Sweetspot

[rorywquin]

I just feel that the £100 a month saved could be better used to buy my kids what they want or take the wife out for a meal rather than satisfying my right foot urge

Wasn't referring to you personally - only generalising.

Based of 200 trips/year for work you are saving about £17/month.

 

[Dean Fletcher]

About 40/45 mins each way at the times I travel, but when I used to have a shift that finished at 4pm it'd take well over an hour

Mine takes the same. The car gets a good run out. I'm actually getting a works van next months I think it's going to be a vw caddy. Apparently 66 to the gallon. We will soon see

 

[d215yq]

I can't quite easily afford my car at the lowest fuel economy for example it may cost me £65 a week fuel as appose to £40 a week if I drive economically. I just feel that the £100 a month saved could be better used to buy my kids what they want or take the wife out for a meal rather than satisfying my right foot urge

That does sound like quite a lot of a difference?

at 20k miles pa 55mpg = 363 gallons x 5.5 = 1650 pounds per year or 140/month
at 20k miles pa 45mpg = 444 gallons x 5.5 = 2500 pounds per year or 200/month

Assuming you can make 10mpg difference thats 60/month. In reality it's more likely 5mpg so 30/month different. Still worth it though.

I remember going to Spain through France from the UK when there were fuel protests there and I wasn't too sure I could fill up with diesel in France. I didn't know veg oil could be used then so brimmed the tank in Dover and was doing 55 everywhere on the non toll roads and not braking for roundabouts etc. Half way through it became clear the protests had fizzled out so I drove a bit faster but still with fuel economy in mind but I remember making it to 15 miles off of Andorra where I chucked a fiver in to get me up the steep mountain pass without relying on the reserve and years of crud at the bottom - so that was 715 miles on a tank without the reserve light comign on. When I then refilled in Andorra (cheap fuel) I calculated 55mpg - and the car had climbed 2000 meters as well, so if I'd have gone back down the other side of the mountain again I could have done another 50-100 miles using practically nothing and increased it further!

I'd like to do one of those hypermiling challenges as I'm sure the 33 yr old 300D could get 60mpg at a run involving 99% of driving at 55mph with some pumped up tyres and deliberate fuel saving driving. Ultimately for the challenge than to save money though!

 

[Dean Fletcher]

That does sound like quite a lot of a difference?

at 20k miles pa 55mpg = 363 gallons x 5.5 = 1650 pounds per year or 140/month
at 20k miles pa 45mpg = 444 gallons x 5.5 = 2500 pounds per year or 200/month

Assuming you can make 10mpg difference thats 60/month. In reality it's more likely 5mpg so 30/month different. Still worth it though.

I remember going to Spain through France from the UK when there were fuel protests there and I wasn't too sure I could fill up with diesel in France. I didn't know veg oil could be used then so brimmed the tank in Dover and was doing 55 everywhere on the non toll roads and not braking for roundabouts etc. Half way through it became clear the protests had fizzled out so I drove a bit faster but still with fuel economy in mind but I remember making it to 15 miles off of Andorra where I chucked a fiver in to get me up the steep mountain pass without relying on the reserve and years of crud at the bottom - so that was 715 miles on a tank without the reserve light comign on. When I then refilled in Andorra (cheap fuel) I calculated 55mpg - and the car had climbed 2000 meters as well, so if I'd have gone back down the other side of the mountain again I could have done another 50-100 miles using practically nothing and increased it further!

I'd like to do one of those hypermiling challenges as I'm sure the 33 yr old 300D could get 60mpg at a run involving 99% of driving at 55mph with some pumped up tyres and deliberate fuel saving driving. Ultimately for the challenge than to save money though!

I have seen my car do anywhere from 44mpg to 57mpg on a trip to and from work. Usual it's doing 44mpg on a Friday evening and then doing 57mpg on a Monday morning.

 

[EmilysDad]

Mine takes the same. The car gets a good run out. I'm actually getting a works van next months I think it's going to be a vw caddy. Apparently 66 to the gallon. We will soon see

I generally use my Smart Fortwo to commute which being a turbo only does around 50mpg

 

[LostKiwi]

As a "foreigner", I don't get the obsession with fuel consumption in this country. I've had homes in 8 countries (lived in about 11) and never known drivers to worry about consumption like we do here.

It is even more surprising to see the number of MB drivers worried about it.

Maybe that is why we have people blocking lanes - they are on cruise control, saving fuel, and refuse to speed up and get out the way or move over and possibly have to slow down.

I'm with you on this (as another foreigner).

 

[js190d]

The sweet spot for economy in my s210 320cdi seems to be around 65mph. Best i have had so far is 47mpg on a motorway cruise which does'nt seem too bad for a car the size of the QE2. My w201 190d 2.5 manual is very economical and just never seems to run out of fuel.
Hope to better this on a forthcoming drive to the Limousin area of France though.

 

[js190d]

On an aside to this thread i watched a few videos on Youtube from a young couple who were documenting their drive from the Uk to the south of France in a brand new Tesla model X.
There experience brings the term 'range anxiety' onto the next level with each section of the journey from supercharger to supercharger plotted by Tesla on the in car screen. They had to limit there speed to reach charging points along the way.
At each supercharging station they would meet the same Tesla owners charging up all the way down France. Also a self driving system autopilot which got confused by trucks and switched from lane to lane on motorways by violently swerving. What a ridiculous way to travel.
They seemed quite positive about the whole experience though, presumably because they did'nt have to pay for the charging although the car had cost them £110000.
What i could not fathom was they did not seem to grasp the fact that they were being used by Tesla as unwitting beta testers for the technology in the car. Also the others road users had to put up with this car driving itself along in a very random fashion.
So in the future when we are all driving electric cars you will have no choice of route you take and your speed will be up to the car so you can make the next recharge point. Great!

