How accurate is fuel MPG reading on your car?

[sixsr]

I'm just wondering how accurate people find the MPG reading on their cars, should it to be trusted?

 

[wallacr]

I'd say mine is pretty close to accurate

 

[J7USS]

what should it read!!!
Mines all over the place...

£60 gave me 198 mls before indicator came on....

....whereas £20 gives me around 70 - 80mls nowadays.

 

[quattrojames]

I have never really compared mine with actual calculations. Unless you brim the car and then brim it when you fill up there is no way of knowing how much fuel goes in anyway. I have had mine with 0 miles left on the DTE gauge and still only put just over 60 litres into a 66 litre tank

I think it is more useful as a representative gauge so you can compare driving styles etc. The figures may not be spot on but when you compare them against themselves they become a bit more meaningful.

I don't think mine is far out though.

 

[sixsr]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm getting close to the end of my first tank, the MPG thats coming up seems to be a lot better than I'd of imagined. I'll be able to confirm it when I fill it up.

 

[dansansome]

i fill up every week, and mine over-read by roughly 10% so i adjusted it using vagcom and now its pretty spot on.

 

[ScottyP45]

i zero'd the trip, filled up £70 unleaded at morrisons, and got 415 miles before fuel warning came on, and thats NOT driving like your gran....

The DIS said I had 435 to begin with, so pretty accurate over the tankful i'd say.

If it says I have 55 miles left and I zero the trip and drive normally then I do get 55 miles or there abouts before 0 miles appears.

 

[coyote]

415 miles from a 1.8T! Fancy swapping cars evil?

£80 to fill the tank with Shell Optimax, Dis says 435-450 miles and I get between 330-370 miles before the warning light comes on depending on driving style (usually 330)

 

[Nickynibbles]

The DIS over-reads mpg by a couple of mpg I always found when doing the maths after a complete fill up. The trip computer in my Smart Roadster is worse though under-reading by 4-5mpg, although when it says 55mpg I know its 59-60mpg really so can monitor my mpg easily enough still!

 

[pjmspeedy]

Mine seems to be spot on. I've been using the below link to check it against.

http://www.torquecars.com/tools/uk-mpg-calculator.php

 

[ScottyP45]

415 miles from a 1.8T! Fancy swapping cars evil?

£80 to fill the tank with Shell Optimax, Dis says 435-450 miles and I get between 330-370 miles before the warning light comes on depending on driving style (usually 330)

LOL - honestly thats gospel. For example I picked up the car in Liverpool in april, filled up (£65 then) and drove home 330 miles at 80mph solid from Liverpool to Edinburgh then on another 40 miles to glenrothes, and hit Fife with a half tank left!

It really is quite good on fuel I must admit, though I change up at 3k to 3.5k most of the time, and get steady consumption. When I do occasionally paste it to 5k it does start to drink it a bit!

 

[coyote]

That explains it! I always change gear at about 5k.

I'm on a road trip this weekend so will try to drive more sensibly and see what figure I can get upto. Its going to be hard tho as since I got the remap I love the exceleration from 3k - 5k

LOL - honestly thats gospel. For example I picked up the car in Liverpool in april, filled up (£65 then) and drove home 330 miles at 80mph solid from Liverpool to Edinburgh then on another 40 miles to glenrothes, and hit Fife with a half tank left!

It really is quite good on fuel I must admit, though I change up at 3k to 3.5k most of the time, and get steady consumption. When I do occasionally paste it to 5k it does start to drink it a bit!

 

[stoakseya4]

My audi's ahve always been pretty accurate. And I always do a calculation to see what I'm getting, fairly regularly. It's not 100% but close enough not to worry about.

The 1.9tdi gets c600-650 miles on a tank and the 1.8T gets c400...

 

[sixsr]

Well, having filled up yesterday I worked out I'm getting 35.5 MPG which is about 10% less than the DIS reading.

However, last night I changed the wheels going from the OEM 16's to 8x18's & 225/40x18 tyres.

Do you think this is going affect the fuel consumption?

 

[Macduff]

Wider wheels will definitely reduce your MPG. More rolling resistance and air resistance plus they may also be heavier. Shouldn't affect the gearing too much as they should have a very similar circumference.

Strangely, Audi doesn't make any distinction in MPG or CO2 between standard, SE and Sport/S-Line models despite weight and wheel width differences.