Fuel Economy Seems Terrible So Far

[stephenrhys1955]

Thats interesting never thought of that, if a software upgrade has improved how a car drives then it shows how much modern cars are relying on computers and not the actual engines.

Well i used shell v power on my last fill up and got 330 miles. I filled up on tuesday with normal tesco fuel and can tell the difference without even making any calculations, the tesco fuel is no where near going as far as the shell v power.

Will be filling up with shell or bp from now on, whichever im closest to depending on location in the country.

I'll have to give Shell a go but at the moment Tesco has it's 5p offer on. I try to use the same pump at the same station and fill until the first 'click' of the nozzle to get some kind of consistency but mainly I rely on the average figure of the last five fills to see just what the MPG. is. ( 55.8 MPG ) Noticed over the cold weather before Christmas a marked decrease. I was under the impression that cold air being denser would make the engine more efficient but the computer must be looking at the exhaust gases and compensating thinking the engine is lean. I may be completely wrong but it's the only explanation I can think of. Possibly there may be a difference in the 'calorific value' of various fuels which is more likely to effect the MPG.

[1an3]

I'll have to give Shell a go but at the moment Tesco has it's 5p offer on. I try to use the same pump at the same station and fill until the first 'click' of the nozzle to get some kind of consistency but mainly I rely on the average figure of the last five fills to see just what the MPG. is. ( 55.8 MPG ) Noticed over the cold weather before Christmas a marked decrease. I was under the impression that cold air being denser would make the engine more efficient but the computer must be looking at the exhaust gases and compensating thinking the engine is lean. I may be completely wrong but it's the only explanation I can think of. Possibly there may be a difference in the 'calorific value' of various fuels which is more likely to effect the MPG.

I also noticed a marked drop over the v cold weather - even from the (apparently inaccurate) trip computer. I'd put it down to the engine being colder for longer, and the fact that I had the heater on higher, for longer, etc etc. I did Manchester-Edinburgh on Christmas Eve and it was -7 most of the way, dropped to -10, -11 over the tops. I had the heater on highest for most of the way!

[lufc_lad]

I also noticed a marked drop over the v cold weather - even from the (apparently inaccurate) trip computer. I'd put it down to the engine being colder for longer, and the fact that I had the heater on higher, for longer, etc etc. I did Manchester-Edinburgh on Christmas Eve and it was -7 most of the way, dropped to -10, -11 over the tops. I had the heater on highest for most of the way!

That is definitly a factor, i notice that my fuel economy is worse for the first 15-20 minutes of a journey. I find it tends to pick up after that and gets better the longer its driven for. I assumed it was down to the engine temperature.

[Hen Pecked]

If I had to write a list of appropriate cars for touring around Europe, a small displacement, petrol powered automatic supermini would be nowhere near it. Especially with the archaic, power sapping auto box that the fiesta has.

Had you bought a three year old BMW 320d, Passat or similar you'd have no such problems - but surely you know what you were getting yourself in for when you bought the car?

I think you're over estimating someone's intelligence on the subject there.

At risk of insulting anyone's intelligence, as I said many times....the car was my wife's choice, not mine ;) .

I cannot believe that people feel that a modern car cannot be driven for 100 miles per day at relatively slow speeds. Any modern car should handle this with ease, even a Fiat 500.

Still, I suppose that some people have trouble reading posts and are looking at their Fiesta with rose tinted glasses.

Look at it anyway you like, the Fiesta has lousy economy compared with other cars in it's category, unless one likes to exaggerate about their fuel economy.

Me? I tell the truth, I am not embarrassed and simply replying to others who also experience bad MPG.......The Fiesta is not as good as advertised or as others claim.

[Ryan9684]

Are you comparing the fiesta 1.4 automatic to other cars with 1.4 auto's? Are you comparing what the other cars actually do MPG or are you just comparing what they say they will do?

You can drive the fiesta for 100 miles per day, not sure why you wouldn't be able to do that

[poshpawsfiesta]

well our mk 7 1.4 tdci zetec basicly always avaraged 60 mpg or more , that was with 3 diffent drivers me my dad and my mum , me and dad are good eco drivers but mum hangs on to every gear forever but we still managed 60 mpg , on a trip from hailsham to camber sands i avarage 74 mpg once :)

our new car a 1.6 tdci ford focus manages 52 mpg :) so only 8 mpg worse for a bigger heavier more powerfull car :)

[poshpawsfiesta]

and my 1.2 clio 2004 plate does 42 - 47 mpg :) so i dont see y a new fiesta 1.2 shouldnt do rufely the same :)

[steve271]

Far heavier. All the airbags for starters ;)

[Hen Pecked]

Amazing how many people all rush to say they have fantastic mileage and then you see that they are driving a manual diesel.

The OP was referring to the 1.2 petrol engine which gives lousy performance when compared to other cars in the same bracket.

I fully agree with the statement.

Apart from the rubbish MPG, the Fiesta is quiet a good car. It would have benefited from a larger (1.6?) auto power train but the Fiesta small engined cars are rubbish MPG (EXCEPT THE DIESEL) and even then, other diesel engined cars are far better.

My old Disco2 TDi auto managed over 30 MPG and that weighed thousands of tons and had the aerodynamics of a bus.

OP...spot on.

[Tunny]

You've probably just got a Lemon of a car.. I've seen it on the forums I frequent. Most people seem to have good experiences but there are cars here and there that get nowhere near what they're supposed to. There again it could be their style of driving that explains some of them..

I get 48-50 MPG when driving at my most frugal in my petrol Zetec S. Very pleased with it, though its not exactly near its estimated figures, but I never fully expected that when I bought it, I knew they weren't achievable. Nearly 400 miles out of a 42 litre tank ain't bad on petrol (395 miles to be exact, safely, though I could drive past 400 on reserve)!

