Having bought a one year old Zetec 1.4 tdci in January, mainly for its mpg figures, I have been very disappointed in the return. It is extremely consistent on work commute but sadly not achieving more than 52mpg which is quoted as the urban return. This is on a 12 mile commute with 10 miles being spent in 5th gear at 50-60, and 2 miles on tickover in 1st/2nd gear in traffic. A run at 70/80 gave only 47mpg. It is amazingly consistent however, in being within 52 or 51 mpg for every tank used so far.
The figures are based on brimming the tank and I have checked tyre pressures OK, and I pride myself on light-footedness.
Goodness knows how anyone achieves the quoted 76.3mpg for extra urban!
I recall reading similar comments on the Mondeo tdcis. (apologies if this topic has been covered before)
Is it worth taking to main dealer for attention now or waiting for annual service; it is under warranty? Any views?
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"Goodness knows how anyone achieves the quoted 76.3mpg for extra urban!"
No one ever does or ever will in real world driving. MPG figures quoted in brochures are so artificial as to be useless.
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Thanks RF but this is What Car quoting.
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Dont some testers deliberately mark the mpg more opitimistically?
I read in a newspaper some months ago that they put the mpg by another 5mpg to make it look good on paper!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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My 1.9TD Xsara gets directly on or slightly above the 45mpg quoted in the handbook.
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As already said the figures are really only a guide & shouldn't be relied upon - the tests are carried out in "ideal" circumstances & can't realistically match everyones own driving style/journeys.
Similar thing for performance figures (0-60 times etc) - all should be taken with a small pinch of salt !!
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If it's any consellation, my wife has a very similar commute of 20 mins in 1st/2nd gear crawling for the Tyne Tunnel and 25 miles at 70-80mph on dual carriageway. Her Punto Multijet lease car has never come close to its quoted extra urban figure of 73mpg. She consistently gets 55mpg in the summer dipping to around 50mpg at the moment. Having said that, she does have a heavy-ish right foot!
It's been said before, but I think the figure to look at for a good gauge of real-world mpg for any car has to be the urban one..
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Have complained to dealers in the past about poor MPG and never gotten anywhere with it. You don't say how many miles your car has done, but if its less than 6-7000 then you can't expect to be hitting the high numbers yet really. My Audi A3 is supposed to do 50mpg according to the book. More normal with my hard driving is 45mpg. On a run of 120-130 miles sticking to the speed limits I get 55-60mpg depending on if the car is laden or just me. On my usual 10 mile run to uni (not unlike yours in journey pattern) I consistently get 55mpg on the trip computer (real life 50mpg)
At a guess I'd be looking at an engine not quite run in yet, or possibly as your name suggests you live in a rather hilly region and the figures don't take much account of that. Try matching your gears differently. Keep the engine on the torque curve i.e. stay between 1750 and 3000rpm max. When I tried a Fiesta diesel I found it distinctly lacking in power and therefore I had to drive harder than I was expecting just to keep up with traffic, the smoothness of the engine impressed me and often I didn't realise how high up the rev band I was.
Maybe of some use
Regards
Chris
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Mark,
assuming the engine is fully and properly run in, you may feel justified to be disappointed, but....
For your 12 miles journey of which 10 miles is cruising, you may be achieving 70mpg, but you do slow down and accelerate which casuses consumption to increase, you started the car from cold, which uses more fuel and sitting in 2 miles of nose to tail traffic can leasd to less than 20mpg even in a diesel.
Take an average of these bits.
10 miles @ 70 mpg = 0.14 gallon
2 miles @ 20 mpg = 0.10 gallon
= 0.24 gallon for 12 miles = 50mpg for the journey.
So why complain?
No-one can achieve the official mpg figures in the real world, because the real world is not ideal nor consistant and the figures have to be for comparison purposes. They are not realy a guide for an individual car, more a guide between models.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Thanks RF
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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I always take the quoted 'Urban' figure and assume thats what I'll actually get for mixed use driving - seems to work for me.
CF
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Mark, I have a Zetec Tdci. Its only done 8000 miles so far, and i have a 50 mile commute total to work, mostly national speed limit. I get 55mpg so your numbers would seem to be about right.
Its probably a bit of specmanship on Fords part.
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I get spot on the quoted combined on my Galaxy Diesel.
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I believe official mpg figures are measured on a rolling road so there is no air resistance, hence the figures are impossible to reproduce in the real world.
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I think you're right there doctor.
Our Trajet Diesel auto now has 5,500miles under its wheels and the economy is slowly improving. We are getting about 30mpg on a run and 24 around town which is solid urban driving.
The urban mpg figure is 26, so i'm not complaining too much. When the car has 15,000 miles and only gets 30mpg on a full tank run, say manchester - london return, then I would have an issue. BNo point so far. Its clearly still tight.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Well they must be changing the way that they calculate the figures, because I always used to better the quoted figures by quite a way.
On my 65mph 40 mile commute in my 1999 Passat TDi 110, I exceed the quoted figures.
No experience with very modern cars (last 2-3 years) though.
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Words (almost) fail me...I don't think i have ever heard anyone complaining about getting 52mpg before....
However, it is generally agreed that the officially quoted 'combined' mpg figure is the best anyone can hope to achieve in the real world.
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Re Espada's calculations, I would expect a lot more than 20mpg in stop/start traffic. My Mondeo has never averaged less than 45mpg and achieves 55mpg easily at 70 on the motorway, I think I therefore would expect more than 52 average out of a Fiesta.
With further ref to the 20mpg in 1st/2nd gear traffic, many years ago I was on the road in sales covering central London, spent all day in 1st/2nd in a Cav 1.7 TD which never averaged less than 45mpg.
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Thats the whole point cheddar - you 'averaged' 45mpg which included other trips.
I'm not saying that 20mpg is right for purely stop start traffic, but it has to be a lot lower than 70mpg for cruising at 60mph in a small diesel.
Even if its 30mpg in purely stop start traffic and 70mpg on the open road (do you really believe that?) it equals 57mpg, not 72 mpg.
And 30mpg in the city and more believable 60mpg on the open road equals 51.4mpg. Ta Da! No reason for Mark to complain.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Point is Espada that my Cav did 45mpg stop/start, 1st/2nd all day, reckon the Mondeo would do the same so a Fiesta should do at least as well plus 65/70 ish on the 10 mile motorway run. Thus the calculation would be:
2 miles at 45mpg = 0.044 gal
10 miles at 70mpg = 0.143 gal
Total 12 miles / 0.187 gal = 64.17 mpg
That's more like it!
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All we need now is a repeatable traffic jam to prove it!
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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All we need now is a repeatable traffic jam to prove it!
Most of the ones I see seem to repeat with monotonous regularity :(
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>Mark
1 year old car
Drives with a light foot.
You are just ensuring it's bnever going to be run in - imo.
Thrash it for the next 6,000 miles: after that complain if the fuel consumption is not better.
Modern engines/synthetic oils/ shortish journeys/ light driving = glazed boors/piston rings not bedded in.
madf
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Thanks to all for info and experiences, especially Espada's calculations. Car has done circa 10,000 so maybe will improve. I took your advice today and gave it a few more revs for a spell.
Unfortunately I don't know the first owner's running in practice, it had approx 7000 when bought in January.
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