So, my wife picked up a 1.2 petrol Spaceback last week and has driven about 260km in it so far, using about half a tank of petrol, does this seem very high? Obviously it's only new and I think will get better when things settle down but coming from a 1.5dci Qashqai the difference in fuel efficiency is huge.

The car is mid-trim, 15" rims etc. and she mainly does school runs etc. It isn't a green tech model so no Stop-Start (which I thought was standard on all new Rapids).

Just wondering what everyone else's experiences are and whether this is normal.

On the plus side it's a cracking car and great fun to drive.

A lot will depend on driving style, terrain, and so on - but if you've done 260km on 27 litres of fuel (assuming the tank was full and your 'half tank' is genuinely half of that) then that comes out at 26 mpg (that's around 10 litres per 100km)

 

That does seem like high consumption to me but without knowing where/how you're driving it's difficult to say whether you should be expecting better.

The MFD is saying 10 lots per 100km so this ties in with your calculations. Terrain is fairly level, it's definitely not hilly and there would be a bit of heavy traffic for short periods and even then not bumper to bumper. Driving style would be fairly level, she wouldn't have a heavy foot but I suppose she could be giving it a bit more juice at initial acceleration as this would be needed in the Nissan. I've been reading a lot of reviews and fuel efficiency figures are said to be about 43mpg (honest John) so a bit concerned that we are only seeing mid 20's.

Tank wouldn't have been brimmed when we collected it but was "full".

The engine is very quiet and doesn't sound (or feel) like its under any stress etc.

Should this get better as it beds in?

Since i bought it i ve done 6k klm and the total l/100 km is 6.5.

10 l/100km is too much for this car. I would suspect combination of driving style and traffic. Take it for a short trip yourself and check the consumption

It'll get better - around town it will be 30mpg or so. Longer journeys will be 45+ mpg

Thanks lads, I'll be taking it for a spin myself so will see how things go. Annoyingly I was going to take it out this morning on a trip to the shops with the family but decided to bring my 13 plate Superb instead, sorry that I did as some sod decided to open his door on top of my passenger door leaving a lovely dent. I'm less than happy with that I can tell you. Will be getting it pressed out next weekend but am forced to look at it for the rest of the week.

I'm not sure whether the Rapid's fuel gauge counts the whole 55 litres or whether the reserve is included in the 55 litres and not counted on the gauge?

 

Anyhow, 26mpg is not normal. I have the 86ps liftback and a lot of my driving is very uneconomical yet my average for each tank is way more than that.

I've brimmed it today and logged details into fuelly so will see what that says. We got the car last week and the dealer filled it before handing it over (dial was saying full but you know it wasn't brimmed). So at €1.49.9 per litre it cost me €41 to fill it (which to me is a LOT for one week). I'd understand if this was been driven hard but I know it's not as my wife had to be encouraged to do 60 (100kph) by the dealer on the test drive. All I can think of is she may be staying in 3rd for too long. I took it out tonight and drove it very conservatively, currently have it down to 8.2 L per 100km (still high particularly when there was no traffic). The engine sounds so smooth so I don't think there is a fault with fuel mix or anything like that. I'm hoping the fact that she usually has at least 3/4 people in the car isn't the problem as that's not going to change (teenage kid and father-in-law usually with her). If it doesn't get better then this is going to be one expensive car to run :(

You put 27 litres in so assuming it is now full you should get around 350 miles to that tank of fuel for the driving she's doing.

I get anywhere from 330 - 500 depending on journeys covered to 50 litres.

350 - 500 miles on a full tank would be great, here's hoping. I think part of the problem is her relying on the car to tell her when to change up/down (on the MFD) which is probably keeping her in 2nd/3rd for too long. I've been driving it today and have it down to 7.5 l/km and most of that was with 3 adults and two kids in it. I logged the fill up details on fuelly so will see what that works it out at when it comes time to refill. I've told the wife not to look at the gear change prompt and just drive as normal, let's see if this helps things.

The MFD on mine seems to be quite sensible, when I first got it I was alarmed at how early it was telling me to change up to fourth, it felt like it was way too early but I put that down to having come from a much lower power 1.4 MPI engine which needed a bit more encouragement than this TSI lump needs.

What with all this throttle-by-wire gadgetry these days, I think that if you have your foot down far enough, then the computer assumes you're after brisk acceleration and will not tell you to change up until later. It's when you feather the throttle and aren't accelerating too harshly (or cruising) that the computer seems to suggest early (or due) gearchanges, which I've always done anyway. This is what I gather, anyway.

What with all this throttle-by-wire gadgetry these days, I think that if you have your foot down far enough, then the computer assumes you're after brisk acceleration and will not tell you to change up until later. It's when you feather the throttle and aren't accelerating too harshly (or cruising) that the computer seems to suggest early (or due) gearchanges, which I've always done anyway. This is what I gather, anyway.

