145 miles from £20..in a 740GL

['88740GL]

Just came back from York, with my other half, the whole round trip was 145 miles, i put £40 in this morning, expecting at least 1/2 to be used....fuel needle was showing 7/8ths full before journey, and when i got home was just slightly over halfway, .....motorway there and back (M62, and M1)..oh yes.. those two dreaded M-ways.... some delays, but we were rolling along at 20mph for a mile or two, holding average of 60 - 67 there and back (occasionally showing up would-be lane cutters in their ' jelly mould ' eco boxes and white van men....

Whilst still cruising along effortlessly, warming my backside in a comfy heated seat of my swedish tank!

So yes, £20ish in petrol terms of money (probably 16-17 litres if that, got me 145 miles of M-way driving! Loving it!

[s.hammond]

Originally Posted by '88740GL

Just came back from York, with my other half, the whole round trip was 145 miles, i put £40 in this morning, expecting at least 1/2 to be used....fuel needle was showing 7/8ths full before journey, and when i got home was just slightly over halfway, .....motorway there and back (M62, and M1)..oh yes.. those two dreaded M-ways.... some delays, but we were rolling along at 20mph for a mile or two, holding average of 60 - 67 there and back (occasionally showing up would-be lane cutters in their ' jelly mould ' eco boxes and white van men....

Whilst still cruising along effortlessly, warming my backside in a comfy heated seat of my swedish tank!

So yes, £20ish in petrol terms of money (probably 16-17 litres if that, got me 145 miles of M-way driving! Loving it!

That's not bad i got 271mls from £50 worth of petrol that was Bristol to Fareham and back with 4 days of city driving i averaged 29mpg and that was with my heated seat, air-con and a few blasts up to 80mph.
Just shows the old rwd volvo's can be economical!

[Macp]

Mine has just recorded 23.4mpg pretty much constant city driving with AC & heated seats on etc.That is calculated the traditional way too.

[Choc]

Originally Posted by '88740GL

So yes, £20ish in petrol terms of money (probably 16-17 litres if that, got me 145 miles of M-way driving! Loving it!

That works out at 40mpg which is why you never work out fuel economy that way...

Brim the tank, zero the tripmeter, drive around then brim the tank again and note the miles and litres. Shirley trusting a 740 fuel gauge is like trusting a headline in The Sun?

[Citizen.Agfa]

Originally Posted by Choc

That works out at 40mpg which is why you never work out fuel economy that way...

Brim the tank, zero the tripmeter, drive around then brim the tank again and note the miles and litres. Shirley trusting a 740 fuel gauge is like trusting a headline in The Sun?

The difference being I would put more faith in The Sun!

Oh, and +1 for the calculation method, too.

C.A.

['88740GL]

Originally Posted by Choc

That works out at 40mpg which is why you never work out fuel economy that way...

Brim the tank, zero the tripmeter, drive around then brim the tank again and note the miles and litres. Shirley trusting a 740 fuel gauge is like trusting a headline in The Sun?

The fuel gauge is absolutley fine, the car is kind of 'new' with it only having 47,000 miles, i suspect the instruments havent seen as much wear i guess, but normally putting £20 in will get me 90-100 miles before the needle touches the top of the red...

[AndyPants]

Remarkably my 760s dash instruments all seem to work fine @ 155k miles (touch wood!) apart from the temp gauge which very occasionally goes up when the car is warming then drops back to nill again.

The fuel guage seems reasonably accurate. Unfortunately I calculated my mpg... 21.1 hmmm.... You know its bad when a C70 T5 seems economical

[ian2000t]

My poor old tired 740 regularly returns 23mpg, but that is constantly sat in traffic or shifting round contry lanes making up for being stuck in traffic! On a long run I get about 27 fully loaded, 30 if I'm a bit sensible.

I do have a very heavy right foot (and usual motorway speed is usually 80-85), and my 740 is getting lumpier by the day (going to have to give it a service and get injectors cleaned soon), so I consider those figures pretty good!

[Choc]

Originally Posted by '88740GL

The fuel gauge is absolutley fine

Well the fact that it works at all shows it’s better than most, you’re right!

Originally Posted by '88740GL

the car is kind of 'new' with it only having 47,000 miles, i suspect the instruments havent seen as much wear i guess

Think this is where you’re missing the point a little. Firstly instruments don’t wear out by zipping up and down lots of times, it’s more likely due to electrical contacts and their resistance and that happens as much due to age as use.

Secondly, fuel gauges aren’t accurate; they’ll tell you when the tank is full and when it’s empty(ish) and when it’s somewhere in the middle. Our much newer S80 takes almost 200 miles to go from full to half full, and more like 140 to go from half to empty. It’s not just Volvos, most cars are like this. The only way to work out economy is as I said earlier, your figure of 40mpg just isn’t true.

Originally Posted by '88740GL

normally putting £20 in will get me 90-100 miles before the needle touches the top of the red...

This is almost as good a way of measuring, but you’ve got to be sure you always fill the tank at the same time, and you’re relying on the gauge again. But for poops and giggles...

£20 is about 16.5 litre or 3.64 gallons. So 95 miles divided by 3.64 gallons is 27.5mpg which is a loooong way from 40mpg

['88740GL]

Originally Posted by Choc

Well the fact that it works at all shows it’s better than most, you’re right!

Think this is where you’re missing the point a little. Firstly instruments don’t wear out by zipping up and down lots of times, it’s more likely due to electrical contacts and their resistance and that happens as much due to age as use.

Secondly, fuel gauges aren’t accurate; they’ll tell you when the tank is full and when it’s empty(ish) and when it’s somewhere in the middle. Our much newer S80 takes almost 200 miles to go from full to half full, and more like 140 to go from half to empty. It’s not just Volvos, most cars are like this. The only way to work out economy is as I said earlier, your figure of 40mpg just isn’t true.


This is almost as good a way of measuring, but you’ve got to be sure you always fill the tank at the same time, and you’re relying on the gauge again. But for poops and giggles...

£20 is about 16.5 litre or 3.64 gallons. So 95 miles divided by 3.64 gallons is 27.5mpg which is a loooong way from 40mpg

Oh, sorry, i didnt mean to say i'm geing 40mpg!! it was a rough guess to say i got 143 miles from X amount of litres, the car gets around 35mpg on motorway runs and around 20-25 mpg on the city runs, lets just say i could probably get a few more miles from £20 but i get paranoid to even drive with the needle anywhere near the red