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General TA fuel use

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General TA fuel use

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:
Similar situation, plus the fact that two substantial stretches of 70kmh road on my drive to work have been reduced to 60 in the last couple of months.

I don't consciously drive for economy but I leave the ECO on most of the time and only use AC on the hottest days, preferring open top and/or windows.
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In a TA, 60 will save you fuel over 70. A/C uses less fuel then opening the roof at even modest speeds, even windows down uses more fuel at somewhere around 70km/h.

I keep ECO OFF and windows up nearly all the time. Ideally, keep the windows up and use just the fan to bring in cool fresh air.
 
UFI said:
Hypermiling skills are part of my driving skills:) As I've stated repeatedly, good mpg isn't about driving slowly, IMO that's the mistake most people make it's almost as easy to drive too slow for mpg as it is to drive too fast. Another secret ingredient was driving on hills. Honestly, 100mpg was a surprise to me as I wasn't really a full on eco run. The first part of the tank was just having a bit of fun and not really paying attention to mpg, I share driving UFI 30% of the time with a less dedicated driver, so factoring that in a 70mpg tank is basically within reach.

100mpg sounds impressive (much more so than 2.9l/100km), but I'm not really sure it is. I was driving 'blind' with only the MFD for guidance, I've now fitted an OBD gauge for a bit more info. Currently on 16" wheels. Here's a 20 year old 140mpg (imp) CRX for comparison:

http://ecomodder.com/blog/20-yearold-modified-honda-crx-hf-scores-118-mpg-fuel-economy-run/

(note that the pointy nose does nothing for aerodynamics at road car speeds - even subsonic aircraft have blunt noses)

The rest of my daily drivers' lifetime averages are 35-40% over the official EU cycle figures, so I really shouldn't be happy with anything less than consistent 100mpg tanks. There's certainly more to come, but we'll have to wait and see.
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I just followed your link to the Honda and to be honest I'm amazed at how standard it is. Interesting comments about how he believes the benefits given by the suspension.
Best I've managed was 89mpg in a 2.2litre diesel Avensis. That was slip streaming trucks with cruise set to 56mpg. Not something I would recommend though.
 
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Jealous of the OPS ML count so far :p

I've got a TA 500S, brought new in September 2013. I'm currently getting around between 42 and 45 mpg and fill up roughly every 2 weeks or so.
I'm running 16's, and my journey is between Portsmouth and Havant (so relatively short) and so I'm averaging about 15-20 miles a day, only doing 70 (A27) for a few minutes. The getting out of Portsmouth is a lot of stop/starts and the getting into Havant is the same.

This is in 'normal mode' as well, I don't really use the sporty mode so much otherwise I'll get used to it, and it won't be as much fun when it is on.
 
If I drive my TA for a few hundred miles without trying to be economical it's around the 43-45mpg mark.
If I try really hard I can get 50mpg around town and the same on a 70mph motorway run.
Most I ever had was 63mpg on a trip up the M6 but that was 50mph a lot of the time tbh.
 
There's a common theme emerging here regarding every day use of the TA 85 and that is most owners driving their car in a similar fashion, are achieving similar mpg. This is indicative of the general environmental conditions, certainly here in the UK, the volume of traffic encountered, stop/start etc.

Personally, now I have experienced the real world figures of the 500 TA, the average achieved mpg is no longer a disappointment and quite frankly if the car achieves returns in the higher end of 50 mpg on long distance journeys, then that is as far as I am concerned, a bonus. I just wish all car manufacturers tested their cars under real world conditions instead of hoodwinking us all with sanitised factory testing.
 
frupi said:
There's a common theme emerging here regarding every day use of the TA 85 and that is most owners driving their car in a similar fashion, are achieving similar mpg. This is indicative of the general environmental conditions, certainly here in the UK, the volume of traffic encountered, stop/start etc.

Personally, now I have experienced the real world figures of the 500 TA, the average achieved mpg is no longer a disappointment and quite frankly if the car achieves returns in the higher end of 50 mpg on long distance journeys, then that is as far as I am concerned, a bonus. I just wish all car manufacturers tested their cars under real world conditions instead of hoodwinking us all with sanitised factory testing.
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Or test drive a car over the weekend to see its real mpg before buying it !
 
ahmett said:
Or test drive a car over the weekend to see its real mpg before buying it !
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Agreed, but we didn't buy our own TA on mpg figures, we bought the car because we genuinely didn't want to pay any VED on our second car, we got a good PX figure on our old POP and the pre-reg TA came with a hefty discount from new. As far as the mpg was concerned, well it became abundantly clear that the 'claimed' figures were in the real world as far as our own situation is concerned, completely unachievable. The only time we ever see a ridiculous mpg figure in the dash pod, is after we've just filled up, reset the mpg counter and then let the car run down the local big hill under its own steam in 4th gear. I think I've seen 99mpg pop up before rapidly dropping back down to the high forties lol!

As far as the TA 85 and our old POP is concerned, well me and the wife both agree, the TA is the better car, certainly a lot more fun to drive.
 
UFI said:
The rest of my daily drivers' lifetime averages are 35-40% over the official EU cycle figures, so I really shouldn't be happy with anything less than consistent 100mpg tanks. There's certainly more to come, but we'll have to wait and see.
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UFI, I think I'm not the only forum member who is very interested in your hypermiling achievements. Maybe it's an idea to monitor your fuel economy figures with www.fuelly.com or www.spritmonitor.de.
 
