Has anyone experimented on best motorway cruising speed on the VRS. There seems to be very little in it from 60-70mph, and quick blasts to 80 for overtakes etc almost seem to have a positive effect.

Is it a quirk of the engine that it's actually more economical above 60, maybe the turbo is better on fuel than the blower?

Having said that I was really pleased with a 48mpg average on a long 6 hour slog back from up North, only to be scuppered by a good half hour queue at the Dartford crossing, which knocked a couple of MPG off, and even more disappointing that a fill-up calculation only showed just over 40mpg for the journey.

I'm still pleased with the economy, a 1.4 running 180bhp still achieving 40+mpg is incredible really, but I'd be interested to further improve my mileage allowance margins with eco gains.

Also cruise, or no cruise for eco runs?

Oh, and no discernible oil use at all! There are good ones out there!

If I do continue with the temporary job involving regular national travel, I think I may have to swap for something boring like a diesel Octavia to munch the miles, the VRS is comfy and DSG is wonderful, I'd hate to lose that, but it is quite noisy and the firm ride can get a bit tiresome on long hauls. Touch wood it'll be company car time anyway by then.

Edited 1 June, 201313 yr by TeebsVRS

Are you not only doing around 2000-2200 RPM @ 60 mph ?

Do you not find it sits at just about 2400-2500 RPM @ around 70 mph, even up to 80 mph & on Supercharger only?

Super charger & Turbo to 3500rpm when cruising,

Turbo charger only after 3500 RPM

george

The Fabia VRS has a high aerodynamic drag coefficient so like motorbikes you can sometimes find you can get 45 mpg at 70-75 mph and then struggle to get 40 mpg at 65-70 mph when in to a strongish wind.

Car is also quite heavy and different tyres probalby have quite an effect.

Fabia VRS is crying out to be lowered which should help significantly.

I use Tesco Momentum nearly exclusively. Do not find the shell V power nitro plus gimick any better than Momentum and you get double points as well as a fuel under £1.40 per litre.

Do the overfill trick to get the tank to strech to 400-450 miles.

Love the car as a big 7 speed DSG fan. Tempted to go for the 215/40-17s and use I use full sized winters ie 205/40-17s v rated, very good.

Its actually something like, over a few miles of constant speed in a vRS,
forced by average speed cameras maybe,
indicated 60 MPG @ 50 mph
55 mpg @ 55 mph
50 mpg @ 60 mph
40-45 mpg @ 70 mph
35-40 mpg @ 80mph
25-30 mpg over 100 mph  ***EDIT 16/7/13,  Hot weather make that 22 mpg***

Tyre, weather dependent and that with the car light and just a driver, passengers and luggage quickly drop that.
Cold ambient temperatures & not windy, can do wonders for better fuel consumption.
Once over 8000 miles on the clock an improvement on economy when cruising..
Good Oil that keeps the Oil Temp low while just cruising.
99 ron at a few pence a litre less than Shell Super Unleaded.

PS
Its worth trying lowered against standard height on the same tyres,
funnily you might find lowered does not improve economy.
The underneath is not smoothed like on a Greenline,
and better traction/road holding, (if you achieve that) can mean using more fuel at the same speeds.
*The vRS is lighter than a 5 Door Polo GTi, which comes on a 215/40/17's, is lower and has a on Paper better economy and lower emissions, but thats doubtful in the real world..
when measuring or compareing tyres,
check the actual width of the tread, because 205,215 etc is the 'Tyre width' and not always reflects the tread width on the road. & some 205/40/17 can actually be the same diameter as another brand in 215/40/17
when measured side by side..
http://www.kouki.co.uk/utilities/visual-tyre-size-calculator

I see a lot of people saying thy can get around 400miles from a tank, I get nothing like I've seen 270 and the cars said over averaged 29.9 mpg ATM i do a lot of town driving but next month when I'm working on site full time I will be doing 60 miles a day from

Coventry to Banbury and back, do you get 400 miles from a long run? I really hope I can achieve a lot more than 270

From a tank, wouldn't be able to keep the car due to the fact I'm an apprentice and don't earn a massive wage, I don't drive the car that hard at all to see if the mpg improves but the cars saying 34mpg ATM need to clean the tank I've don't 140 miles on just under half a tank so hope I get at least 300 miles but we'll see

I've done Huddersfield to Bournemouth + half a week on just over half a tank, admittedly it didn't get used much through the week.

