I got 180 miles from £13 ( or 13 litres) diesel, is this good or bad ?

Hi

My car like playing with my mind, sometimes it makes me feel it's economy is poor, other times it shows me great economy.
it's written mpg statistics are 39.2 mpg to 64.2 mpg extra urban.

It often hovers around 40 mpg around town which includes a few short motorway trips but I have damaged MAF wiring that is due to get fixed next week so my mpg will improve again when it's done.


I drove to Llandudno today form my house which is 90 miles one way, so when I got home I had covered 180 miles (another 70 or so miles my fuel would have been about half full ) so I went to the petrol station and refilled it after my trip to Wales, it cost me £13 to get it back to the brim and that equates to13 litres of diesel.

I drove no more than 65 mph, stuck at 60 mph around 90% of the time and several road works reduced speed to 50 and 40 mph on the motorway on several different stretches.

I drive a 2006 1.8 Diesel Focus TDCI


So is £13 to travel 180 motorway miles good or bad for a diesel ?


ty

180 miles from 13 litres of diesel works out at just under 63 mpg.

Sounds good to me!

???????

Are you sure , does it ?


The top written mpg for my car is 64.2 mpg

I only seem to see around 40 around town,

My tank was full to brim before the trip, got home and clock showed 180 miles which is about right, so went to refill and took 13 litres costing £13, can you confirm your answer.
ty

13 litres is equal to 2.8596 imperial gallons

You drove 180 on 2.86 gallons, so to find out how many miles you got from 1 gallon you just need to divide 180 by 2.86 gallons.

This equals ~62.94 mpg.

You can even double check it on http://www.mpg-calculator.co.uk/

It does seem odd you're getting close to the actual mpg advertised for your car but using the numbers you've supplied, it checks out.

thank you, I just used that tool and you are right !

I only seem to get around 400 around town though from a full tank which is around 40 mpg


I think I would have gotten another 70 miles until my fuel would have been at half way which would be 250 miles and half way is 22 litres in my car, so when I typed in on that mpg thing 250 miles and used 22 litres it shows my mpg less than 50, but thanks for confirming for me


quick question, do you have any advice for sore feet after driving, my feet feel sore/achy as I did a lot of driving today and I drive a lot on a daily basic, can you give me any advice to stop my feet feeling sore after driving ?


thanks

I drive a diesel as well and my car shows similar figures for town and motorway driving. The amount of stopping and starting you do when driving around town will always have quite a large impact on your fuel economy.

I suspect that the dial showing your fuel tank capacity probably isn't that accurate. It wouldn't really make sense that you managed 180 miles on 13 litres, yet to drive 70 more miles it would use an extra nine litres. I've put fuel in my car before and had the dial showing the tank as full despite the nozzle not cutting off when filling up (I was doing a long journey so put about £30 in), it's probably more of an approximation.

If your car shows your current mpg, it might also show your average mpg, so if you plan on doing a similar trip again you could try resetting your average mpg to get the actual figures.

Another way of improving your mpg is to not keep the tank full, a full tank of fuel is a lot of extra weight for your car to carry around if it's not planning on going on a long journey to make use of it. My tank usually sits between a quarter and half full.

Best advice for sore feet? Maybe try out different types of footwear (even just have on specific pair of shoes you keep in your car for driving). I used to have a pair of leather hi-top Converse that I always wore but would make my ankles hurt when driving, so I don't wear them as often now, definitely not for doing long distance journeys anyway.

Hi

I really like measuring the mpg that I am getting from my car and it really confuses me sometimes, Like I could be achieving 50 mpg but if I drive another 70 miles using extra 9 litres of fuel it can drop to 40mpg despite using same roads and driving same manner, my car itself does not have the thing to tell me it's mpg, I instead have to use the online mpg calculator.

I fill my car to the brim once or twice a wee, definitely at least once a week, hate the idea of just half filling it , filling it to the brim is best



thank you for advice on the achy feet from driving, I might try what you said



anyway, how can a dial for showing fuel capacity be checked for if it is working properly or not ?

ty

Driving at a steady speed on a long journey will give you close to your cars published m.p.g. figures, but it's never going to equal or exceed it because the manufacturer quotes test figures where the car is optimised for maximum mileage. i.e. engine tuned for maximum economy and not performance, on a flat test bed at a constant engine revs, tyres optimised for fuel economy and not safety, the engine will already be warmed before starting the test, the fuel used will be the highest octane, the oil will be the lowest viscosity to reduce friction, windscreen wipers and wing mirrors removed and door seals taped over to improve air flow, all excess weight removed etc. etc. It's completely unrealistic to expect you can achieve the stated m.p.g. under normal use.

Driving around town when you are in traffic, cold engine, stopping and starting on a winters morning, driving up hills, fuel load, weight of passengers and stuff in the boot, the age of the car, tyres, condition of the road even the windscreen wipers - will all contribute to worsening the m.p.g. you get.

I'd say 62 m.p,g motorway driving and 40 m.p,g. town driving are very respectable figures.

There really is nothing more to be said.

truly amazing ...
see if you can break this record.