MPG & London Driving No Difference

[Steve-L]

I have recently sold my A3 3.2 and bought an old pug 205 to see me through the next 2 months until the new Audi is built. Over the last few years I have consistently got the following :

Pug 205 1.1 - 250 miles uses 40 litres
Audi A3 3.2 - 250 miles uses 50 litres
Leon Cupra R - 250 miles uses 50 litres
Ibiza 1.9 TDI - 300 miles uses 50 litres

Whilst the Pug and Ibiza TDI return slightly better figures TBH when most of your driving is in London it really does not seem to make much difference whether you have a diesel, a small petrol engine, a large petrol engine or a turbo car (within reason of course).

So the point of this thread - if you do most of your driving in a city the manufacturers mpg figures are irrelevant.

 

[icenutter]

I remember reading a buyers guide for the BMW M5 in Evo magazine. It said that you get 18mpg if you drive like a lunatic and 20mpg if you drive like a nun; all the more reason to rocket everywhere!

 

[TDI]

Well you learn something new everyday they say.


Cheers

 

[AndyMac]

Durrr! So you want manufacturers to publish MPG figures for vehicles sitting at idle then a bit of first gear then idling again? That would be really useful.

 

[cadders]

Intesting post this. I always appreciated that town / slow traffic driving would hit fuel consumption but quite shocked at how evenly it slaughters MPG across what is quite a wide range of engine technologies.
I guess the new models that some manufacturers are starting to bring out that automatically switch off / on the engine when stuck in traffic (which I thought was bit of a gimmick) could actually yeald some meaningful fuel savings.

 

[Steve-L]

Durrr! So you want manufacturers to publish MPG figures for vehicles sitting at idle then a bit of first gear then idling again? That would be really useful.

Useful for the manufacturers - NO
Useful for consumers - YES

Although it could be useful to salesman e.g.

Customer "I really like the 3.2 litre model but wouldn't a 1.6 model be more economical ?"

Salesman "Is most of your driving short journies around town ?"

Customer "Yep mainly to and from work via childs school and the odd trip to the supermarket"

Salesman " Well in that case you will see very little difference in MPG between a 1.6 & a 3.2 so why not spend the extra £15K and get the car you want"

 

[smitch]

You do kinda take it as a given that you'll get **** MPG with city driving in any vehicle.

 

[AndyMac]

Exactly