I have a alfa mito 1.3 diesel and considering changing to a 500c twinair, only thing is I am concerned about the mpg, I much prefer the 500 having owned one previous and thought if I am going to do it do it properly anx get the 500c in twin air engine.

My diesel if driven very carefully changing gear when car instructs me to is returning 73mpg driving real careful, the official figures say 63 mpg combined and the twin air says more impressive figures, so is anyone getting such good fuel economy or twin air not quite as great as advertised.

Is difficult to say whether twinair get said mpg espeically when english skill not good so and read not threads other where documented it is.

jakedeano said:

My diesel if driven very carefully changing gear when car instructs me to is returning 73mpg driving real careful, the official figures say 63 mpg combined and the twin air says more impressive figures, so is anyone getting such good fuel economy or twin air not quite as great as advertised.

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This is repeating what has already been said elsewhere but I think it's important to help someone avoid possibly spending '000s on the wrong car.

If you want to drive very carefully & get the best possible economy, the twinair may not be the best engine choice. It is clever - getting this much performance whilst keeping inside the 99g/km CO2 band is a remarkable achievement, but the car can't deliver both performance and economy at the same time. Most folks have said it's a car which feels most comfortable when driven briskly - and then mpg will plummet. It may have excellent paper figures, but the real question is whether it is comfortable to drive in a way which is likely to get anywhere close to them. What's the point in spending all that money on a turbo if you're never going to use it?

The 1.2 petrol is well suited to being 'driven very carefully' & may actually be the more economical car in real world driving. Everything I have read suggests that for most folks, the 1.2 petrol will be cheaper to run in pence per mile terms & my own experience confirms it can consistently deliver its published combined mpg figure. No one on this forum has yet got anywhere near the twinair's published combined mpg figure on a consistent basis (but I'll bet they've had loads of fun driving their cars )

The exceptions are for those who can benefit from the fiscal advantages of congestion charge exemption and reduced BIK.

jakedeano said:

I have a alfa mito 1.3 diesel and considering changing to a 500c twinair, only thing is I am concerned about the mpg, I much prefer the 500 having owned one previous and thought if I am going to do it do it properly anx get the 500c in twin air engine.

My diesel if driven very carefully changing gear when car instructs me to is returning 73mpg driving real careful, the official figures say 63 mpg combined and the twin air says more impressive figures, so is anyone getting such good fuel economy or twin air not quite as great as advertised.

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No. Nothing like as good.

I own a twinair and agree with the other respondents - mid 50s mpg if driven for economy, much less if you enjoy the performance. Can you afford to go for the 95 bhp diesel? I couldn't so I didn't try one, but I'll bet it goes well and returns mpg figures much closer to the official ones than the TA.

Ditto

The TA is a car built to be driven in a somewhat brisk fashion, if only for the noise (think Ferrari P330 @ Le Mans c1960s).... But your MPG will be low 40s as a result.

Thanks for the replies guys, such a shame the engine doesn't do very well on the fuel front drove a test car the other day and loved the noise but it's all about how much money passes through the petrol nozzle. And my mito is ultra efficient but just not the car I want. So guess if it an going to get a 500c it'll have to be the 1.2 petty as there only bout 4mpg difference.

Considering the price difference between petrol and diesel, perhaps you should be more concerned about pence-per-mile instead.
Mind you, if you want to save money, get a cheap Mk1 Punto and save thousands

jakedeano said:

Thanks for the replies guys, such a shame the engine doesn't do very well on the fuel front drove a test car the other day and loved the noise but it's all about how much money passes through the petrol nozzle. And my mito is ultra efficient but just not the car I want. So guess if it an going to get a 500c it'll have to be the 1.2 petty as there only bout 4mpg difference.

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Hi jakedeano. How many miles are you doing a year ?

Never quite understood why people chop and change cars. before we bought our 500 I posted on here for a while to get a handle on what they were like and what the common faults were, what running costs were like and so on. We must have taken about 3 or 4 testdrives on various different roads and so on. We've ended up with a car which is doing exactly what is expected of it, is costing the amount it was expected the cost to run and doesn't need to be replaced.

We're looking at perhaps getting another new car in the next couple of years and I'll go through the same motions to ensure that we buy a car that's the right one and doesn't need to be replaced at a cost of thousands in depreciation!

