Best driving style??

[scr8pdo]

Has engine light come on?
I would check or renew your lambda sensor, 15 mpg is pretty bad, however this is easily acheivable in a T5 with not too much persuasion but if you are really trying hard to drive economically I think something is wrong, I would hope for low to mid 20s at least round town, as previous post suggests get emmisions checked first, the way I used to drive my T5 Auto I was getting that sort of mileage (Tearing about) After my remap, it got a bit better

[T5 GAV]

well thanks for your replies guys, i'll throw some filters at it and i'll keep enjoying myself. It's just the price i have to pay for driving a decent vehicle. Given the choice of sub 20mpg or a mondeo, i'll take crap mpg all day long.

[liuleichan]

Originally Posted by T5 GAV

Even so, do you think it's best to wake up the turbo and get upto speed quickly or does getting to speed slowly use less fuel? I get conflicting reports from anyone else i've asked but none of them drive a volvo.

Doesn't matter whether they drive a Volvo, or not - Volvo's don't change the laws of physics, nor is there anything magical about them compared with any other car, in terms of how the engine is best driven for economy.

As a generalism, reasonably brisk acceleration up to a cruising speed is tends to be more economical than slowly accelerating up to cruising speed.

That said, though, it doesn't mean that heavy throttle and brake foot is the best way, I'm just trying to say that it's better to get to your cruising speed more briskly, than say gently accelerating for an age. Also, exploiting the parts of the rev range where your car's engine is performing most efficiently (on a turbo'd car, that would be on boost) tends to be better.

However, none of that should read that it's better to be heavy on the throttle and heavy on the brakes, and constantly doing one or the other. Getting up to speed briskly is good, with lots of forward looking and anticipating of traffic / obstructions / junctions ahead, so that braking is minimalised, and fairly gentle - all the time you're braking you are effectively wasting energy, being bled off as heat, that isn't reused. So trying to drive as smoothly as possible in terms of reacting to things ahead, rather than last minute, or greater use of the brakes.

It's the continual cycle of heavy acceleration and braking and re-acceleration in many drivers that I see, that seems to be the cause of heavier fuel consumption.