How optomistic?

[Guy Incognito]

My average mpg on a mostly wee town run taxi shift is apparently high 40s.  I absolutely do not believe that to be true so clearly the OBC is optimistic.

 

Has anyone figured their car to see how much it adds?

 

Cheers

[ksr]

That wouldn't surprise me at all. I would get (very) high 30's if my whole tankful was spent running around town on a warm engine, and that's in a petrol.

 

Diesel should easily be high 40's for the same sort of running.

 

You need to do a 'brim - to - brim' average a few times to really know what you are getting. If possible, use the same filling station, same pump. Put nozzle the whole way in, and fill until it clicks off. Count ten seconds, and fill again until it clicks. Consider that 'full'. Do exactly the same thing the next time you fill up, and you will be able to calculate your actual mpg, and compare this with displayed figure.

 

NB - Do not literally fill a diesel car right to the brim - at best you'll get diesel on your shoes, but much worse, you may leave some of it on the road - a death trap for cyclists and bikers.

[HoneyMonster65]

I use the fuelly app.  Found at www.fuelly.com its free and found that now, I just scratch my mileage on fuel receipt and enter details when home.

[mfj197]

I use fuelly too.  Maxidot on mine is about 6mpg too optimistic - quite a long way out.

 

Michael

[Fred Bloggs]

Maxidot on mine is about 6 or 7 mpg optomistic.

[mfj197]

NB - Do not literally fill a diesel car right to the brim - at best you'll get diesel on your shoes, but much worse, you may leave some of it on the road - a death trap for cyclists and bikers.

I remember pulling into a service station in France on the bike and having great difficulty not dropping the bike.  The forecourt was quite literally like ice at the pump I stopped at - I had both feet down and could skate them about with my weight on them no problems at all.  I quite liked it when it rained - at least you could see the diesel!

 

Michael

[Bristolf2b]

My maxidot consumption is 10-15% optomistic. Driven on a mix of town and A road will give a true 43, best ever was gentle motorway run gave true 46 mpg.

Edit: should have said that maxidot gave 48 and 52 respectively

Edited 9 December, 2013 by Bristolf2b

[Tankdave]

Mine was 7% into the "dream-on" area, easily fixed with VCDS. I was able to get mine to within a mere fraction of an mpg.

[unclerichy]

About 11% optimistic here.  Calculated every fill-up since I've had the car.  My wife's Fabia though is pretty much spot on.

[ksr]

About 11% optimistic here.  Calculated every fill-up since I've had the car.  My wife's Fabia though is pretty much spot on.

 

Wonder if petrol models are intrinsically more accurate? My 1.4Tsi is rarely out by more than a couple of tenths. (NB - this is on a 'poverty' spec., so no Maxidot, just the regular (quite fully featured) computer.

[RichieJ]

My Greenline is more pessimistic than optimistic. Been recording using my fuel app since day one. The maxi dot always tends to say lower than I actually achieve. Not much though, normally less than 1 mpg difference.

I wonder if its to do with size of the wheels. I know there's not much difference in the rolling diameter of 16" compared to 18" but it may be all it takes

[silver1011]

I too have a CR140 SE Twindoor.

 

My OBC always shows somewhere between 55-60 MPG.

 

I filled up this evening and manually calculated my actual MPG to be 49 MPG.

[AndersNordh]

Hmm, mine is still optimistic but a bit less than others, around 5% ...

 

Will try to adjust it in the VCDS.

[gortonpete]

Hi,

After doing over 4000 miles in the 3 months in my new Cr170 manual combi. I have come to the conclusion that the maxidot is for show only.

It varies between 12 and 14 percent in accurate. Always shows great mileage. when in fact it is not.

Recent run to Germany with a lead foot, it showed 50 2mpg when in fact it was only 43.3mpg.

On the way back at 110KPH for over 300miles  , It said 61.1mpg(was actualy only 52.7mpg,

There was only me in the car, so no extra weight. 

At the moment around town its averages 28mpg on the maxidot with the error it doing S*** mpg.

 

took it in to my dealer because I have a ghost in the car with a passenger seat that moves when no ones in the seat, when parked. I mentioned the

MPG and the maxidot. There response was its only a guide . After i fell about laughing, I went in to it in a bit more detail and told them I spoke to Skoda

customer services. Who said it should be nearer to the actual mpg.

