I was wondering what kind of fuel consumption people get on the 1.2's? A while back, I had a courtesy car and found the fuel consumption to be horrific. IIRC I got a little over 40mpg. This was all long journeys, and had a variety of roads, but no slow moving traffic. My Panda 100HP usually consumes a similar amount of fuel, and that's a 1.4. As I didn't do the same journey in the Panda it's hard to say what the difference was though.

By looking at the instant consumption I think the 1.2 may have been better on slower roads, but similar or worse when cruising at high speeds (60-70mph). Do people find that fuel consumption is really poor at these speeds?

Looking at the consumption figures it should really be capable of 70+mpg, but I don't think it is?

I'm very tempted by the 500. If I get one it would either be the 1.2 or the 875cc one when they are available. I thought the 1.2 was a brilliant engine, and was VERY flexible, espeically for a 1.2.

This may help - http://www.fuelly.com/car/fiat/500

Here's my 1.2 Panda - http://www.fuelly.com/driver/udtrev/panda


Trev

udtrev said:

This may help - http://www.fuelly.com/car/fiat/500

Here's my 1.2 Panda - http://www.fuelly.com/driver/udtrev/panda


Trev

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I have looked on there, but the figures are all over the place, and it's hard to tell what kind of journeys people had been doing. 34-45mpg seems to be average on there, which is a pretty wide range. Are these all US gallons too? That would make it 41-54mpg (UK).

Going by the trip computer, on my daily drive (mix of single carriageway A/B roads, single track roads and light urban) I get around 51-53mpg not driving especially softly.

Best I've seen (mix of single carriageway A road and c.60 miles of motorway in left and middle lane at anywhere between 65-70 continuously) was 56.2mpg.

Advanced Driver said:

I have looked on there, but the figures are all over the place, and it's hard to tell what kind of journeys people had been doing. 34-45mpg seems to be average on there, which is a pretty wide range. Are these all US gallons too? That would make it 41-54mpg (UK).

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you need to click on UK so it is NOT underlined

Here's what you can expect from a fairly economically driven 500 which has been run in and which is running on 16" rims. Economy will go up as rim size goes down of course.

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/306maxi/500

with mine on my daily 40 mile round commute which was a little urban and alot of fast dual carriageway i got an average of 46-47 mpg-

anythng faster than 65mph ruins the overall average, as does much in the way of urban traffic..(even with stop start...)...so its a tough call in the 1.2 breaking 50mpg without really concentrating-

now- in my new #coughs# KA tdci that has only 800m on the clock im already averaging 59mpg on the same commute driving in the same manner...

i changed into this because i thought i could get more MPG from a diesel...and i have..

the 1.2 gets better and better as it wears in in many ways- i started off averaging 38-40 mpg when it was new...but it got stuck at 46mpg and that was it- it had 16000k on the clock when i traded in...

keeforelli said:

anythng faster than 65mph ruins the overall average, as does much in the way of urban traffic

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I really disagree, obviously the computer won't be great accuracy wise but from what Maxi and others have said it's usually within 2-3mpg.

zanes said:

I really disagree, obviously the computer won't be great accuracy wise but from what Maxi and others have said it's usually within 2-3mpg.

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well i doubt i was doing more mpg than indicated....and im a pretty progressive driver- even used ecodrive for 5000m...

my average of 46.8 was built over my last 2000 miles- on trip b over 800 miles it was on 45...

when i was looking to improve mpg i would always have to stay below 70mph...

zanes said:

I really disagree, obviously the computer won't be great accuracy wise but from what Maxi and others have said it's usually within 2-3mpg.

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I'd say it's usually within 10% BUT on my recent trip on the continent where I was pretty much driving long distances in one big stint it was actually spot on. Weird that......

Seems that when you go through a tank over a week or two which is obviously made up of lots of different journeys it's inaccurate but if you're using a tank up in one or two stints then it's pretty much spot on.

keeforelli said:

well i doubt i was doing more mpg than indicated....and im a pretty progressive driver- even used ecodrive for 5000m...

my average of 46.8 was built over my last 2000 miles- on trip b over 800 miles it was on 45...

when i was looking to improve mpg i would always have to stay below 70mph...

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MPG needs to be worked out from the actual fuelups rather than the trip because the trip is only accurate to within about 10%

You are right though, going over 65 kills the mpg

When I'm trying to be economical with my 500 on its 20 mile or so commute I can easily bang in high 40's and low 50's with ease. On pop wheels and skinny tyres I reckon you'd be pushing 60mpg if you don't touch the brakes. I even got 53mpg on my skinny winter tyres when the weather was really cold and the engine was barely run in.

