Economy run

[v40bart]

Just did a 2000 mile round trip to Poland, to averaged 51.7 mpg at around 75 mph on motorways, luggage 2 adults 2 kids up. Return leg averaged 47.2 with humongous roof box and the car loaded to the hilt.

[ian7675]

I've just done a return trip to Poland too. V50 loaded up to the roof, 2 adults and 1 kid (no space left at all) and 90 - 100mph most of the way...showed 36.7mpg on return. T5's are just brilliant for Autobahns.

[jocker01]

Round trip to Croatia, s40 1.6D 2 adults, boat engine in a boot etc. full up! Avg. 55.9mpg with easy drive, In Germany had to change driving style: a bit more proggrevise!

[kebab10]

Not bad mileage at all from these oil burners is it.

[v40bart]

2.0D will be economical as long as you keep below 80mph, over that it becomes very thirsty. I thing the gearing in 6th is too short, should be a lot taller to allow best torque at 80-85mph instead of 70...

[greenacres]

Everyone knows the air con will affect your mpg, but what about the driving lights? Surely having full headlights on will also have a bad effect - they must put a load on the alternator too. I was going to try a week of switching to just the parking lights but after it drained my battery on day 1 - as you dont get a warning when you leave the car (which at 3 years old must need replacing) - I abandoned the experiment: anyone else checked if it helps?

[Bendolfc]

Aircon barely has any effect. Certainly not enough to be noticable when on the motorway.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by kebab10

I was on my own as thewife was working, I was between shifts( 4 days on 4 days off), so just me and the radio and cd player to while away the time. Interesting that not many people are really booting it like they used to just a year or so ago.
Saves on my wallet and at the end of the day, doesnt take that much longer really. As for stress, none. Also plenty of time to see the scenery. Did see the Police chase a car up the Avonmouth Bridge slip road and force it to stop. Wonder what that was about.

The german cars are still magneticaly attracted to the central barrier !

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Bendolfc

Aircon barely has any effect. Certainly not enough to be noticable when on the motorway.

- 2 to 3 mpg from my experiments

[Daim]

Driving with your lights on does not impact the fuel economy much. If you consider them using too much, well work this out:

With your lights on (normal headlights) you have:

2x 5w for parking lights
2x 5w for side marker lights
2x 35w for xenon headlight or 2x 55w for halogen headlight
4x 5w for rear lights
2x 5w for number plate lights

10 + 10 + 70 (xenon) + 20 + 10 = 120 watts
10 + 10 + 110 (halogen) + 20 + 10 = 160 watts

If you have the premium sound/dynaudio system, that is the power of ONE speaker. And the car has 5 of that power output PLUS another 5 tweeters...

Driving lights or even normal lights (on in the day) use less than people say. 160 watts (going by the halogen lights) are 0.16 kw which is 0.22 hp! The AC has a higher impact than that, as that can use up to 3 kw!