They said there was an error on the Sat Nav and I would have to bring the car in again for them to do an update on the sat nav. Then he said perhaps that may sort out the mpg maxidot problem if there was one?????

 

The cars doing around 43 to 45 on a run.(actual), Which is not bad really for a large car. But nowhere near what it should do. As soon as you hit town its down hill all the way with the MPG. 

I have tried driving like an old man. does'nt make any difference. You may get it up to 38 on the maxidot.

Eariler this week when the fuel light came on, I put £35 of fuel in the car (5.67galUK) a 138 miles later the light came back on.

 

I just hope it just needs to be run in a bit more.

 

Can any of you let me know at what mileage it tends to get better.

 

As for the stop/ start system working to help save fuel, Its hardly ever is available, Even with everything switched off except the radio.

Its a great car, very comfy and very quiet on the motorway.

All accurate quoted mpg were done with the tank brimmed each time.

 

Can the dealers correct the maxidot error?

 

Need of help

 

Pete

[mfj197]

Yes, I believe the dealers (or anyone with VCDS) can adjust the maxidot fuel reading.  It is often inaccurate but at least it is consistently inaccurate, so once you have it adjusted it should be pretty good.

 

When you say it's doing 43-45mpg "But nowhere near what it should do" - how have you set your expectations as to what it should do?  Don't believe the official figures of course.  The best way I know of finding out the true mpg of a car before getting it is Honest John's Real mpg page - http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/ .

 

Michael

[RichieJ]

Just checked my latest fill up. Maxi dot 55.3 mpg, calculated 54.7 mpg. 0.6 difference.

[AndersNordh]

Just checked my latest fill up. Maxi dot 55.3 mpg, calculated 54.7 mpg. 0.6 difference.

Wow, I would say that's more or less spot on!

Cheers!

Sent from my GT-I8190 using Tapatalk

 

[rabmurray121]

I have been on the www.fuelly.com website and I have a daft question what do the engines code stand for Diesel H4, L2 & L4. My car is the 170 4x4 and I am due to change to the 170 4x4 DSG so which one do I chose.

[artichoke273]

Mine was 7% into the "dream-on" area, easily fixed with VCDS. I was able to get mine to within a mere fraction of an mpg.

Mine was 7% out before adjusting. For those that have asked, there's a good "how to" with screenshots here: http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/a5/inaccurate-fuel-economy-gauge-VW.htm

it might be worth pointing out that it's the "Display correction of consumptions and operating range" setting that needs to be adjusted. "Display correction of fuel gauge" option immediately below it, adjusts the fuel gauge needle angle.

[HoneyMonster65]

I have been on the www.fuelly.com website and I have a daft question what do the engines code stand for Diesel H4, L2 & L4. My car is the 170 4x4 and I am due to change to the 170 4x4 DSG so which one do I chose.

Here you go Rab  http://www.fuelly.com/faq/31/engine-type-codes so L4 for you on fuelly

[Coops]

Mine is about 10% out - I, like others, track on Fuelly to give a better view.

[Huwcymru]

My car has just topped 12000m, the maxi dot doesn't seem far out. I must have a really heavy right foot, just got back to Wales from Northern Spain, four large passengers, full boot & loads of wine, the maxi dot showed 52 mph average speed and 41.6 mpg. I usually brim to brim and use an app to record every tankful, I'm fairly confident that theses figures will be pretty close brim to brim and maxi dot. I also think for a big barge loaded at speed these figures are not bad.

My last tank fulls have shown 36.22; 41.22; 25.8; 32.73; 33.61 on my brim to brim figures. I live in a city and journeys are quite mixed. I've seen 50+ on maxi dot over periods during a tankful but these don't translate to the real world. My driving style is "IAM make good progress" and the figures are a little better than the Saab TDI auto I had.

I'm reasonably happy as the car is 140, DSG and 4x4, I just wonder whether it will get better with more miles.

[RichieJ]

Just checked my latest fill up. Maxi dot 55.3 mpg, calculated 54.7 mpg. 0.6 difference.

Just had to fill up again, this time Maxidot 55.5 mpg, calculated 55.9 mpg. 0.4 difference pessimistic.

[rabmurray121]

Thank you HoneyMonster65 I have now joined the fuelly crew

[Huwcymru]

It's worth looking on Fuelly, looks like my figures are fairly typical of Superb diesels - feel better now :-)