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My fuel consumption is down - why?

I have a 3 month old Mondeo (TDCi 163) - on taking delivery the tank was empty and had to fill up with standard Jet diesel at the nearest garage - this gave ~50mpg. I subsequently filled with Shell V-nitro (Sv-n) and consumption dropped to 45 mpg, I then refilled with a second tankful of Sv-n(from a different garage) and this has given the same consumption.

This is my second Mk 4 Mondeo (the previous one being a 140 TDCi) and I was used to getting around 53 mpg with Sv-n and about 47 using ordinary diesel.
Before I visit my main dealer could I please have your thoughts as to why this discrepancy should be?

Asked on 19 January 2015 by goffer23

Answered by Honest John
The engine is calibrated to run on Super, not Premium, fuel. Obviously a 163 gives a bit more power than a 140 and nothing is for nothing. But the difference may be more due to the cold weather and increased fuelling on start-up. If you have only used three tankfuls in 3 months that implies quite a lot of short runs from cold starts rather than 200 mile runs when the cold weather won't make much difference to fuel economy. The Real MPG average for your car is 46.1mpg (www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/ford/mondeo-iv-2007)

Real MPG enables you to register the fuel economy you are actually getting against your make and model of car, its engine and type of transmission.

Every time you enter an average consumption figure against your car, the overall average automatically adjusts to reflect it.

Real MPG
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