This was mostly sat in the outside lane at between 70 and 80..

Was actually quite a pleasant drive

Now that the weather is hot and i am enjoying the cars ability or most runs,  it is down to about 35 mpg.

Thats long runs, and various speeds.

so about 41 litres in (9 gallons) & getting around 320 miles.

that is with 99 ron petrol.

 

Winter or cooler weather time, engine hot and oil not too hot and cold air feeding the cars engine  and that was easily an average of 45 mpg and 400 miles for 9 gallons.

 

Keep the oil at the right level, high but not overfilled.

your tyres not running at too low a pressure.

Do not carry extra weight in the car thats not needed.

The A/C does use fuel if it needs to lower the temperature by 10 Degrees or so, but then you need that comfort.

(while a car is going through towns, sitting at lights etc on journeys, the miles are not clocking up but the engine, A/C, cooling fans for the radiator etc are all running and using fuel, and making the MPG look even worse.)

 

george

Don't forget that injector cleaner every now and then helps to optimise mpg,not a gimmick,it does work.

I'll try and remember to put a bottle in when mine gets to 10000 miles,then probably every 6 months.

I've found that the CTHE is better than the CAVE (and mine isn't really run in yet at 4k) my old car would generally do 42mpg on a motorway run (at 70 mph) I have found my CTHE will do 47 mpg at 70 mph, and the same at 80mph (80 mph would kill the economy down to 40 in the old car) ..

 

However my new car is on eibachs, so in theory that may make a difference (as someone else said) all "greentech" cars are lowered for aerodynamic efficiancy.......

I see a lot of people saying thy can get around 400miles from a tank, I get nothing like I've seen 270 and the cars said over averaged 29.9 mpg ATM i do a lot of town driving but next month when I'm working on site full time I will be doing 60 miles a day from

Coventry to Banbury and back, do you get 400 miles from a long run? I really hope I can achieve a lot more than 270

From a tank, wouldn't be able to keep the car due to the fact I'm an apprentice and don't earn a massive wage, I don't drive the car that hard at all to see if the mpg improves but the cars saying 34mpg ATM need to clean the tank I've don't 140 miles on just under half a tank so hope I get at least 300 miles but we'll see

This thread is mainly about cruising mpg but in A/B road mixed driving it's rapid acceleration that kills economy.

OK,you don't have a vRS to crawl about but a light foot will see the box changing up at about 2000 revs ,but if your up changes are at,say,4000 revs then your foot's too heavy and no way are you going to get good mpg....you take your choice.

it can change up at only 4000?  Maybe I should back off a bit ;-)

400 mile range is easily achieved if you use the expansion area as well ie press the button on the forard side of the filler and get another 3 or 4 litres in.

 

Fabia VRS is a bit weird for fuel consumption as it is unusually sensitive to wind direction ie it is especially effect by headwinds due to its shape.

 

It does not seem to like the heat as in this 30C heat it is clearly heat soaked and fuel consumption suffers a couple of mpg.

 

I ideal conditions it can do 43, 44, or even 44 mpg even a reasonable speeds but conditions have to be perfect.

 

Then again all the petrol Fabia do not seem to do much better than mid 40s when driven fairly quickly.

 

If the diesels, when driven at reasonable speeds ie 70/75, foot to the floor acceleration to move at a rapid pace, I doubt they will do much better than 55 to 60 mpg and with their more expensive buy price in the UK and fuel I cannot convince myself of their merit,  In mainland Europe no brainer with cheaper diesel but here, not.  Better residuals are about the best of the reasons to go diesel.  Must have a go with the 185 hp diesel VRS maybe will change my mind.