesel to stop it from stalling. The key to finding good economy is to find the speed/gear at which you can travel comfortable with only a very light foot on the throttle.

That said, on Saturday I did a trip from Manchester to Coventry and back, and keeping the needle above 80mph I saw just under 70mpg.

Rob.

Build up to speed on the motorway, and then re-set your trip computer. You should see figures near to what Skoda claim.

I

At 5000 miles now in my Fabia vRS. Got 63mpg on a very gentle 50 mile drive once. Basingstoke to Manchester and back at 85-90 ish got 53mpg average. My daily commute on dual carriageway and M3 gets me 51mpg average. I'm very happy with the mix of economy and power.

I left Richmond last night at 5.10pm - not the best time to be leaving London. Took over half an hour to get through the gridlock across Kew Bridge to the M4 - then in a "traffic jam" all the way to Swindon, but travelling at around 65-70mph. Then got stuck in long queues through Swindon at 18.45pm. Rather less traffic for the remaining drive to Gloucester. Pulled into the drive with the computer showing 56.8mpg - which rather surprised me considering the congestion element.

Going over about 70mph seems to increase consumption noticeably.

Going over about 70mph seems to increase consumption noticeably.

That would be logical, as wind resistance increases as the square of velocity, so going twice as fast creates four times the drag, so by that logic, you have twice as much wind resistance at 70 than you do at 50. And the Fabia ain't exactly a slippery shape!

I think this is why you sometimes see lorries with 'speed limited to 56 mph' on them - it's a good balance of speed and fuel consumption when you take gearing and drag into account. Plus being in a queue will give you a slight 'draughting' effect if the vehicles are bunched up (not too close mind! )

This is all quite interesting

04-plate vRS, coming upto 10k, usually get 45-50mpg day-to-day usually a mix of town driving and some quicker bits of A-roads. Country lanes quite a bit too, and I don't tend to hang about, so I'm quite happy with it. I was expecting a bit better MPG on longer runs though. At 80 on cruise I don't tend to pass 50mpg. Do you reckon there would be a noticeable difference if I locked in at 75 instead? (think doing 70 would drive me mad and I'd feel like I wasn't getting anywhere )

The best I've seen is 55mpg dead, in full Granny driving mode, just to see what I could the best I could coax out of it!!

Steve

I think this is why you sometimes see lorries with 'speed limited to 56 mph' on them - it's a good balance of speed and fuel consumption when you take gearing and drag into account. Plus being in a queue will give you a slight 'draughting' effect if the vehicles are bunched up (not too close mind! )

I also agree with this, car manufacturers used to quote the MPG measured at 56mph didn't they? If I was cruising at this speed then, say on a dual carriageway, would people stay in 5th or go for 6th (newer gearbox)?

Steve

It seems like most people here have Sub 15k milage cars and are using the computer to see what you are getting.

From experience as the engine beds in ( now have 25k on clock) the economy improves also I have found these reading are a bit optimistic.

The only real way i found was with a little bit of effort, you can work out the truer MPG by tracking the number of miles, and the amount of fuel put into the tank.

I experimented for 1 month, by setting the trip to 000, and filling the car up, then drive the car economically till the fuel warning comes on,( fill up now ) record the milage, and the amount of fuel put in when the cutout on the pump activates, repeat this for 3 refills, then work out the average miles between refills, and average fuel put in. This gave a pretty accurate MPG, and I was able to compare actual with what the trip read ( checking a few journeys within the tankful of fuel ).

You should now be able to see approx by how much the trip is out

It is not too difficult or awkward to do for a short time.

I do a similar thing Steve, and record the mileage and trip on the fuel receipt. But I never seem to get round to calculating the MPG from the receipts!

Steve

Hi all, our recently departed Furby Tdi elegance always used to get between 55-60mpg on mixed driveing ,inc not hanging around mode! The new Oct'y does avg 49mpg even towing got about 34mpg. Cars mainly used on long runs, The Felicia mean machine used mainly in town returns about 28mpg, must be the power from all those 54 horese under the bonnet!!

I would make this a more attention grabbing title' date=' but I doubt what I wanted for the title would fit into the title field, but anyway, it would have been:-

"Either there is something wrong with my car, or its impossible to achieve anywhere like the claimed MPG figures without driving in an unrealistic manner"

Now, the only figures I can find for the Furby are:-

Combined MPG: 55.4

Extra Urban MPG: 67.3

Urban: 42.2

Now, I am aware that the later Furby has a lesser MPG, to the tune of around 52 MPG combined.