 

[Srdl]

Sort of on topic, but I did a totally unscientific experiment on my 80 mile round trip today.

Outbound trip was 31.0mpg using Eco mode all the way (no, I don’t usually use it but was interested to see if it made a difference). Mixture of urban, Motorway and A road.

Return journey was very similar traffic patterns, a bit faster than the morning trip and I did exercise the car a couple of times, but used a Comfort all the way - and mpg was 31.7!

 

[EmilysDad]

traffic conditions make a huge difference to mpg. If I take note of the mpg while going to work on a Sunday morning with relatively little traffic and I manage to get through the town centre on mostly green traffic lights, the mpg is way better than if I do the same journey at 'rush hour' when it's stop start traffic. Getting a 2+ tonne moving from a standstill takes a fair bit more fuel than maintaining a speed

 

[LostKiwi]

The sweet spot for economy in my s210 320cdi seems to be around 65mph. Best i have had so far is 47mpg on a motorway cruise which does'nt seem too bad for a car the size of the QE2. My w201 190d 2.5 manual is very economical and just never seems to run out of fuel.
Hope to better this on a forthcoming drive to the Limousin area of France though.

Nice bit of France - very quiet and non-touristy. Drop in at Oradour sur Glane if you can. Its a moving memorial to the innocent victims of the Nazi regime.

 

[rorywquin]

Sort of on topic, but I did a totally unscientific experiment on my 80 mile round trip today.

Outbound trip was 31.0mpg using Eco mode all the way (no, I don’t usually use it but was interested to see if it made a difference). Mixture of urban, Motorway and A road.

Return journey was very similar traffic patterns, a bit faster than the morning trip and I did exercise the car a couple of times, but used a Comfort all the way - and mpg was 31.7!

Did you have much stop/start using ECO? My understanding is that ECO only stops and starts the car and has no other effect on fuel economy (more for pollution reduction???).

Mine has various drive modes viz C,S,S+,I*,CV and a separate button to turn ECO on or off so not sure if it does the same as your car. Apparently CV is the most economical for my car but I wouldn't know. I drive to the conditions and the consumption will be what it is.

 

[Srdl]

Did you have much stop/start using ECO? My understanding is that ECO only stops and starts the car and has no other effect on fuel economy (more for pollution reduction???).

Mine has various drive modes viz C,S,S+,I*,CV and a separate button to turn ECO on or off so not sure if it does the same as your car. Apparently CV is the most economical for my car but I wouldn't know. I drive to the conditions and the consumption will be what it is.

ECO is one of the drive options (Dynamic Select) along with C, S, S+ and I. Auto stop/start works in E and C and I have a button to turn this off.

The car doesn’t feel quite as responsive in E and I think the gears were changing up quicker. I also get the small sail boat symbol when it’s coasting (Glide Mode) and the rev counter drops right down. Not sure what else is different but it didn’t make any obvious difference to consumption!

Edit - just checked the Manual(!) - may affect the aircon operation and it also reduces the suspension height slightly for better aerodynamics.

 

[Dean Fletcher]

Update - today's journey was 55mpg morning and 54mpg on the way home. I think I might have founf out something. When at sainsburys in kendal on monday I checked my air and set the tyres at the usual 35 front and 36 rear as per the sticker in the fuel flap. Today I went to morrisons to check them again because I thought one was going down they were already at 37 front and 38 rear so...... Either the sainsburys machine is F**ked or the morrisons one is. Bearing in mind the sainsburys one is free to use.

 

[Blobcat]

Update - today's journey was 55mpg morning and 54mpg on the way home. I think I might have founf out something. When at sainsburys in kendal on monday I checked my air and set the tyres at the usual 35 front and 36 rear as per the sticker in the fuel flap. Today I went to morrisons to check them again because I thought one was going down they were already at 37 front and 38 rear so...... Either the sainsburys machine is F**ked or the morrisons one is. Bearing in mind the sainsburys one is free to use.

They’re all “Within tolerance”...*




*tolerance +/- 10psi


Get yourself a simple pen style one and use that to check

 

[LostKiwi]

Update - today's journey was 55mpg morning and 54mpg on the way home. I think I might have founf out something. When at sainsburys in kendal on monday I checked my air and set the tyres at the usual 35 front and 36 rear as per the sticker in the fuel flap. Today I went to morrisons to check them again because I thought one was going down they were already at 37 front and 38 rear so...... Either the sainsburys machine is F**ked or the morrisons one is. Bearing in mind the sainsburys one is free to use.

Any difference in how far you drove? Heat will make that kind of difference.

 

[rorywquin]

Update - today's journey was 55mpg morning and 54mpg on the way home. I think I might have founf out something. When at sainsburys in kendal on monday I checked my air and set the tyres at the usual 35 front and 36 rear as per the sticker in the fuel flap. Today I went to morrisons to check them again because I thought one was going down they were already at 37 front and 38 rear so...... Either the sainsburys machine is F**ked or the morrisons one is. Bearing in mind the sainsburys one is free to use.

Pressure should be measured on a cold tyre.

 

[Dean Fletcher]

Any difference in how far you drove? Heat will make that kind of difference.

Nope the distance would have been exactly the same. Motoway to A road.. It was ****ing it Down this morning. Will try again in the morning.

 

[Dean Fletcher]

Pressure should be measured on a cold tyre.

How much of a difference does that make??

 

[Blobcat]

How much of a difference does that make??

Somewhere between ~4-6 psi depending upon how hot the tyres