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Fiesta Econetic Fuel Consumption


Maria
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Is anyone out there having fuel consumption problems with their new Ford Econetics or have we just got a dud car? My husband and I bought ours a year ago as we looked around and decided that as we are high mileage users, the Econetic would be the best option as it can achieve 60 - 80 mpg. We purchased the vehicle a year ago and out of that year the car has been at the dealers in their garage of 6 months approx. We realised there was a problem with the vehicle within 2 weeks of buying the car as we noticed we were only getting around 50 mpg, this was on short runs around Somerset where we live and on long runs down to Cornwall. We have complained over and over to the dealer, who has also had 8 of it's employees also drive our car and they too only achieved 48 - 50 mpg!! At first the dealer tried to blame our driving - but after 8 of their guys achieved the same mileage they couldn't really stick to that one! Our car is now sitting in the dealers car park where it has been for the last 4 months - we have had a Ford Courtesy car with their writing all over it and the situation is so bad now that neighbours have started to think we are employees of Fords as we've had their car for so long! Our situation is now the sales manager of the dealer and the service manager both agree there is a problem with our car and they admit that it doesn't match up to spec, however when we contacted Ford Direct Head Office they didn't want to know - their argument is that because their computer doesn't register a problem then there is nothing wrong with the car!! We told them it was them who made the car and they should sort it out - but sadly they don't want to know and at the moment the dealer doesn't seem to want to know either. This whole process is causing us sleepless nights and unnecessary worry as we and the dealers know there is a problem. I managed to catch a guy locally who parked his Econetic in a local supermarket carpark and he was delighted with his Econetic's performance - he said he achieves between 67 mpg to 75 mpg regularly and is overall extremely satisfied. We have only ever seen that other Econetic so I haven't had the chance to ask anyone else which is why I'm posting this. Can anyone offer us any advice or suggestions as to what we could do next to try to resolve this awful problem! We would like to know if other owners are getting good mpg and we just have a dud car or is it a general problem?

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Its a sad fact that quoted mpg in the brochure is never achievable in the real world. Having said that, only getting 50 is a bit low, and I guess that as the garage have had your car for so long now, they cant find anything amiss. If the car is new, I would expect the consumption to be down as the engine will still be tight, and it should go up as the car loosens up.

Tell Ford Direct you are going to contact Watchdog, or Topgear, you never konw, it may chivvy them up a bit.

Good luck getting it sorted

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Its a sad fact that quoted mpg in the brochure is never achievable in the real world. Having said that, only getting 50 is a bit low, and I guess that as the garage have had your car for so long now, they cant find anything amiss. If the car is new, I would expect the consumption to be down as the engine will still be tight, and it should go up as the car loosens up.

Tell Ford Direct you are going to contact Watchdog, or Topgear, you never konw, it may chivvy them up a bit.

Good luck getting it sorted

Thanks for that info - we'll let you know how we get on!!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Maria,

I too have a Econetic which is now 10 months old and done nearly 20000 miles but like you the fuel consumption is nowhere near what is claimed for the vehicle. When I approached the dealer and complained they listened but weren't interested and suggested it too was my driving style. That annoyed me as on my previous 2 cars I regular and with ease achieved or slightly exceeded the claimed mpg so I know how to eek the most out of a car but not this one - impossible!. My best mpg is 64 but mostly 58-61 and when the claimed 76 mpg was the main reason for buying the car to say i am !Removed! off is an understatement especially with the attitude and service of the main dealer added in. I reackon this car has cost me around £330-410 in extra fuel this year (avg. price £1.10 per litre).

If you can let me know how you have got on recently as I would be interested to see if you have got closer to getting it resolved.

Jon

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I agree too, that is very low mpg from an econetic, the standard 1.6 tdci engine in the foucus will do 58 mpg.

