Fuel Consuption Experiment

Right we all know fuel is somewhat expensive these days and I am in the lucky / unlucky position that means my inlaws live 250 miles away which makes it a 500 mile round trip.

We do this journey a fair bit, about once a month, maybe a bit less at the moment, and i noticed the cost increasing.. So with the prices at an all time high and a journey planned for this weekend I decided to be scrouge and drive all the way there at 70mph or less on cruise control.

The car

59 Plate BMW 318d Msport Touring

Mileage 15400

Serviced on friday - Oil and filter.

61 litre fuel tank.

Fuel cost £1.30 a litre / £5.90 a gallon

Avereage fuel consuption including 119 miles of A14 & 130 miles of M6 eaach way plus a total of two stops for coffee and 4 roundabouts on the A14.

57.6 mpg

Tank range varied from 780 miles to 820 miles.

Journey time = 4 hours exactly

Journey Cost = £51

Impressed to say the least, the car has always been great on fuel but it excelled itself this weekend,

Interstingly though on previous trips having the cruise control set at 78 mph it returns 52.1 mpg = £56 return cost and the journey takes 3.5 hours.

Its intersting to see that the difference between scrouge and not hanging about is £5....not as much as I thought, but in this instance I spent the saving on the toll.

Its not going to make me millions but I thought the mpg was quite impresive from a familly estate car.

(it was fooking boring though)

[Mr Speirs]

I've resorted to slipstreaming lorries, and if I am really lucky finding a national express coach and staying in his slipstream as they go at 65ish.

I get 450 odd miles from a tank of 60 litres. Car is an Alfa Romeo 156.
Used to struggle to get 400 until I took the gearbox out of auto and into manual.

Originally Posted by Mr Speirs

I've resorted to slipstreaming lorries, and if I am really lucky finding a national express coach and staying in his slipstream as they go at 65ish.

I get 450 odd miles from a tank of 60 litres. Car is an Alfa Romeo 156.
Used to struggle to get 400 until I took the gearbox out of auto and into manual.

Ha ha, I did this the other night, Wrexham to M6/M56 junction near Warrington. Averaged a lovely 56mpg in me 1.2 clio which dropped to 45-47 when the coach went North and I went South

£1.30/ litre?! £1.35 is cheapest locally.

I managed to get above 50mpg consistently last summer. Struggle to get 46-47 the past few months

[Viney]

Originally Posted by 454697819

Right we all know fuel is somewhat expensive these days and I am in the lucky / unlucky position that means my inlaws live 250 miles away which makes it a 500 mile round trip.

We do this journey a fair bit, about once a month, maybe a bit less at the moment, and i noticed the cost increasing.. So with the prices at an all time high and a journey planned for this weekend I decided to be scrouge and drive all the way there at 70mph or less on cruise control.

The car

59 Plate BMW 318d Msport Touring

Mileage 15400

Serviced on friday - Oil and filter.

61 litre fuel tank.

Fuel cost £1.30 a litre / £5.90 a gallon

Avereage fuel consuption including 119 miles of A14 & 130 miles of M6 eaach way plus a total of two stops for coffee and 4 roundabouts on the A14.

57.6 mpg

Tank range varied from 780 miles to 820 miles.

Journey time = 4 hours exactly

Journey Cost = £51

Impressed to say the least, the car has always been great on fuel but it excelled itself this weekend,

Interstingly though on previous trips having the cruise control set at 78 mph it returns 52.1 mpg = £56 return cost and the journey takes 3.5 hours.

Its intersting to see that the difference between scrouge and not hanging about is £5....not as much as I thought, but in this instance I spent the saving on the toll.

Its not going to make me millions but I thought the mpg was quite impresive from a familly estate car.

(it was fooking boring though)

Do it at 60 and see the difference even more.

average going to work so far each way about 56mpg - Sorry V man and its still estimating 640miles to a tank

Diesels (or maybe just mine) are a lot more sensitive to cold than I thought.

When I got my car brand new last Feb (118D Msport) it did about 460-490 miles per tank (sorry I have no idea on capacity etc offhand)

Last winter saw returns of just 300 miles, AND I was driving slower/more ecomonically

Now its starting to warm up again, this tank is on track for 450ish miles...

Embee explained about how the efficiencies and inefficiencies of cold vs engine heat etc but really, I was (perhaps naively) surprised that modern engines suffer like that.

My Focus 2.0l TDCI was showing 620 miles to a tank when i was setting off from Norht Wales to Portsmouth last weekend. Its only a 50l tank as well.

This weekend got just over 500 till empty whilst running arround and going to and from London then to and from bristol.

All done at between 70-80.

Diesels rock. Only fools drive petrol cars these days.

This fool gets 52.7mpg out of his petrol car driven as fast as the speed limit allows.
People tend to forget all the other things that speed costs such as accelerated tyre wear and the additional initial outlay in purchase price and extra cost of diesel per litre.
If instead of just mpg you take all the figures into consideration for a like for like car
petrol/diesel and work out your cost per mile,that is a more realistic figure.

Originally Posted by Dicky Ticker

This fool gets 52.7mpg out of his petrol car driven as fast as the speed limit allows.
People tend to forget all the other things that speed costs such as accelerated tyre wear and the additional initial outlay in purchase price and extra cost of diesel per litre.
If instead of just mpg you take all the figures into consideration for a like for like car
petrol/diesel and work out your cost per mile,that is a more realistic figure.

I could but as I don't pay them its not relevant to me as its a cc.

Im very very glad of that as it went through a set of rear tyres in 14 k miles and cost £380 to replace 2tyres...

Id have to drive everywhere at 5 mph to reclaim that cost.