Hi all,

I've had my 1.6 Zetec S since August. While I always take the manufacturer's MPG with a pinch of salt, I am a little concerned that my car is consistently below the rated Urban MPG (here).

I typically do short runs, many <3 mile journeys during a week, but also runs of say 10-15 mile trips.

My best achieved MPG, based on seven tanks fuel so far, is 34MPG, while I have even seen as low as 29MPG. I appreciate that the cold weather (heaters, engine running whilst de-icing the car etc.) means that fuel consumption will never be at its best at this time of year, but I still think that it should be performing better. Even when I have done a long journey down the motorway, I have never got 240 miles out of a whole tank of petrol.

I would like to know what MPG and range others with 1.6 petrols get so I know whether something is up or not! I'm not the hardest person on the accelerator, but I also don't drive like a granny!

The best I can get is 31mpg when I try, with daily driving I average 28mpg

Strange you seem to get so low on the long journey. I have an ST so it's not tuned for low consumption, but I get 42-43 average consumption, and on motorways I get around the 50mpg mark at 60-70mph. something not right with your car.

Mine is the same as GaryJ with the exception mine is a normal 1.6 Titanium 2011.

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

I normally get about 35mpg out of my ST driving a combination of motorway and city streets. On long motorway journeys though it tends to be more like 40-45mpg. I have a mate with a Zetec S and he gets 40mpg out of it fairly easily so your mpg does seem a tad low. Given its the same engine as the ST though it could very well be caused by a heavy foot.

Very local,and i do mean very local like i could walk in 10mins i don't get very good at all.

Around 25 MPG and drove right the same distance about 29 MPG.If i do 100miles in 3 weeks i'm lucky.

I took it on a good 1 hour run and went up MASSIVE like 37 to over 40.about 20 mile run.

Thats the 1.6 not ecoboost.

Very local,and i do mean very local like i could walk in 10mins i don't get very good at all.

Around 25 MPG and drove right the same distance about 29 MPG.If i do 100miles in 3 weeks i'm lucky.

I took it on a good 1 hour run and went up MASSIVE like 37 to over 40.about 20 mile run.

Thats the 1.6 not ecoboost.

I can certainly relate to some of your driving there, so it's reassuring to hear that I could be getting worse.

That said...

I normally get about 35mpg out of my ST driving a combination of motorway and city streets. On long motorway journeys though it tends to be more like 40-45mpg. I have a mate with a Zetec S and he gets 40mpg out of it fairly easily so your mpg does seem a tad low. Given its the same engine as the ST though it could very well be caused by a heavy foot.

If someone can easily see 40MPG out of their Zetec S, maybe there is something up. And my driving style isn't that bad; I've even tried doing some granny like driving for a while and that seems to make little difference! I have the 17" alloys, not the 16", is that likely to be one of the reasons, or is there anywhere in particular under the hood I should be looking at?

Cheers all.

If i hammer it and i mean drive stupid i can get lower lol.

I always fill up every 130 miles which is around half a tank,depends how i drive and

thats around £25 to £30 every 3 or more weeks so it don't bother me in that way as don't

use it that much so don't cost a lot to run also still got the power from my 1.6.

The wheels won't matter unless the tyre pressures are way down, easy enough to check. I'd look at your air filter and box, if the filter is heavily contaminated, it could cause poorer consumption. also have the plugs out and see how they look. If you have access to a Haynes manual for any car, there are pictures of spark plugs that show you what to expect for normal, lean or overfuelled engines. That may give you an idea also.

The many 3 mile trips will always kill consumption as the engine when cold will likely be on auto choke. Takes a couple of miles to warm up enough to take the choke off. This will tend to clog spark plugs up, as it is overfuelling most of the time the engine is running, especially in cold weather. Just going on a 10-15 mile trip won't really clean out the cylinders either. You need to do a few distance runs to see if the consumption gets better.

It could be the cold weather. I've noticed that over the last few weeks my mpg has dropped drastically from 40 plus to about 31 driving to work and back (about ten minutes each way). On longer journeys when the engine has time to warm up it does go back up towards the 40 mark. Take it for a good run and then reset your average mpg metre, and then see if it improves

Yeah, I'll have a look at the air filter and see about the spark plugs too. I have looked into the K&N panel filters, but my research seems to say that it is £30 spent that doesn't really offer much benefit! That said, if I did need a new filter, why not?

I wanted to know really whether there is anyone else with the same 'car' as me who does the same types of journeys to give me someone to compare too. So far, it does seem as though my consumption is in line with some others'. I don't do much mileage annually, so it isn't as though I'm at the petrol station every week, but we all want to get the most out of our petrol regardless!

That is identical to my driving. It's 3 miles to work and 3 miles to my GF's. 3 miles to the supermarket and every now and then go to the cinema or out of town shopping which is like 15-20miles...

Mine is at 34.9mpg at the moment but what I do as there's loads of hills round here is go in neutral to go down and see how long I can leave it before going into gear... as there's one where if the traffic lights stay green you can do a mile in neutral without exceeding the limit.

I have bluefin + pipercross air filter other than that it's normal if you want to compare

Ironically, that is also what my car is on, 35MPG +/- a bit. And I suppose your hills mean that you can save fuel on one side and use more on the other. I live and drive on the flat pretty much all the time, so I suppose our driving averages out!

Is it a basic Pipercross air filter you have fitted, or the whole induction kit?

Whole kit so silicone pipe from throttle body to top air filter housing then its got pipercross filter, lower housing and cold air intake