1.6D r-design 2010
 

Hi, my above car is giving mpg nothing like the advertised 60+ mpg. On a decent motorway run the other day it was only averaging about 45mpg, and that was driving steady. I know advertised figures are never too accurate, but surely i should be getting better than this?Going to work is about 10 miles 50/50 dual carriageway/in town is only about 38mpg. Any suggestion what the issue may be?

If it's cold it could take 5 miles to warm up and during that time the engine will not be in lean burn, so drinking about twice the fuel.

Also if you want to get the best MPG figures, have to suffer a lot of short trips AND use supermarket diesel, try using a can of top quality fuel additive every oil change interval (Or just fill up the fuel filter housing with LM Diesel Purge when changing the element). Short tripping with cheap fuel causes gum deposits in the injectors.
In winter, make sure to use a major brand full synthetic 0w30 engine oil (A 5w40 is better in summer) if you want the best MPG figures.

The figures you quote are not too bad, as my 1.9D can do 60 mpg in theory
(55 mph etc) and I get 44 mpg short tripping.

I had the same problem with my V50 2010 d2 r design. After the garage I bought it off spent £3k trying to sort it out (rough running and poor performance hesitation and pathetic mpg) it ended up having a new turbo and a remap. This sorted the issue out and I started to get 68mpg. This has now returned back to an average of about 54mpg so I was told by volvo main stealers to have a software upgrade. £450 + vat later and the issue was resolved. Maybe there is an underlying issue here? Not the first time I have heard about it either!

Seems that all Volvo Diesel engines get notoriously bad MPG compared to official stats.

My 2.4D 175ps has official Urban MPG of 56, and I get no more than 38 on the Motorway. My city average even goes as low as 27mpg, terrible considering my 1999 BMW 530d got 31mpg in the city (london).


If I bought a 1.6d hoping for fantastic MPG and got 44, I'd also be fairly upset so I get where your coming from.
I guess you just have to accept it with Volvos, that aside they make a great machine.

Once I had a V50 1.6 DrivE and S40 (55 plate) 1.6 Petrol

I was more upset about the mpg with the DrivE than the 1.6 Petrol

Over 30% urban and 70% A road/ motorway at 70mph, I achieved 47.8 mpg from the DrivE

This was calculated using real figures - and I have progressed from the 'Disappointed' state to the 'Accepted' state.

The 1.6 petrol was thirsty, but it was never a big liar as the DrivE

However, on a occasional long run down the M1 to London from Leicester with clogged traffic (stop start in place), averaging 40-50 mph, I did achieve near 70 mpg, possibly because how slow I was going in 5th :)

Just bought a 2015 D2 V70 auto, 3500 miles.
Big car small engine, but drove to the Alps and back last week, 1600 miles, all motorway at a steady 85mph fully loaded.
49mpg overall, and pulled well on the hills.
It does the same around town.