Hello All
I'm a newby here after just picking up my 1.3MJT 95bhp last week. Its a 6 month old car with 3k miles on the clock. I am generally happy with the car except for the fuel consumption. I've downsized from a Fabia vRS 1.9TDi 130bhp and the fuel consumption on the 500 seems no better!? I would pretty much always get 45-50mpg from the Fabia however I drove it but a reasonable mixture of roads and 200 miles, and the computer is showing me 48mpg, surely this cant be right? I was expecting 60mpg average from everything that I read. What are other owners getting out of their cars? and what should I expect from long mway/dual carriageway runs at 80mph ?
Thanks in advance

Pretty difficult for others to tell you what fuel economy you should be getting. I'm sure people will start telling you numbers left, right and centre in a minute; but basically 48MPG is not unreasonable or unbelievable for the low mileage the engine has done. Without changing your driving habits drastically that is what you are looking at. If you continue at your current mileage rate, you could be getting as much as another 10MPG in a year's time when the engine has "loosened up".

By the way, economy it is likely to be a few MPG lower than the indicated display reading in reality. Perhaps 45MPG or so.

It's a new car and it's still relatively cool so economy will be low. I doubt you'll get 60mpg tbh but mid to high 50's would realistic when tootling along at 70.

I'm just trying to find out what others are getting. With the fabia I always basically matched the Manufacturers claimed combined mpg figure, so yes I was hoping for high 60s mpg from this, its the main reason I bought it. The dealer said it was realistic, are fiat & co really pulling figures out of thin air???!!!

myyluigi said:

I'm just trying to find out what others are getting. With the fabia I always basically matched the Manufacturers claimed combined mpg figure, so yes I was hoping for high 60s mpg from this, its the main reason I bought it. The dealer said it was realistic, are fiat & co really pulling figures out of thin air???!!!

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Maybe that's it - the new model not called the TwinAir at all - it's the ThinAir.

myyluigi said:

I'm just trying to find out what others are getting. With the fabia I always basically matched the Manufacturers claimed combined mpg figure, so yes I was hoping for high 60s mpg from this, its the main reason I bought it. The dealer said it was realistic, are fiat & co really pulling figures out of thin air???!!!

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Not to be funny, but please read people's posts.....

As has been said above, your car is new and not run in yet and the weather is cool. Both of these factors will influence fuel consumption.

306maxi said:

Not to be funny, but please read people's posts.....

As has been said above, your car is new and not run in yet and the weather is cool. Both of these factors will influence fuel consumption.

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In response, also not being funny: i have read and taken on board the previous comments. I'm just interested to see what other people are genuinely getting from theirs once a few miles are on the clock.

the pump duse VW engine in your old fabia is known for its exceptional economy even in higher power outputs, its relatvely unstressed due to its larger 1.9 capacity, and doesnt have alot of weight to pull around. (and 6 speeds?)

so rather than the (still very new) 500 MJ 95 being uneconomical, your old fabia was just VERY economical.

it is really rare to attain manufacturers averages on a daily basis. but expect to see more from yours as you get used to it.

I have the 75hp version and at that mileage I was getting figures like that. I kinda knew the engine needed to loosen up a bit, after around 5000 to 7000 miles I was getting between 65 and 73MPG. BUT to get around high 60's, you do need to accelerate smoothly and drive efficiently.

Don't worry it will get better.

ive had min since march last year and im still only gettin about 48 mpg but it pulls like a train even on motorway banks better than the 1.2 i had, but would be better if i got slightly more mpg .........

There's some diseasals on Fuelly and they are averaging 50+mpg - http://www.fuelly.com/car/fiat/500 (make sure you click on UK in the top left else you will get US figures, it should not be underlined to show correctly)


Trev

udtrev said:

There's some diseasals on Fuelly and they are averaging 50+mpg

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There's some 1.2s on Fuelly averaging 50+ mpg too!

I've a 500 1.3 95hp. I'm getting around 50 to 55 MPG. And I'm not ecodriving that much. My 500 has went around 18 000 km.

I've had mine now since last July. I live in central london and occasionally travel a few hundred miles up north to see my folks (normally loaded up a bit too)... at around 85mph-90mph cruising speed. In effect i see it as almost a worst case scenario.... either it's stuck in traffic a lot of the time down here or above the threshold for good economy on the motorway.

The average so far is 48mpg. Like many, not as much as i expected but there seems to be universal agreement that when the engine is fully run in the mpg increases a fair bit. I've only done 3000 miles so far.

It is noticeable in the rare occasions it's on dual carriageways at say 50-70mph the fuel consumption increases noticeably into the high 50's.

One more thing to bear in mind is ive calculated the mpg meter in the car is if anything a little understated. Every time I fill up I brim it to the first click and I reset the trip B and then on the next occasion i know how many miles ive done from how many litres. Normally it's 2-4 mpg understated but last time it caught me out because it was 1mpg overstated.

Overall though a great engine..... pulls like a train on the motorway. It might seem strange to say for such a small car but it seems more settled on the motorway than it does around town.

Thanks for replies. Guess I'm just gonna have to give it 6 months and about another 6k miles and see whats happening with it then. Just filled it and got 49mpg from a good vaaried week of driving. Must admit that I like the new car but a bit unhappy that i was previously driving a bigger engined, heavier, significantly more powerful car with a heavier right foot and getting virtually the same economy

My 75 thats done 43K is averaging over 60 mpg for varied driving.

However I do find that when loaded and on the motorway there is a huge difference between cruising at just under an indicated 70 and just over.

It seems as though thats the tipping point for more boost.

Cheers

D