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Cost of fuel for 20 miles with 70 mpg?

I have a 1.2 fiat 500

Google says the MPG is between 53-74 MPG depending on city/highway

I get unleaded petrol for about 131.9p

My commute is going to be roughly 40 miles (there and back) and 24 of these miles will be on the motorway.

A random calculator I found online says the commute there and back per day will be around £3 in total? Does that seem right?
(edited 5 years ago)

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Reply 1
Original post by Sadieleigh95
I have a 1.2 fiat 500

Google says the MPG is between 53-74 MPG depending on city/highway

I get unleaded petrol for about 131.9p

My commute is going to be roughly 40 miles (there and back) and 24 of these miles will be on the motorway.

A random calculator I found online says the commute there and back per day will be around £3 in total? Does that seem right?


I can assure you that you'll be getting nowhere near 70mpg - I doubt you'll even be getting in the 50s.

Using a more realistic figure of 45mpg, you'll be using around 4.05l which at 131.9 works out at £5.35.
Original post by IWMTom
I can assure you that you'll be getting nowhere near 70mpg - I doubt you'll even be getting in the 50s.

Using a more realistic figure of 45mpg, you'll be using around 4.05l which at 131.9 works out at £5.35.


70mpg lool
Original post by Sadieleigh95
I have a 1.2 fiat 500

Google says the MPG is between 53-74 MPG depending on city/highway

I get unleaded petrol for about 131.9p

My commute is going to be roughly 40 miles (there and back) and 24 of these miles will be on the motorway.

A random calculator I found online says the commute there and back per day will be around £3 in total? Does that seem right?


Don;t forget that the running costs of a car are far more than the fuel - a typical cost is 45p per mile as that is a normal expenses claim.
You wont be getting 70 MPG, I can assure you that.

Google is grabbing official figures that Fiat have put out (and not necessarily for your specific model either). More often than not, these figures are obtained in ideal conditions which massively inflate the MPG numbers.

As far as the 70 MPG figure itself, that is also wrong. The 1.2 Fiat 500 official MPG figures range from 58-62 MPG . In the real world, you're going to average out at around 45 MPG. The only models that will get anything close to 70 MPG, which should come at no surprise, are the 1.3L diesels, which average out at about 60 MPG in the real world.
Original post by TheMcSame
You wont be getting 70 MPG, I can assure you that.

Google is grabbing official figures that Fiat have put out (and not necessarily for your specific model either). More often than not, these figures are obtained in ideal conditions which massively inflate the MPG numbers.

As far as the 70 MPG figure itself, that is also wrong. The 1.2 Fiat 500 official MPG figures range from 58-62 MPG . In the real world, you're going to average out at around 45 MPG. The only models that will get anything close to 70 MPG, which should come at no surprise, are the 1.3L diesels, which average out at about 60 MPG in the real world.


Why is everyone laughing because I said my car is 70 MPG? . It’s a fiat 500 and is extremely economical. I put a fiver in it every few days and have no trouble commuting to work everyday. I’m unsure about motorways, but in terms of city driving I can assure you all that 70 MPG is very realistic.

In my manual it says 53-74 MPG.

Now that’s clarified, can anyone help me work out how much fuel will cost for my commute?
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by IWMTom
I can assure you that you'll be getting nowhere near 70mpg - I doubt you'll even be getting in the 50s.

Using a more realistic figure of 45mpg, you'll be using around 4.05l which at 131.9 works out at £5.35.


Original post by TheMcSame
You wont be getting 70 MPG, I can assure you that.

Google is grabbing official figures that Fiat have put out (and not necessarily for your specific model either). More often than not, these figures are obtained in ideal conditions which massively inflate the MPG numbers.

As far as the 70 MPG figure itself, that is also wrong. The 1.2 Fiat 500 official MPG figures range from 58-62 MPG . In the real world, you're going to average out at around 45 MPG. The only models that will get anything close to 70 MPG, which should come at no surprise, are the 1.3L diesels, which average out at about 60 MPG in the real world.


Why is everyone laughing because I said my car is 70 MPG? . It’s a fiat 500 and is extremely economical. I put a fiver in it every few days and have no trouble commuting to work everyday. I’m unsure about motorways, but in terms of city driving I can assure you all that 70 MPG is very realistic.

In my manual it says 53-74 MPG.

Now that’s clarified, can anyone help me work out how much fuel will cost for my commute?
Original post by Muttley79
Don;t forget that the running costs of a car are far more than the fuel - a typical cost is 45p per mile as that is a normal expenses claim.


So if it’s 45p petrol per mile for an average car, what will it be for my car?
Original post by Vishstar
70mpg lool


Original post by TheMcSame
You wont be getting 70 MPG, I can assure you that.

Google is grabbing official figures that Fiat have put out (and not necessarily for your specific model either). More often than not, these figures are obtained in ideal conditions which massively inflate the MPG numbers.

