2019 S60 Petrol Bad Fuel Economy

[S90]

Originally Posted by James77

The BMW petrols are astounding colleage has a 3 series M340i wagon up to 45 mpg is achievable on a run from a 6 pot around 350hp family rocket ship.

Similar story on his previous audi s4 wagon. He's always sending me pictures to wind me up!

I'm sure BMW diesel's could achieve amazing mpg on a long run.

What it comes down to is the volvo units are really poor on fuel.

Yeah I’ll blow that with a T6 V90, and the mpg. All smoke and mirrors, plus 6 cyls are dead, at least in EU with new laws. Even the BMW 330i is a 4 pot.

[ovlov04v]

Have you tried not using eco mode to compare the difference? The biggest advantage from the Volvo eco mode is using the kinetic energy in the vehicle by being in 'coasting' mode as much as possible. The you need to consider that in non-eco modes your car is basically using no fuel at all or at least much less than the idle speed of coasting. It is important to make sure your foot is completely off the gas pedal to acheive 'coasting'.

I don't know how much of that is possible for eco mode in a lot of town driving as I don't do that much anymore. You may well find that eco mode is not the best for mpg in town driving; just thinking out loud not saying it is so.

I have a long term average of 35mpg according to the on-board gizmo. That is a mixture of rural driving often in the summer stop/start at sub horse carriage speeds and some town driving. As others have said on longer journeys with lots of steady state driving and max use of eco mode I can average well over 45mpg.

Looking on the US sites there are several who report comparable figures, or slightly worse, to yours (once you allow for the US gln v Imp gln.)

[Franko1960]

My early MY22 S60 B5 is getting around 37 mpg to and from work.
16 mile journey takes around 35 minutes, so happy with this mpg.

[SnineT]

Originally Posted by Franko1960

My early MY22 S60 B5 is getting around 37 mpg to and from work.
16 mile journey takes around 35 minutes, so happy with this mpg.

His is a conventional engine only Franko, he doesn't have the battery assistance to help out, glad to see you've kept it real with your mpg figures.

[speedygon999999]

Ok I am absolutely gobsmacked. Did my first long journey after 8 months of owning this car (London to Birmingham) and achieved 45mpg. I used just under a quarter of a tank. Eco mode all the way, cruise control active down the m40. I am very happy right now lol.

[neilgorin]

What you show is that motor engineers can't overcome physics.

What you're seeing in town and on a run are pretty much the same as I used to get in a 2.0 petrol auto Xantia in the late 90s and a 2.0 petrol auto Subaru 10 years later.

The "massive gains" in MPG on modern petrol cars certainly don't exist on any that I've hired in recent years - it's just the old thing of the manufacturers working to ensure they look the best under test. If you go back 40 years, many makers would state their car did 50mpg - the small print was that was on a rolling road, inside, at exactly 56mph - something the average bloke could never do so his 50mpg car did 30mpg like all the rest of them.

As for diesel, the consumption of my current V60 is worse than my previous V70 and is worse than a Jag X 2.0D I had on a 59 plate - each one in turn having more restrictive emission control guff which in turn either uses more fuel or causes more restriction in flow.

[techwatcher]

Originally Posted by neilgorin

The "massive gains" in MPG on modern petrol cars certainly don't exist on any that I've hired in recent years - it's just the old thing of the manufacturers working to ensure they look the best under test. If you go back 40 years, many makers would state their car did 50mpg - the small print was that was on a rolling road, inside, at exactly 56mph - something the average bloke could never do so his 50mpg car did 30mpg like all the rest of them.

High MPGs are achievable. I remember in my V40 days arguing (on another forum) that official MPG figures are only really useful as a comparison with other cars' official figures. I still believe this to be essentially true. Cue another forum member coming along with a photo of his trip computer showing 78 MPG on a 150 mile trip. He did it by cruising at 50MPH with climate control off, lifting and coasting etc. It is possible; you just won't have much fun doing it.

[KungFooBob]

I can easily average 50+ MPG in my D4 S90 without touching a motorway on my 24 mile commute that includes the Sheffield outer ring road with hills and traffic lights.

Sticking to speed limits, using ECO mode, reading the road ahead and coasting whenever possible (the car will coast for ages with the autobox in ECO) and manually knocking it up a gear with the paddles before the computer does.

On the same commute in my NA 3.5l 300+ BHP R321 SL350 I can get 35+mpg (40mpg at 70mph on the motorway).

So modern direct injection petrols can be very good on fuel.

Kind Regards
Mr A Pistonwhacker

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by neilgorin

What you show is that motor engineers can't overcome physics.

What you're seeing in town and on a run are pretty much the same as I used to get in a 2.0 petrol auto Xantia in the late 90s and a 2.0 petrol auto Subaru 10 years later.

The "massive gains" in MPG on modern petrol cars certainly don't exist on any that I've hired in recent years - it's just the old thing of the manufacturers working to ensure they look the best under test. If you go back 40 years, many makers would state their car did 50mpg - the small print was that was on a rolling road, inside, at exactly 56mph - something the average bloke could never do so his 50mpg car did 30mpg like all the rest of them.

As for diesel, the consumption of my current V60 is worse than my previous V70 and is worse than a Jag X 2.0D I had on a 59 plate - each one in turn having more restrictive emission control guff which in turn either uses more fuel or causes more restriction in flow.

Not sure I agree. When I was a kid we had a 1988 2 litre petrol 740 GL auto. Round town literally never more than 22mpg. On a long run never more than 25mpg. I know those numbers well as it was always my job to calculate them.

Fast forward 30 years and we have a V60 2 litre petrol. Car is about as heavy, but more streamlined. OK it is manual, but on a long run it will do early 40s mpg and round town with lots of short runs it does early 30s.

[neilgorin]

Like for like the gearing in the v60 and the air resistance Vs the 740 will make quite a difference. However an awful lot of it is driving style - I can do the same journey in my D4 and get anything from 38mpg to 56mpg, staying below the limit, letting the car slow rather than braking, pulse and glide etc - however it's tedious.

My comparison was more late 90s on fuel injected cars though, there isn't a great deal of difference until the hybrids come along and even then only with the full hybrid, the mild isn't doing enough to make a big difference - a subtle one possibly.