I did two tests tonight, driving exactly the same routes at exactly the same speeds. The drive was from where I live near Chester-le-street, along an approximately 3 mile route of 30 and 60 roads, at the speed limit, then probably 15 or so miles on the A1, again at the speed limit (70). Then down to a friends in West Cornforth, again another 2-3 miles of mainly 60 but some 30 roads, again at the speed limit. Then I reversed the journey exactly, maintaining the same speeds as before.

When I accelerated, I used 3/4 throttle to rapidly get up to speed and then dropping it in a gear that resulted in 2,000+ at higher speeds, or about 1,500 on the lower speed roads (and hence in lower gears).

On journey #1, the car was already warm. I achieved 51.4 MPG.

On journey #2, the car was cold when setting off. I achieved 48.6 MPG.

Now, that probably does not seem too bad, however, I was driving in a manner I'd consider to be the most economical I could, and I still cannot get near even the combined figure, now given that I spent most of the time on a motorway at 70 mph, those figures seem quite low to me.

Other people claim to get 55+ regularly, so I am wondering whether those people baby their car even more than I do - I think I'd have had to drive at 50 mph on a motorway in 6th to stand any chance of beating the combined figure. Or is there something wrong with car, MAF possibly? I still think its perhaps not as smooth or as nippy as it used to be, but that could be in my head...

It seems you have to try very hard to get the combined figure, and the extra urban figure seems a pipedream to me. The urban figure is a much more accurate indicator of what you can really expect in normal use, IMHO.

So assuming my car is actually alright, I'd have to say that the figures published are somewhat unrealistic.[/quote']

Have a look at my thread from the other day

I'm getting 55/57ish and that is at (dare I say) 85/95 on motorways . This is a big jump from 48 that I got for the 1st 5000 miles.

50 in 6th will guzzle diesel. I find the car struggles at 70 in 6th. I see far better consumption dropping back down to 5th.

That said' date=' the average on my trip comp is about 36-37 over the last 3k. I travel a 60 mile round trip to work each day, which mainly cmprises of motorway driving. I sometimes hit 46-48 on the way home. I never see 50.

Maybe a I am doing something wrong aswell, but the economy is nothing to write home about imo. Only time you will get anything spectacular is on a 100 mile + trip imho. Unless you wear leather driving gloves, a flat cap and slippers - and are actually looking forward to being pensioned off.

I must admit, I was expecting much more.

RCe[/quote']

You lot sound like you want something for nothing here!

There are loads of factors that can alter the efficiency of the engine and TBH you would be lucky to see the figures quoted by the manufacturers without putting on the flat cap.

Even the direction that you drive can have an effect (during a journey from one place to another, you are very likely to see two different economy figures, possibly due to the relative elevations of each destination - then there is wind direction and strength etc).

OK - for example - I decided to be 'really economical' with my mota (2.0l PDTDi) to see what was really possible. Out came the smoking jacket, flat cap and Burberry slippers..........

56-60mph from Birmingham to Preston and then a return later in the week (I don't do this regularly as it is tedious - but keeps me in the 'efficiency zone').

From Brum to Preston - 70mpg as indicated on the computer (not sure of accuracy tho).

Preston to Brum - 65mpg as indicated on the computer.

As I have run this route many times, it is noticeable whatever the average road speed, that the car is always more economical going to Preston than to Brum - therefore the economy for this return journey is the average of the two.

As for 'normal' motorway speeds (70-80), I will see around 55mpg dependant on wind, traffic, whether its raining (lights wipers and water resistance etc) and how brutal I am getting to cruising speed etc etc.

I would think that every engine following another off of a production line will have slightly differing efficiencies (although I should think that with today's manufacturing and assembling techniques, the differences will be small - not like 20-30 years ago).

Engines are also not very efficient when new - their efficiency will improve as they run in. The time for an engine to fully run in (or stop being 'tight') will depend on who has it from new and the way that it is driven. The problem with modern oils (AIUI) is that they are so good, full running in can take quite a lot of miles.

The later-ratio vRS (04/05 and some 03s so it seems) should be fine at 70ish mph or above. I find it does NOT guzzle diesel at all when you drop it FAR lower than that - only if you accelerate in that gear (or go uphill) -

I try to keep the revs 2k+ when starting to accelerate. Just change gears

Something I find interesting is the figure "to fill up" after you've just filled up.

Having done thousands of miles of the same routes and speeds I'd expect the car to be capable of knowing how far I could go on a tank - but no. When I fill up it reckons I could manage 465 miles from a tank yet it has never been over 330 (I run it until it says 5 miles to fill up).