As far as the 70 MPG figure itself, that is also wrong. The 1.2 Fiat 500 official MPG figures range from 58-62 MPG . In the real world, you're going to average out at around 45 MPG. The only models that will get anything close to 70 MPG, which should come at no surprise, are the 1.3L diesels, which average out at about 60 MPG in the real world.


Why is everyone laughing because I said my car is 70 MPG? . It’s a fiat 500 and is extremely economical. I put a fiver in it every few days and have no trouble commuting to work everyday. I’m unsure about motorways, but in terms of city driving I can assure you all that 70 MPG is very realistic.

In my manual it says 53-74 MPG.

Now that’s clarified, can anyone help me work out how much fuel will cost for my commute?
Although 70 MPG seems a bit of a stretch, it's really not that difficult to achieve what most people assume to be unattainable levels of fuel economy. I can get 60 MPG out of my dad's 1.2 Fiat Panda that I drive for work a few times a week - and I get those figures by simply not driving like a tit (this is mainly for longer distance driving, although town centre driving is closer to 55-60). If I went super hard on driving economically that could probably go up close to 65.
Original post by dsmith23
Although 70 MPG seems a bit of a stretch, it's really not that difficult to achieve what most people assume to be unattainable levels of fuel economy. I can get 60 MPG out of my dad's 1.2 Fiat Panda that I drive for work a few times a week - and I get those figures by simply not driving like a tit (this is mainly for longer distance driving, although town centre driving is closer to 55-60). If I went super hard on driving economically that could probably go up close to 65.


Finally, somebody who isn’t laughing because I said my car is 70 MPG.


So if my petrol is 133.9 per litre and my MPG is between 57-74 and my commute is 40 miles of both normal roads and motorways.... how much will I spend on petrol per day?
Reply 11
Manual figures never transfer to the real world.

But, say they do and you manage to average 60 mpg. That's 13.2 mpl. Petrol is £1.30ish, at 13.2 mpl you need about three litres to do 40 miles, so 3 x £1.30 is £3.90.
Using the figure of 131.9p per litre as stated in the OP, your commute cost for 57-74 mpg is £4.21-£3.24.

If you're using the information for budgeting, I would assume a figure closer to the lower mpg side even if you do average higher to account for the unpredictable.
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by dsmith23
Using the figure of 131.9p per litre as stated in the OP, your commute cost for 57-74 mpg is £4.21-£3.24.

If you're using the information for budgeting, I would assume a figure closer to the lower mpg side even if you do average higher to account for the unpredictable.


So using 70 mpg it would cost me £3-4 per day? What would it cost for let’s say 57 mpg?
Original post by Sadieleigh95
So using 70 mpg it would cost me £3-4 per day? What would it cost for let’s say 57 mpg?


averaging 57mpg would cost you £4.21, 74mpg would cost you £3.24.

If you want to work this out for yourself for various different petrol costs and fuel economy, do as below (or use in a spreadsheet if you're sad like me) :

miles in journey (in your case 40) / average or estimated mpg = gallons used in journey
gallons used * 4.55 (litres in a british gallon) = litres used
litres used * fuel cost (£1.319, aka 1.319) = cost for journey
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by Sadieleigh95
Why is everyone laughing because I said my car is 70 MPG? . It’s a fiat 500 and is extremely economical. I put a fiver in it every few days and have no trouble commuting to work everyday. I’m unsure about motorways, but in terms of city driving I can assure you all that 70 MPG is very realistic.

In my manual it says 53-74 MPG.

Now that’s clarified, can anyone help me work out how much fuel will cost for my commute?


Again, official figures and the real world are usually worlds apart. You might be getting decent fuel economy, but not 70 MPG decent, very few petrols in the real world can compete with diesels for fuel economy... Most real world tests I've seen don't have it much higher than 45 MPG or so...
Reply 16
Original post by Sadieleigh95
Why is everyone laughing because I said my car is 70 MPG? . It’s a fiat 500 and is extremely economical. I put a fiver in it every few days and have no trouble commuting to work everyday. I’m unsure about motorways, but in terms of city driving I can assure you all that 70 MPG is very realistic.

In my manual it says 53-74 MPG.

Now that’s clarified, can anyone help me work out how much fuel will cost for my commute?


No, it's really not. With the absolute greatest of respect, we're correct on this, and you're sorely mistaken.

The cost of your commute using a realistic figure can be found by scrolling up.
perhaps they meant 70 km per gallon ?

:hmmmm2:
you are doing around 40 miles a day, so on a 5 day week your commuting mileage will be about 200 miles / week , assuming a real world fuel consumption of high 40s to low 50s MPG ( as don;t forget the engine is going to be cold at the start of both journeys) you are looking at about 4 and a hlaf to 5 gallons on that so low twenties of litres a week ... 5 to 6 gbp / day is probably a realistic figure to work from and if you get better then great
Original post by the bear
perhaps they meant 70 km per gallon ?

:hmmmm2:


I don't know why all these people are answering. Someone who has not been educated in primary school arithmetic is simply not old enough to hold a UK driving licence and own a car.

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