But we to had problems with its mpg when new we could only avarage 48 mpg on a 55 litre tank, but after its first service at 12500 miles the mpg *massivly* increased to an avarge of 56-58 mpg on a tank. but bearing in mind the foucus has a more powerful engine, wieghs alot more than a fiesta and has 205 wide alloys.

i remeber our old car a 2009 59 mk7 fiesta 1.4 tdci would do 63-65 mpg on a full 45 lire tank of deisel.

So basicly get the car back! bear with the mpg till 12500 miles, get it serviced and the engine should be propally worn in then aswell and if thinggs dont improve then,

Get as much proof and facts dates and times etc, in writing as possible signed by ford and go to citezens advise :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

My econetic is 10 months old and has no where near got close the claimed consumption figures. I had a data recorder fitted by the dealer which was under my dash for a week. I was hoping it would give some insight into the problem so I agreed to it, but as I suspected when the e-mail came from Ford it was a total critique of my driving. It came in PDF format, all very slick and low and behold right in the middle of the report was an advert for the econetic range:

“The CO2 emissions on Ford Fiesta ECOnetic and Ford Focus ECOnetic are under 100g/km making them exempt from road tax and both return over 74mpg.”

What a silly place to put an advert !

It summarised with the news that if I changed my bad driving habits I could save 8% on my fuel consumption. Well over 14 trips to the fuel pump it has turned in an average of 59.6mpg. 59.6mpg + 8% = 64.4mpg that’s not 74mpg is it FMC.

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Its a sad fact that quoted mpg in the brochure is never achievable in the real world.

Sorry, this isn't true at all.

In fact, it IS possible to do better than advertised. But then again, you have to find pleasure and satifsfaction in driving very very economical wich takes a big effort.

It is indeed a matter of driving style.

xlxcnr.jpg

This is part of a listing with fuel consumption of a german driver (as example of very very economical driving).

3.25 liters / 100 km. = 87 MPG.

It takes off the fun of driving as we used to do but it is possible.

http://www.spritmonitor.de/de/uebersicht/17-Ford/147-Fiesta.html?fueltype=1&fuelsort=1&constyear_s=2008&constyear_e=2010&power_s=89&power_e=99&minkm=500&gearing=1&exactmodel=Econetic&powerunit=2

click on a car and you'll get the results from new till now.

Never say never. :)

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my non eco 1.4 tdci 28,000 miles is getting a smidge under 55 mpg around town on 20-30 min journey. wasn't though until i put Forte advanced cleaner through it.

i and my dad (has a s max 2.0 tdci) notice diesels juicy when cold and on hills. has been coldest winter for ages so that could have a part to play. only real way to tell is take in a flat ish run keeping in rev range of max torque mine in 1750 ish as see what you get on the instant mpg read out once warmed up. i'd lay money on it being better then you getting and ford quoted are on rollers so dont simulate real world driving. don't know how many miles you done but tight engines may not loosen up till 10,000 plus miles especially diesels. Audi's used to have this problem

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  • 1 year later...

I have my Fiesta Econetic for more than 18 months and just a week ago had a second 25k mil service. They updated the ECU software and... nothing changed:

Date MPG L/100km 09-Jan 60.80 4.65 14-Jan 61.95 4.56 23-Jan 59.24 4.77 30-Jan 57.76 4.89 05-Feb 57.32 4.93 11-Feb 54.57 5.18 13-Feb 60.77 4.65 15-Feb 63.05 4.48 18-Feb 56.76 4.98 25-Feb 59.83

4.72

I have about 25 mil to work so doing about 50 a day and 200 over the weekend... everything Extra Urban.

I took my ford to TC Harrison in Derby last weekend. They checked the ECU Software and did 10mil test and said that everything is ok with my car. I quoted the official MPG and said that over 70MPG was the main reason I bought the car. They said that there is nothing they can do.

The 54MPG - was when I had a real fun with my car... but on daily basis I'm doing close to 60MPG... most of the time doing approx 50Mil/h avg.

