S40 (New) General : New S40 Owner - quick question?!

[paulmacs]

Hello everyone,

I have just picked up my 2006 S40 in Sapphire Black. With a baby on the way next month, I traded in my Alfa 147 with little to no room in the boot and back seats for the S40, the only car I considered stylish enough, on the inside and out, to satisfy my needs as well as the superb safety and reliability record.

I have had the car a week and opted for the 1.6 petrol as I live 5 miles from work, and would average 5000 miles a year, and see no reason for me to opt for anything bigger for that puropose. I get my kicks from my Porsche Boxster at the weekends.

Me and the partner both love the car, the comfort, refined ride and engine and I am happy with my choice.

I am slightly concerned about the fuel consumption. I know figures taken from the handbook are not to be read as gospel, but I was not expecting the read figure of 39.2MPG combined for my car to be totally fictional.

I have measured the MPG twice by filling the tank to the brim, and doing the standard calculations. The 55 litre tank is giving me 320 miles or about 26MPG and that is with about 10% town driving, and the rest open A roads and motorways, never driving with a heavy left foot. Basically I have been driving with little flair, no air con etc...

Has anyone similar experience and may it be a fault of some sort. The car has 10K on the clock and just had its first service a few weeks ago.

[The Purifier]

I would imagine the engine's not really getting up to temperature because of the short journey so as a result is burning more fuel. Probably not a technical problem I wouldn't have thought

[4 forty]

how mpg fiqures are calculated

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they are all done on a rolling road.the first figure requires a series of acceleration, steady speed, decelerration and idling tests over 2.5 miles at 12mph average.
for extra urban this is repeated at 39mph over 4.3 miles.

now you know, but, do you drive to those conditions.

paul

[Northview]

Originally Posted by 4 forty

how mpg fiqures are calculated

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

they are all done on a rolling road.the first figure requires a series of acceleration, steady speed, decelerration and idling tests over 2.5 miles at 12mph average.
for extra urban this is repeated at 39mph over 4.3 miles.

now you know, but, do you drive to those conditions.

paul

No, but what most people find is that the difference between the manufacturer's quoted figures and reality is usually relatively small. With my previous car (non-Volvo) I got better mpg than the official figures, without any effort on my part, so it's all the more galling to find that with my current car (S40 2.0D SE approx. 1 year old) it averages way below what I would expect to get, no matter how I drive it.

[mharriso]

it is always disappointing to get figures below the book, and there are heaps of reasons why they are not achieved, there are an equal # of posts on this site as to why and how and how to improve.

One that may apply to you are that you have 1.5 tonnes of car being pulled by a 1.6l engine, albeit a good one.
Inherently to get similar perceived performance to your 147 you may be inadvertantly using the engine more which harms your fuel economy.

Speed and accelaration are very subjective feelings, and even though you are not caning it, you may well still be driving it in a way that creates a similar feel as previously.....

It is always worth while going through all the obvious items which may harn your consumption though... use the search facil to find them.....

key point miin weight, min drag, no leaks, smooth driving, min breaking....
think everything you can do to achieve these and you will get better consumption.....

and at the end of the day be happy, i have a 9 yr old S40 and would love one like yours.... (or the porche!!!)