[sussex]

I get 48-50 MPG when driving at my most frugal in my petrol Zetec S. Very pleased with it, though its not exactly near its estimated figures, but I never fully expected that when I bought it, I knew they weren't achievable. Nearly 400 miles out of a 42 litre tank ain't bad on petrol (395 miles to be exact, safely, though I could drive past 400 on reserve)!

Got a ZS with 17"'s and also get 48-50mpg when driven well, drops down to 43-45 when drive a little more enthusiastically but overall for a 1.6 I am happy with that.

[steve271]

My car has only done 600 miles. I am averaging 45mpg and that includes a fair bit of urban driving. I have to say that I am very happy with that. As the engine runs in I might even improve on that hopefully. :)

[Nay ZS]

Amazing how many people all rush to say they have fantastic mileage and then you see that they are driving a manual diesel.

The OP was referring to the 1.2 petrol engine which gives lousy performance when compared to other cars in the same bracket.

I fully agree with the statement.

Apart from the rubbish MPG, the Fiesta is quiet a good car. It would have benefited from a larger (1.6?) auto power train but the Fiesta small engined cars are rubbish MPG (EXCEPT THE DIESEL) and even then, other diesel engined cars are far better.

My old Disco2 TDi auto managed over 30 MPG and that weighed thousands of tons and had the aerodynamics of a bus.

OP...spot on.

Rubbish MPG compared to what. Perhaps the smaller engines aren't that much better than some of the old cars because they are a couple of 100 kilos heavier than some of the 10 - 15 old year old small engined cars out there.

I don't think there are many here that dispute the fact that some of the smaller cars will stuggle to obtain good MPG especially. For instance round here the Zetec S is ideal as the hills are so so steep in places.

The official MPG figures for the 1.6 petrol are 47.8

The official MPG for your 1.4 auto is 43.4.

Now lets take of 10 mpg of those for real world figures and its clear that the 1.4 auto is a potentially a very thirsty engine.

It isn't comparable to the fancy dual clutch automated manuals you can get in the Vw polo and Seat Ibiza.

Note most of their small engines are tubocharged now so will have more torque than your Fez. (1.2 TSI etc)

It's always easy to assume the grass is greener on the other side but I bet there's probably someone in the Renault Clio forum saying how poor the MPG is compared to the Fiesta. You just never know.

I don't think the Fiesta is that bad comapared to other non turbo cars of simalar weight and engine size. I mean I'm pretty sure a Mini Cooper S engine emits the same Co2 as my ZS, has the same theoretical 47.9 mpg (if you stay off the turbo !!), yet has 183 bhp, but it's hardly a direct comparison is it ? As someone said there will always be duff cars.

As I said, I can see your reasoning by saying the smaller petrol engines ( 1.2 and 1.4) aren't brilliant but you need to be clear what your comparing them to.

Maybe you should borrow a PETROL Zetec S for a few hundred miles to see what MPG you could get out of it. I think you will be suprised.

[Ryan9684]

sounds like he hasn't actually compared anything to me. He has just decided everyone with good mpg is lying

[Hen Pecked]

sounds like he hasn't actually compared anything to me. He has just decided everyone with good mpg is lying

I love these posts from FMs who think that anyone who disagrees with them are liars.

Classic case of being in denial.

I have merely agreed with the OP and compared my experiences with his thoughts. When FMs start claiming 70 MPG, we really are in the realms of fantasy. Ford could not do this on a rolling road in test conditions.

Me think some FMs do protest too much.

[StathiSport]

My Fiesta Sport (1.6L Ti-Vct) always has an average consumption of 5,8L/100km. I think that it is an awesome consumption! B)

[AndrewL]

I love these posts from FMs who think that anyone who disagrees with them are liars.

Classic case of being in denial.

If you think about this thread as a whole, we can conclude on a couple of options -

1) You've got a duff car. (Probably fairly likely - either poor engine and gearbox choice or poor build)

2) Your standards are much higher than everyone elses (Unlikely seeing as we're all providing quantitative measures for consumption and yours are quite poor)

3) Everyone who disagrees with you is a complete liar.

I know which one I'd put my money on.

[blade]

The OP was referring to the 1.2 petrol engine which gives lousy performance when compared to other cars in the same bracket.

cant agree with you there..... from my experience,fiesta 1.2 goes far better than most other cars with the same engine size (clio 1.2 16v,corsa 1.2 and even 1.4,ibiza 1.2 and 1.4,swift 1.3 etc.,they all are noticeably slower in acceleration than the fiesta and have almost the same MPG)

[Ryan9684]

I love these posts from FMs who think that anyone who disagrees with them are liars.

Classic case of being in denial.

I have merely agreed with the OP and compared my experiences with his thoughts. When FMs start claiming 70 MPG, we really are in the realms of fantasy. Ford could not do this on a rolling road in test conditions.

Me think some FMs do protest too much.

I get terrible MPG but that's because of the way I drive.

Your saying that people are making up MPG figures because they are in denial, in other words calling people with good mpg figures liars.

I don't think your lying about your bad MPG but I do think your lying about having done a fair comparison between your car and similar cars from other manufacturers.

I think your lying for various reasons, one reason is that when asked how you compared and what you compared you avoided the question altogether. My other reason is that it would be crazy to think someone would go to the hassle of testing another cars real life mpg after they have already made a car purchase.

I think your embarrassed by a ridiculous choice of car to go touring Europe in and are trying to defend this choice by claiming that it's fords fault that your choice in car was ridiculously stupid.

I suggest you just stick with blaming your wife(as if anyone believes that).