Fair to say - manufactures are taking !Removed!. Have anyone of you read about Urban (U) and Extra Urban (EU) consumption. Cutting to the chase during U test the car is doing 12mil/h on something like 5 mil run (from cold)... and EU, the car is doing in average 39mil/h on approx 7 mil run.

Anyone doing 39 on a Motorway... yeah thought so. In fact Manufacturers are making us (customers) look like idiots.

Anyone have any good tips on how to safe fuel?

PS: Previously I had 1.4 Petrol Titanium - and It did more that U stats and much less than EU.

PS: I know I can pay about £250 to get my ECU remapped which should increase Economy by 10% at best.

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  • 1 year later...


We are having the same problem, Our 2012 (12 Plate) Fiesta 1.6 TCDi Econetic
1, seems to be only returning 55mpg, no where near the quoted 78mpg! it has
just been serviced however, so it will be interesting to see if this improves,
we have only done 5k in it so far, but we are moving soon and so will be travelling
to work which will increase our mileage, and am seriously hoping our MPG will
improve.



In contrast our old (52 Plate, 110k) Citroen C3 1.4 HDi managed over 60mpg very
with little effort, she was fantastic on fuel, so was expecting great things
from our Fiesta, but so far, disappointed, (it also isn't as comfortable as the
Citroen on long journeys but that’s another topic).



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That seems to be about right for a Fiesta, never believe the manufacturers figures, unless all you trips consist of the engine being on a bench and not in a car then you won't achieve fords figures. Aim for midway between the urban and combined figures. Clean oil and air filters will help as will using decent fuel (not supermarket) Removing the DPF will also help, i've seen around 5mpg improvement from having a new DPF fitted. We only ever averaged 47mpg with the Focus, the new Golfs driven the same average 56/57 mpg on the same trips.

If your doing trips of 20 miles or less get a small petrol engine car, I had a VW UP! as a demo and that averaged just under 70mpg on short trips.

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I regularly got over 70MPG from my non ECOnetic 1.6TDCi (95) Fiesta before I sold it and try running it on Shell V Power diesel. Below is part of a previous post I have done comparing my fuel costs and consumptions whilst I had my 11 plate Mk7. Over 20,000 miles of driving in two years I averaged 69.8...

"I've always been a big fan of the Shell V Power Diesel; will always put it in the car unless I'm at a garage where they don't sell it. I haven't had my new Fiesta long enough yet to be able to comment on the MPG or differences on the Mk7.5 but I can base it on my previous Fiesta, Mk.7 TDCi.

I swore by the V Power Petrol when I had my Honda Accord Type R, and Honda recommended running it on 97+ octane rating so the V Power Petrol covered this. However I never saw the point when I first got my Fiesta diesel to continue running it on V Power. I mean diesel is pretty much the same whatever you do with it. I ran the Fez on standard diesel for about 5,000 miles averaging 500 miles a week in commuting (long motorway stretches, little stop start around a town and that was it) and was averaging 58.4MPG. I am reasonably sad but I keep a log book of every time I fill my car up, the cost of the fill etc so I have some form of long term record. After 5,000 miles I started to use the V Power Diesel. First impressions were not noticeable, along with no let down of diesel smoke from the exhaust. There was also no change in MPG or range of the tank along with it actually costing me more per mile to drive as the V Power is generally 8p/L more expensive.

The improvements starting coming around after 4 tankfuls of VP Diesel. The first I noticed was the lack of emissions from the exhaust pipe on hard acceleration which was a suprise as the good old Pug engine does like to smoke. I also noticed that the MPG improved a little and I got about 30 miles extra out of the tank. Now this could be associated to lighter traffic on the drives etc or my driving style changed which is possible. But confirmation came over the next few tankfuls as I continued to get better MPG and range from the car.

After 20,000 miles of running on VP Diesel in all manner of conditions along with my commute every day I have averaged 69.8MPG. I think that is pretty impressive over 20k miles of running on VP. If I didn't have any changes to my commute, I would be regularly exceeding 70MPG and getting nearly 700 miles from the tankful of diesel.

