Ford Fiesta - Is my car thirsty?

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Mon 1 Jun 2015 20:57
Ford Fiesta - Is my car thirsty? - keymoo

I have a 2003 Ford Fiesta 1.4 Zetec 5 door. I've calculated that it's doing 35 mpg and it feels like it should do more. I also have a 2007 2.0 Zetec Diesel S-Max and that does 45 mpg and it's a much bigger car.

The fiesta is not thrashed and has a mix of dual carriageway and town driving typically, and probably 5% of the miles are motorway. The A/C is on more often than not.

Does it sound thirsty to you or roughly to be expected?

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Mon 1 Jun 2015 21:08
Ford Fiesta - Is my car thirsty? - gordonbennet

If you check the Real MPG figures, above, your car reckons to average 40mpg, so you're not far off.

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Mon 1 Jun 2015 23:50
Ford Fiesta - Is my car thirsty? - Railroad.
I'd be happy with that if it was mine. 35mpg for a 1.4 petrol with the kind of mileage you describe sounds about right.
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Tue 2 Jun 2015 00:36
Ford Fiesta - Is my car thirsty? - focussed

I would be inclined to suspect that the engine may not be running at the correct temperature, the poor old thermostat is 12 years old, try replacing it.

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Tue 2 Jun 2015 13:56
Ford Fiesta - Is my car thirsty? - Peter.N.

It can depend on the way you drive, diesel engines are much more economical when driven gently as the throttle controls the ammount of fuel entering, the petrol engine runs on a fixed ratio of about 13/1 so you can't improve its efficiency much by the way you drive.

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Tue 2 Jun 2015 14:04
Ford Fiesta - Is my car thirsty? - skidpan

It can depend on the way you drive, diesel engines are much more economical when driven gently as the throttle controls the ammount of fuel entering, the petrol engine runs on a fixed ratio of about 13/1 so you can't improve its efficiency much by the way you drive.

Of course you can.

Petrols run at 14.7:1 in a perfect world. Some run a little leaner but all run richer when you floor them.

Petrols and diesels both use much more fuel the harder you drive them.

Try a week of normal driving and then a week of thrashing it and you will see a big difference.

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Tue 2 Jun 2015 17:10
Ford Fiesta - Is my car thirsty? - galileo

It can depend on the way you drive, diesel engines are much more economical when driven gently as the throttle controls the ammount of fuel entering, the petrol engine runs on a fixed ratio of about 13/1 so you can't improve its efficiency much by the way you drive.

Of course you can.

Petrols run at 14.7:1 in a perfect world. Some run a little leaner but all run richer when you floor them.

Petrols and diesels both use much more fuel the harder you drive them.

Try a week of normal driving and then a week of thrashing it and you will see a big difference.

I agree - once bought a car off my best mate, he used to average about 21mpg, I got 40 mpg for similar journeys, except I didn't redline it in every gear and corner with tyresqueal, which was his usual mode of travel.

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