MPG tips

[Colin170CR]

Managed to crack an average of 60.9mpg (MFD reading) last night on my 42 mile commute home up the M1.

At one point it was reading as high as 64mpg but after driving like a nun for 1.5hrs the last bit of empty dual carriageway before getting home was too too tempting - so I floored it in sport for half a mile to blow any crap out.

I have got a photo of the MFD reading but can't seem to attach it as I don't have permissions!!

[Jevpls]

Or just enjoy driving the car and don't worry about saving a 1-2MPG here and there. The cost savings of doing it really don't add up unless you are doing truly insane mileage. 

 

 

A really good advice. One thing is proper gear use, no driving like madman, properly inflated tyres, no unnecessary braking etc. but turning off a/c or no exceeding 2k rpm because of one extra mpg - well, that's ruining all driving joy. Why you didn't buy Octavia then (they are cheaper)?

 

 

Remove roof bars & any un-needed interior crap (my old man drives around with a tool kit & all his car cleaning gear in the boot).

 

Well, these tools won't make any significant difference. Weight of your car with a driver could be ~1500 kg and adding 5 kg of stuff won't make any difference at all. My experience says that on longer journeys I don't see any great difference with 1 or 2 passengers or driving alone - the fuel consumption is basically the same.

[Noddy90]

The further you put your foot down the more fuel you use - simples!

Try staying in the gear that minimises how far down you have to put the accelerator pedal to maintain speed.

Usually it's not top gear unless your going over 55mph or are under light load, e.g. going downhill.

 

Yes - this is at the heart of it; that's why we call it a "heavy right foot".  Throttle position is key; that's why it needs to be the RIGHT gear, not just the highest gear.

[james0james]

59 mpg sounds very reasonable for such a large car,                                   http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/skoda/superb-estate-2010

 

Maybe park the car half a mile before work then walk the remainder,i know its not always possibl but it will be good for the car and driver.

 

A day of economical driving can be destroyed in seconds,one over take of a slower moving vehicle,caravans etc.

 

Just enjoy your car :clap:.​

[Jules Tohpipi]

If your journey is a long steady one, such as the OP's, then one of the secrets is to try and maintain a steady speed as much as possible. Another way of putting this is you should try to avoiding accelerating the car (adding speed) as this uses much more fuel than maintaining a speed. Of course, it will be necessary to slow down at times, but trying to anticipate the traffic flow to minimise the amount of regaining of speed is very important.

So long as it doesn't inconvenience other road users, coming off the throttle very early for roundabouts, or junctions, saves lots of fuel also. Why? Because the car uses zero fuel if you are off the throttle, in gear, and the revs are sufficiently above stall e.g 1500 rpm or more. For example, there's a roundabout at the end of a dual-carriageway, about 50 miles into my journey home. When conditions allow, I can come off the throttle completely half a mile or more before the roundabout, keep it in gear, changing down as I approach, and by the time I reach the roundabout the maxidot is showing a 2 mpg improvemt for the entire 50 mile journey. Contrast that with staying on the throttle all the way to the 200 yard marker and then braking heavily.

Incidentally, I also find that going north up the M1, on the M25 to MK stretch, uses less fuel than when coming south in the mornings.

[macmillions]

Thanks for all these interesting techniques. Today I took some of these on board and tried a few out. The key I think was anticipating traffic far earlier so not having to make any unnecessary braking or acceleration, also allowing the car to naturally slow slightly on inclines and then return to 65mph on flat and downhill sections helped considerably too. In fact my figure was 61.3mpg over the entire journey, which included being stuck in traffic in Braintree for about 10mins, so a good improvement on previous.

I know there was a comment about what difference does a couple of mpg actually achieve? Well, a few years ago my dad was putting on similar miles on his Megane DCi and discovered driving at 65mph instead of 70 I creased his fuel consumption by 5mpg and actually saved him over £400 per year. So even 2mpg to me could be saving me half that, which is a lot of money to me.