I don't like Fuely but might put UFI on Spritmonitor, in the mean time here's a graph:

graph7188.gif


Keeping in mind it's a US site so in US MPG.
 
Fuel economy on my TA Lounge has been disappointing. Such a small car should do much better than it does. Supposed to be loosening up with 5000km on the clock. Still only got 450kms on the last tank highway & country driving. This equated to 7.0l/100km. OTOH yesterday I took delivery of a brand new VW Touareg weighing in over 2.2 tons with 20km on the clock. Just drove it 400ks and on the same route essentially as I last measured the Fiats consumption . Straight of the blocks it is achieving 6.7l/100!!! Sure I could drive the TA in Economy mode and do all sorts of fancy things to reduce fuel usage. IMO it is just plain average when it comes to fuel economy, if I drive it like I drive any other car. I mean fancy a 2 ton Touareg bettering it (n)
 
logger said:
OTOH yesterday I took delivery of a brand new VW Touareg weighing in over 2.2 tons with 20km on the clock. Just drove it 400ks and on the same route essentially as I last measured the Fiats consumption . Straight of the blocks it is achieving 6.7l/100!!!
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The Touareg is a diesel, right? So the fuel consumption is always going to look better than a petrol.

Anyway, I'd say you will be able to see better results once you have done at least 10K. 5K is still rather fresh.

I've done barely over 3K, mostly in suburban driving, and as you can see from my Fuelly my fuel figures are pretty terrible. I doubt it'll improve much over time because of my driving conditions -- short journeys at low speeds. I also have air con turned on most of the time, but I don't think that affects fuel consumption that dramatically anyway.

Many people on this forum seem to do mostly highway driving, so I envy them (y)

I noticed that the Instantaneous Consumption readout shoots up like crazy when climbing hills at 110km/h, so bear that in mind if your highways are not flat :D
 
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44sunsets said:
The Touareg is a diesel, right? So the fuel consumption is always going to look better than a petrol.

Anyway, I'd say you will be able to see better results once you have done at least 10K. 5K is still rather fresh.

I've done barely over 3K, mostly in suburban driving, and as you can see from my Fuelly my fuel figures are pretty terrible. I doubt it'll improve much over time because of my driving conditions -- short journeys at low speeds. I also have air con turned on most of the time, but I don't think that affects fuel consumption that dramatically anyway.

Many people on this forum seem to do mostly highway driving, so I envy them (y)

I noticed that the Instantaneous Consumption readout shoots up like crazy when climbing hills at 110km/h, so bear that in mind if your highways are not flat :D
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34.5? thats almost as bad as me and i have the 1.4! and lets be honest, i dont exactly drive softly. do you have the 16 tires?
 
Yup 16" alloy wheels -- in Australia I believe all of the Lounge spec 500s come with 16" wheels. So that doesn't help the fuel economy either!

I do have a tendency to have a lead foot, while making sure I don't stray beyond the speed limit. Nobody has ever accused me of going too slow :D
 
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Overall I get about 43mpg from my TA.
If I drive carefully I can achieve 50mpg around town and between 50 and 55mpg on the motorway. At a steady 50-70 on motorway it gets up to 65mpg.
But, if you do put your foot down its easy to drag the mpg down to the high 30's
That's my experience :)
 
ahmett said:
34.5? thats almost as bad as me and i have the 1.4! and lets be honest, i dont exactly drive softly. do you have the 16 tires?
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No it has 15" goodyears on it. I don't drive like a ***** OTOH I don't totally thrash it. Yes the Touareg is a diesel BTW. It has claimed extra urban consumption of 6.5 & I achieved 6.7 on the first drive!
My Previous ride was petrol golf 118 twin charger. It has better fuel economy than the TA too.

Oh well it is what it is. Just disappointing the TA is not more economical when driven normally, given it small engine and overall size..
 
logger said:
No it has 15" goodyears on it. I don't drive like a ***** OTOH I don't totally thrash it. Yes the Touareg is a diesel BTW. It has claimed extra urban consumption of 6.5 & I achieved 6.7 on the first drive!
My Previous ride was petrol golf 118 twin charger. It has better fuel economy than the TA too.

Oh well it is what it is. Just disappointing the TA is not more economical when driven normally, given it small engine and overall size..
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i just think fiat are more inclined to lie than VW = )
 
logger said:
No it has 15" goodyears on it. I don't drive like a ***** OTOH I don't totally thrash it. Yes the Touareg is a diesel BTW. It has claimed extra urban consumption of 6.5 & I achieved 6.7 on the first drive!
My Previous ride was petrol golf 118 twin charger. It has better fuel economy than the TA too.

Oh well it is what it is. Just disappointing the TA is not more economical when driven normally, given it small engine and overall size..
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i just think fiat are more inclined to lie than VW = )
 
IMO the TA's real-world fuel consumption is perfectly respectable given the car's performance; the reason so many folks have complained is that Fiat's official fuel economy figures bear absolutely no relation to what you are likely to achieve in practice. They could also mislead you into the mistaken belief that the TA is more economical than the 1.2.

Fiat have probably used every trick in the book to get the best possible result in testing; this may have gained some fiscal advantage for both the company and the car, but it has also set the car up for new owners to be disappointed by the real world figures.
 
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