Compare this with the average over 5k miles on standard diesel;

Fuel £p/L Avg. MPG Pred. Range Total Cost Pot. Saving

Diesel 1.389 58.4 584 62.50 N/A

VP Diesel 1.469 69.8 698 66.76 114 miles ( £10.88 better off)

I know that this is only based on my data available and I am sure that people have had other differences from using the differing fuels that are now available but I only needed a few extra miles from each gallon before the VP actually started costing me less per fill up. If you do start using VP don't expect any changes straight away, you need to give it a few tankfuls and start keeping a fuel log and try to keep to the same style of driving so you can get a comparision from the two different fuels.

I will do an update in a few thousand miles on the new 1.6TDCi comparing it with my old 1.6TDCi however it does seem to be exceeding 69.8MPG regulary without having to really think about it and pushing more towards the 80's. This makes me very happy! "

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We are having the same problem, Our 2012 (12 Plate) Fiesta 1.6 TCDi Econetic

1, seems to be only returning 55mpg, no where near the quoted 78mpg! it has

just been serviced however, so it will be interesting to see if this improves,

we have only done 5k in it so far, but we are moving soon and so will be travelling

to work which will increase our mileage, and am seriously hoping our MPG will

improve.

In contrast our old (52 Plate, 110k) Citroen C3 1.4 HDi managed over 60mpg very

with little effort, she was fantastic on fuel, so was expecting great things

from our Fiesta, but so far, disappointed, (it also isn't as comfortable as the

Citroen on long journeys but that’s another topic).

So Leona, does that mean you sit there singing about how the Fiesta isn't as good on that front as the citroen: "No match no match no match, for your fingerprint, no substitute, no other you"

LOL! :P

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Maria, I have skills from my law degree about Sale of Goods etc. This is most interesting indeed. You have certainly given ample opportunity to repair so IN THEORY could move to requesting a replacement vehicle but it could be argued there is nothing to repair and it is just one of those things. Then again, can you somehow obtain evidence that your fiesta MPG is below that of other like models or are many others in the same boat? They do say 'up to' XYZ MPG I think.

Another angle is what influence the claimed MPG had on your decision to buy and how big a deal the Ford dealer made of it.

Did you buy brand new?

S.14 of SOGA 1979 states amongst other things: For the purposes of this Act, goods are of satisfactory quality if they meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking account of any description of the goods, the price (if relevant) and all the other relevant circumstances.

One thing against you is: Fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied. The car is fit for the purpose of being a reasonably economical car

One thing in your favour if this could be classed as a defect is: freedom from minor defects.

Interestingly, there is the authority of Rogers v Parish. Here, numerous attempts had been made by the seller to repair many faults on a new Range Rover. They argued that Rogers had no right to reject the car because it was road worthy and could be used etc. The court held, that where goods as delivered are defective, they are not of merchantable quality and do not become so simply because they are capable of being used in some way.

Ultimately, this comes down to how significant the low MPG is to the 'reasonable person.' S.35 of SOGA states: The buyer is not by virtue of this section deemed to have accepted the goods merely because he asks for, or agrees to, their repair by or under an arrangement with the seller.

Keep us posted on any progress but it may be worth writing to the dealer stating your concerns and your rights under SOGA and just see what they respond with.

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"they admit that it doesn't match up to spec"

Potential S.13 of SOGA admission: Where there is a contract for the sale of goods by description, there is an implied that the goods will correspond with the description.

A sale of goods is not prevented from being a sale by description by reason only that, being exposed for sale or hire, they are selected by the buyer.

"because their computer doesn't register a problem then there is nothing wrong with the car!!"

Blown out of the water by statutory rights. Although your problem is more complex, if Ford tried to play that card with something more obvious, they would lose badly.

Also remember that your statutory rights are a completely separate entity to the warranty. Any terms from Ford cannot restrict or exclude such rights as per S.6 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

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