How accurate are the urban, extra-urban, and combined fuel economy
results? In the past on here somebody has said that all perfromance
cars consume a lot of fuel when driven hard. This poster implied that
performance cars could get a lot better than the published figures.
I'm guessing that these tests are done with max acceleration, which is
a bit unrealistic. An engine is also supposed to be most efficient
when under max load though. So if you drove a performance car gently
aren't you likely to consume even more fuel?

If these are inaccurate then, I suppose there's no real way of knowing
the consumption before buying unless you talk to existing owners. I've
seen some owner reviews where some say it's quite good on fuel, and
others say it drinks a lot of fuel, so even those aren't much help
either.

My car probably does a bit better than the published figures, and I
think my faulty spark plugs may've increased the consumption a bit
(lower mpg).

In article <1116678778.521693.322990 (AT) g44g2000cwa (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
<petermcmillan_uk (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:
Not very representative of day to day motoring.

Autocar put every car they do a full test on round the same test route.
You'll find it described with the results. Of course that can't be perfect
either - but it's likely to be more representative than 'official' tests.

--
*Two many clicks spoil the browse *

Dave Plowman dave (AT) davenoise (DOT) co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article <1116678778.521693.322990 (AT) g44g2000cwa (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
says...
Crap IME. My car is supposed to average 33MPG but I've yet to get it
that low.


Correct.



--
Conor

"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most." O.Osbourne.

<petermcmillan_uk (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

I suggest you buy the latest edition of Whatcar which has an article on this
very subject and looks at the official figures of several cars compared to
the mileage that Whatcar got.

Of course, MPG is just one factor in running a car along with initial price,
servicing, insurance and depreciation.

John Smith wrote:
Great, I'll have to get that.

Yes, but all of the factors can be found by making a few phone calls,
and looking in magazines etc.

John Smith wrote:
I'm so annoyed now! Just spent an hour, getting the magazine, and it's
the wrong one. I've got the What car road test directory, for £7.50
with a DVD. I'm so annoyed! I didn't know there was more than one
What car, I'll have to wait until Monday to get it now!

<petermcmillan_uk (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

As a rule from the various cars i've driven / owned- i've found that if you
look at the combined figure and take 2-3mpg off is what mpg i generally get
with my driving style and typical roads I am on.

Tim..

<petermcmillan_uk (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote


John Smith wrote:
I'm so annoyed now! Just spent an hour, getting the magazine, and it's
the wrong one. I've got the What car road test directory, for £7.50
with a DVD. I'm so annoyed! I didn't know there was more than one
What car, I'll have to wait until Monday to get it now!

It is the JULY issue you want - out this week. It has a silver Lexus and a
BMW 5 series on the cover and a sub-heading off 'Petrol versus Diesel versus
Hybrid'.

petermcmillan_uk (AT) yahoo (DOT) com wrote:

Fuel consumption is a function of efficiency *and* power demand.

John Smith wrote:
Great, I've got it now! It's cheaper, and better than the road test
one. The test are useful, but not much. Only a couple of the cars
were 'normal' though. They had a Smart for two (small turbo), Prius
(hybrid), a 1.6 Ford Focus with VVT (fairly normal), a 1.6 Golf with a
new technology (fairly normal), a 2.0 diesel, and another that I can't
remember.

It also looked like they had different people driving them which may
have effected the economy. The Urban run was also a 30 mile trip so
the engine would've got up to temperature unlike the Urban run or
normal city driving.

The 2.0 Diesel only got slightly lower mpg in the city than it did on
an extra-urban type drive, which I found unusual. It seems that
engines have got greener over the last 5-10 years. I'm not sure what
type of car I'll get next, I was thinking about a hot-hatch, but
something like the Aygo/107/C1 looks cheap, cheerful, and fun.