 

i second that. this is what i have seen so far with my Rapid

I've been looking into the 1.2 TSI engine used in VAG cars and it seems two things are very important to get the best fuel efficiency figures:

1. Engine needs to be run in (at least 5000 miles, which isn't good for me as that's not far below the wife's annual mileage figures).

2. You needs to have a very light touch on the accelerator pedal.

It looks like if you are even a little heavy footed a richer fuel mix is used, so driving style needs to change (particularly for city driving).

Would be interested to hear what other peoples "real life" experiences are with this engine. I've seen a thread on the Yeti forum where an owner is getting 40+ mpg from a 1.2 TSI engine and if it's possible in that car (which is bigger and heavier than the Rapid) then you should get better figures in the Rapid)..

At the moment wife is still only seeing high 20's/low 30's so hoping to see this improve.

Yes, the TSIs are very sensitive to driving style, but it's really not necessary to give it a lot of gas even to get it moving at a reasonable pace.

 

Is your wife doing mostly town work? It's quite hard to get the fuel economy that low on mine.

I don't do a lot of town driving in mine so it's difficult to say, but when I do I can still return high 40's according to the MFD. I do have a very light touch on the accelerator though,  I also do a lot of engine braking which is where I get most of my fuel economy from, I reckon I could easily knock 10+ off my average MPG if I only used the brakes.

I've told her a lighter touch is needed, coming from diesel where you would need to put the foot down early doesn't help. I'm not sure I can get her to engine break though but will give that a try. By comparison, my diesel Superb was filled up 2 weeks ago today, daily commute is about 15 miles and is always heavy traffic. I've just moved off the quarter tank mark whereas the Rapid has used half a tank in a week. Given the price of petrol it could work out more expensive than buying the diesel version.

I've just driven two miles home from work from a cold start, 4 junctions to stop at, all towny roads no more than 30 mph and I still got 35mpg.

What milage have got up on yours? I think she only has about 650 Km (450 miles or so) on her one so that too may be a bit of a factor.

Just under 10,000 miles.

2nd partial fill up thus evening, 28.02 litres put in, 317 km driven since last weeks top up. €1.49.9 per ltr, €42.00 top up cost. Considering we spent €41 last week I have already spent more on fuel for this 1.2 than I would have spent on the Nissans 1.5dci.

On the plus the MFD is now saying 9 L/100KM (down from 10's last week) and when I got in it tonight to drop the father-in-law home it was saying 8.7 L/100KM so it is slowly coming down (I had it down to 7.5 L/KM by the time I got home, but really had to think about my driving style).

Was at the dealership yesterday and mentioned fuel efficiency (or lack thereof) and he said we were the second customer to mention this to him (other customer bought an Octavia with the 1.2 TSI), common denominator, both he and my wife had come from diesels and it could be a case of pushing the engine harder at the low end (which in fairness is generally how you drive diesels to get them moving).

A quick question, in terms of driving style, are you guys shifting up quickly (1st to get moving, 2nd from about 10mph, 3rd from about 25mph, 4th from about 40mph and 5th from 50mph onwards?).

Yes I shift up early, unless you're flooring it to get up to speed briskly the MFD will indicate changing gear at the point the revs would still be at about 1.5k, which is when the turbo is working and you have full torque available. Still make progress at a good rate that way.

It's never going to be as good as a diesel though.

When you push a petrol rapid you might get 25-30mpg, push the rapid diesel you might get 40-45mpg.

I have just changed to a fabia vrs se (diesel) and did two journeys this weekend that I did in the Rapid the weekend before...

Rapid average 45.8mpg

Fabia average 64mpg

I know both displays will over read but it's quite a margin. Both cars driven by me in a similar manner with two passengers (wife/baby) and similar traffic.

Your latest fill up averaged 31.7mpg then.

 

Are you looking at MFD2 (cumulative fuel consumption since last reset) or MFD1 (fuel consumption for that journey)?

 

As AdLav says you will never get the same as in a diesel, but you should get considerably better than a "normal" petrol. I changed from a Roomster 1.6 petrol to my Rapid TSI and fuel consumptiuon over a tank seems to be as much as 50% better.

To be honest I'm not expecting diesel efficiency but was hoping for better than we initially received, the reference to the diesel was to try to justify why fuel consumption was so bad. Now that the wife is getting used to the different driving style between petrol v diesel I think we should see better returns.

RapidRonnie, MFD2 for the first set of figures, MFD1 for the second (my journey).

According to Fuelly.com it's averaged at 8.32 L/100KM between fill ups.

5mpg better than last week, so that's a plus