I will also be sure to give it a good old "Italian tune up" now and again to keep her running sweet in the long run, so as to avoid any nasty repair bills.

I still have to try increasing the tyre pressures a fraction (only a couple of PSI) and hope the warm weather later in the year helps further. I don't carry anything unnecessary and the roof bars are not fitted, just the fixed roof rails.

Thanks again for all your useful advice.

[jonathan.tong]

Had an interesting question from my 9 year old this morning on the way to school. He was interested as to why in stop-start traffic I left a reasonable gap before moving on. Now in my case it's because the clutch on my non-Skoda is very heavy so I try to use it as little as possible. However I do the same in our Skoda to maximise the stop bit of stop-start.

 

We also make use of coasting - which I know is somewhat contentious to some - but knocking the gearbox into neutral on a long gentle descent allows us to maintain speed and save fuel at the same time.

 

There was a point earlier about a fifth-gear article. I recall that they concluded that you should accelerate briskly but not excessively, so that you can get to cruising speed/revs sooner. Using relatively slow acceleration meant that you spent more time in a less fuel economical state.

[psycholist]

Newer DSG gearboxes will coast in certain conditions from what I've read about them, so it does save fuel in some cases, but these gearboxes can reengage drive very quickly compared to a manual transmissions - unless you coast by holding the clutch down, which will wear the clutch thrust bearing and clutch plates more quickly. Whether coasting works depends on whether the engine idling with no load while the car coasts allows you to maintain speed more efficiently than when your foot is off the accelerator and the tyres are spinning the engine using no fuel at all but slowing the car more quickly - I haven't found a good way of checking this, but it seems like unnecessary work in my case where economy is adequate and having a relaxing drive while sitting on the speed limit as much as possible to keep the journey as short as possible are more desirable.

[Phil-E]

New cars with DSG are programmed to incorporate coasting so when you let go of the throttle it goes into neutral and re-engages drive when you brake or press the throttle.

 

Like you say the theory being that you can travel further off-throttle and only a small amount of fuel is required to maintain idle engine speed.

 

I too push it into N on downhill sections of motorway and watch the MPG increase! It's quite safe to do this as all that's required to regain drive is to click the lever back into D.

 

I think the key is forward planning and getting off the throttle as early as possible on the approach to roundabout and traffic lights etc.

[brad1.8T]

A really good advice. One thing is proper gear use, no driving like madman, properly inflated tyres, no unnecessary braking etc. but turning off a/c or no exceeding 2k rpm because of one extra mpg - well, that's ruining all driving joy. Why you didn't buy Octavia then (they are cheaper)?

 

 

Well, these tools won't make any significant difference. Weight of your car with a driver could be ~1500 kg and adding 5 kg of stuff won't make any difference at all. My experience says that on longer journeys I don't see any great difference with 1 or 2 passengers or driving alone - the fuel consumption is basically the same.

I do a lot of motorway running and in AUS we've had the "lets make all our income off the speeders" for many years (seems a recent UK phenomenon).  Basically, trying to get better mpg stop the boredom - there's nothing else to do.

 

I'm not talking 5kg - more like a couple of big fruit boxes - call it 40kg.  It doesn't make a huge difference on the motorway but around town it's a problem.

[lichfielddriver]

Someone suggested you to drive slower (65->60 mph). I think you should try that. Reducing speed will cost you ~10-11 min per day but fuel consumption could be lower.

About 6th gear. I think that it comes handy at high speeds only. I've tried it at 2000 rpm (a bit over 120 kph or so) but 5th gear was more efficient.

 

At high speeds the drag factor of the bus design starts to cost mpg, a steady 60-65 seems best

[jafo]

There was a point earlier about a fifth-gear article. I recall that they concluded that you should accelerate briskly but not excessively, so that you can get to cruising speed/revs sooner. Using relatively slow acceleration meant that you spent more time in a less fuel economical state.

 

Yep It's true