In the words of Jerry and the P's song "How do you do it"

[DaveA1]

Just reading Bazzel33s post. As the post went on the MPG quoted had me a little envious.
The normal average foe me is 38 to 40 mpg and on a long run 48 to 50mph
Towing is about 30 to 32 mpg less than people were quoting, and that's with a tail wind.

Now my motor is in reasonable condition, full service every year with an interim at 6 months oil change etc. and I can't achieve some of those figures.

Any Ideas why??

My motor is a Vauxhall Insignia A 20lt CDTI Elite, Sports Tourer.

 

[Jcloughie]

I get suspicious of some of the figures some folk quote, even more fanciful than the manufacturers claims. Mine, a Volvo V70 D3 2 ltr Auto diesel 135 bhp. Averages 36 local short trips. 24 towing but can reach 53 solo long motorway trips. (I have only only ever gone by the onboard computer).

I wish it was better, but I think it is realistic.

John

 

[DaveA1]

I get suspicious of some of the figures some folk quote, even more fanciful than the manufacturers claims. Mine, a Volvo V70 D3 2 ltr Auto diesel 135 bhp. Averages 36 local short trips. 24 towing but can reach 53 solo long motorway trips. (I have only only ever gone by the onboard computer).

I wish it was better, but I think it is realistic.

John

Mine are trip computer readings as well. I once did the brim to brim test and there was not a nats whisker in it.
Not much difference.

 

[Beachball]

Mine a Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0TDI 190 4motion DSG 5 door average around 40 miles short trips and towing 30 (so far.)
but can reach 50 solo long motorway trips that all with the onboard computer .
Sometimes i wonder why it not better myself.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Forum's are full of people claiming all sorts of mpg - many complaining that they can't acheived the published figures. The only use the published figures are good for - IMO - is as a comparison between vehicles because in theory they will all have been tested the same way.

In real life so much depends on driving conditions and driving styles. So even comparing the same vehicle across a group of drivers will probably result in differing figures.

FWIW: I have a Qashqai 1.5dCI - on mostly motorway conditions I can average over 60mpg. Driving through the Highlands on a long journey this may come down to 53/54 mpg. Short run arounds home this will drop below 50. Towing a 1100kg caravan seems to give me about 36mpg regardless of where I'm driving.

I don't hurry; I don't have to be in front; I don't need to be the first away at the lights.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I totally agree with SV on this one, Even the same type of car doing the same trip in a convoy will probably return different MPGs - That was a facet the military found for running close coupled convoys, they put it down to the following vehicle always having to react to the lead vehicle and braking slightly later and having to accelerate harder to try and maintain the gap.

Even the most skilled driver finds it very difficult to even approach recreating a previous journey or lap precisely. For a normal drivers using public roads to confidently say for a specific journey they have an mpg quoted to an accurate decimal value is wishful thinking.

It's also misleading to trust a vehicles own calculation of MPG, there are some quite big variations in accuracy between vehicles. I had a SAAB 9-3 diesel which when compared to the brim to brim figures was fairly close, but my first VW passat was nearly 25% optimistic compared to the brim to brim calculations - however it did have a replacement engine and the sensors may not have been recalibrated.

The driver wanting to be the fastest is always at the back of the que.

 

[Robert_374373903]

Have Skoda Octavia 2.0 140 BHP with DSG .use to do regular run to Essex which is 80 miles each way. Be time got to Dartford the computer was nearly at 70mpg each time , Dropping down to the sixties when at destination . Still get that on long runs elsewhere. However although we tow at 30/35 mpg on our regular 80 mile run and over 112 ,475 miles here and abroad it works out at 42 mpg. Have seen it at any thing between 30 and 70 mpg over eleven years.