V50, spec IV, 2.0D fuel economy (or lack of!!)

[brooks1]

purchased new on 1st march, have now covered approx 3000miles, hence would have hoped car was now on the way to being run in. Using there fuel computer, what fuel consumption are other owners achieving...

At 70mph in 6th its hovering around 40 (35-45 mpg)

On a full tank i never average >40mpg (normally around 39mpg), this is over approx 400miles (150mile motorway (never over 80mph), 150m A road, 100m town, a full tanks worth).

I have also noticed better performance from non-supermarket fuel retailers??

This economy from a 2.0 D in my opinion is c@*p!!! and nothing like the quoted figures from volvo when i paid over 20K for the damn car. Not happy!!

A friend who does exactly the same mileage and types of driving i do, is achieving 50mpg average, from a 2005 BMW 320D.

[Marmoset]

MIne loosened up considerably in the period between 3,000 and 10,000 miles - I was getting about what you reported. Now up to 24k and I was getting about 42/43 over the last few weeks in the colder weather and 44/45mpg last autumn. Given that Volvo claim 48mpg combined (and given that teh combined figures are a pharce anyway) I'm pretty happy with what I'm getting - it's quite a heavy car, heavier than the 3 series (assuming old shape?) Most of my driving is on the motorway but what I have noticed is that the economy doesn't vary a lot if you're driving it really hard.

[7050man]

There are a couple of points here.
First, in my experience Volvo's figure always seem to be on the optimistic side, especially their non urban figure. To achieve anything near claimed figures, you need to drive fairly carefully and consider what your right foot is doing. Use the instanteaneous redout in the trip computer and you'll see what I mean.

Second point is that your car is almost new and by any means will not have loosened up. You will not get a properly run in engine (with the best in terms of performance and economy) until at least 30k miles, but you should see some kind of improvement after about 12k. So with the combination of the above, I'm not surprised at your figures.

I've had my 55 reg V50 since Jan 06. It's an E4 engine and it had 10k(now got 12.2k) on the clock when I purchased it. I've averaged 47mpg since owning and expect to get more by this time next year. This is achieved with a mixture of long distance business trips as well as local shopping, ferrying kids etc.

By the way last week I had to go to Birmingham from Kent. 320 mile round trip. Driving with one eye on economy, I averaged 62.3mpg and this would have been better had I not have stopped on the M25! I was driving at about 60mph most of the way, if I had been doing 70 my guess is that it would have been about 52- 53.
It can be done, but you need to try and also let your car loosen up first.

My previous car was owned from new, I was interested in economy but performance but it was absolutely useless until about 10k miles so totally agree with the above post: judge when it's loosened up a lot assuming it's all running ok etc.

Second all manufacturer's figures seem pretty rubbish to what you actually get. Use them just as a means to compare like for like before buying a car.

Third, the car will learn from how you drive it. So if you nail it for a week, then try and get max economy you probably won't see it, it needs to "learn" how you drive it.

With my previous car, skoda octavia vRS, I had it into skoda early in its life as I was sure it was down on power. The mechanic was explaining about how the car learns (especially as this one had an electronic throttle (ETM)). He said to improve performance I should, and I quote, "drive it like you f***ing stole it, mate"!!!!

[Rooster]

40mpg i dream of getting that out of my 2.0t, am lucky to get 25mpg out of it,

Back to your question anyway, you should find your fuel econamy will rise the more the car is used, i'd say 12k service is a good benchmark as to when things will have loosened up.