I might be tempted when my summer tyres are worn out to get a set of 14" steelies with eco tyres from a newbie owner just to see what mpg I can get out of it.

I've had 54.7mpg out of the car before it was serviced and on the 16" wheels so I reckon I could get 60 out of it

306maxi said:

I'd say it's usually within 10% BUT on my recent trip on the continent where I was pretty much driving long distances in one big stint it was actually spot on. Weird that......

Seems that when you go through a tank over a week or two which is obviously made up of lots of different journeys it's inaccurate but if you're using a tank up in one or two stints then it's pretty much spot on.

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I find that the trip MPG reading is more accurate at around (and over) 300 miles. As you say, it usually reads 2-3 MPG high, but at 300+ miles, it begins to get accurate. Only found this out using fuelly.

Hate the instant consumption reading though, jumps all over the place!

Our little puppy is a 1.2 convertible, frequently used roof down, and I keep forgetting to turn the automatic air conditioning off. I'd say it was moderately driven, whatever that means, and we're getting an average of 50 and a bit, checking by tank to tank calculation.

Mrs Omad drives it mostly.... and she tends to have the occasional heavy right foot!

but as a car that mainly does 24miles a day in 6 mile burst's for most of life it returns no less than 50mpg to a tank...

If we hit the motorways we can average 56mpg @ 70mph. but of course all this is subject to the wind resistance, air temp etc etc but as an average it 56mpg


Oh and to note the car has 23k on it now.... and was serviced very very late!

I Get 35 mpg on the computer but i only do short runs ,on a motor way run ive had nearly had 55mpg at 75, 80 ..

How new was it? I found that up until i hit the 8000 mile mark mine was doing less that 40mpg but now im on 12000 miles she does 46+ mpg

DraigFlag87 said:

I find that the trip MPG reading is more accurate at around (and over) 300 miles. As you say, it usually reads 2-3 MPG high, but at 300+ miles, it begins to get accurate. Only found this out using fuelly.

Hate the instant consumption reading though, jumps all over the place!

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the instant mpg is a fab way to improve averages- stops u ragging the car, and u can see what situations are most fuel efficient-

do u mean the trip is most accurate on a 300 mile trip?.....or left without resetting and left to its own devices?

keeforelli said:

the instant mpg is a fab way to improve averages- stops u ragging the car, and u can see what situations are most fuel efficient-

do u mean the trip is most accurate on a 300 mile trip?.....or left without resetting and left to its own devices?

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I mean the trip MPG reading (the more accurate one) stops being 2 to 3 MPG higher than it really is at around the 300 mile mark, and above of course.

keeforelli said:

the instant mpg is a fab way to improve averages- stops u ragging the car, and u can see what situations are most fuel efficient-

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Does hard acceleration increase the fuel consumption though? I've done a test with my Panda 100HP and found that with hard acceleration I could improve my fuel consumption slightly. The difference was tiny so it doesn't prove anything in my test, but it does suggest that hard acceleration doesn't increase the fuel consumption. I did find that higher speeds increased the fuel consumption, and you will usually reach higher speeds when you're driving it hard. If I restricted my maximum speed, drove it hard, and matched the average speed of gentle driving then I saw a tiny improvement (less than 1mpg) over a short distance. What does the eco drive thing think about this?

Advanced Driver said:

Does hard acceleration increase the fuel consumption though? I've done a test with my Panda 100HP and found that with hard acceleration I could improve my fuel consumption slightly. The difference was tiny so it doesn't prove anything in my test, but it does suggest that hard acceleration doesn't increase the fuel consumption. I did find that higher speeds increased the fuel consumption, and you will usually reach higher speeds when you're driving it hard. If I restricted my maximum speed, drove it hard, and matched the average speed of gentle driving then I saw a tiny improvement (less than 1mpg) over a short distance. What does the eco drive thing think about this?

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No, 'Hard' acceleration KILLS your fuel consumption! Going back to your original post; If you're jumping into a 1.2 500 after driving your 100hp Panda it is highly likely you're trying to get the same performance out of the smaller engine (whether you're aware of this or not). So if you're thrashing a 1.2 to try to match the 1.4 Panda then you're obviously not going to get great fuel economy! The major things that affect fuel economy is short trips (i.e. engine hasn't warmed up), foot to the floor acceleration and using high revs instead of keeping in a high gear with gentle acceleration.