Hi I do 12000 miles approx a year.

Thanks for all the replies, I am not just feeling the need to swap and change willy nilly, I used to have A fiat 500 1.2 sport and loved the car that's why I went and bought it. It had alot of problems with the 500 and fiat couldn't get to the bottom of it and after 18 months Fiat UK decided to offer me a exchange and at the time I was really pee'd off with the amount of times I have taken it back to fiat and asked for the Alfa Mito 1.3 diesel with the hopes being a totally different car that I wouldn't have the same problems and guess what I mist have got a Friday afternoon car. The mito was brand new and despite this here is the list of problems so far on the mito:

1Heater knob sheered of in first week, had to replace fully control panel.
2Break lights kept sticking on, affect ESP and safety equip due to car thinking it was being breaker while cornering

3Bumper came loose on fixing and required refitting

4 dent that appeared from inside the wing to out, dealer had car a week to fix and repaint

5 clutch peddal loose and creaking and ha to be replaced twice

6 drivers outside door handle jammed and had to be changed

7 drivers window trim with chrome came loose so removed and new one fitted

8 Not engaging reverse and popping out of reverse

9 on looking the doors the car bleeps again to say te alarm isn't set and is faulty this still needs to be fixed

So all in all it's been no better if not worse than the fiat and I much prefered the 500 which was my original choice, and to be honest after the few weeks of it being new to me I realised it was the wrong choice and especially with all these problems on a brand new car.

So this time I thought I'd get another 500 but the convertible version but would really like a by diesel version if I can find one as they are a bit more beefed up for a bloke.

jakedeano said:

Hi I do 12000 miles approx a year.

Thanks for all the replies, I am not just feeling the need to swap and change willy nilly,
my father has the same affliction - he changes his car wily nilly and loses heavily every time - one minute he's driving a 10 yr old Lexus, then a new Skoda diesel and then an newish Corsa and he cann't sell cars and gets taken the cleaners on trade-ins
I used to have A fiat 500 1.2 sport and loved the car that's why I went and bought it. It had alot of problems with the 500 and fiat couldn't get to the bottom of it and after 18 months Fiat UK decided to offer me a exchange and at the time I was really pee'd off with the amount of times I have taken it back to fiat and asked for the Alfa Mito 1.3 diesel with the hopes being a totally different car that I wouldn't have the same problems and guess what I mist have got a Friday afternoon car.
What has been your track history on cars today ? Do you normally get a 'Friday' car ?
The mito was brand new and despite this here is the list of problems so far on the mito:
...
So all in all it's been no better if not worse than the fiat and I much prefered the 500 which was my original choice, and to be honest after the few weeks of it being new to me I realised it was the wrong choice and especially with all these problems on a brand new car.

So this time I thought I'd get another 500 but the convertible version but would really like a by diesel version if I can find one as they are a bit more beefed up for a bloke.

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Hi jakedeano. Thanks for the mileage update on the 12,000 miles a year. When I saw your earlier posting I went out and checked the average mpg on my OH's '09 Mito 1.6 MJ (126grs/km model) and it has returned 49.6mpg with an average mph of 27.5mph and done 25K miles since July 2009. This would be from a mix of driving - country/city - sedate / animal (I've been banned from the car unless I'm accompanied ). Our mito has given ZERO trouble and is really well built much more so that a 500. All in all you seem a very economical driver judging by your figures and careful as I am of JR's very informed post of better economy would be got from 1.2 you might get the economy you think you will get with the TA. Now a TA dualogic 500c Lounge TA will be an expensive car - configurator gives me starting figure of £16K and given your 'habit' of changing car every year ? why not buy a secondhand one. Plus the 'bit more beefed up for a bloke' - the 500c dualogic wouldn't tick that check box given that the 500c got the gay car of the year award in 2009. I would endorse what Maxi has said about getting your car choice right. Now, I wouldn't get endorsement on this - but how about a secondhand A500c ?
1. Its more beefed up for a bloke
2. Dualogic is the only way it comes (at the moment) and it has a sport button which speeds up the changes
3. Can be got secondhand - 2010 model for the price of a new 2011 TA c
4. Will be bought by both genders - bigger market for re-sale
5. Can be driven economically and had a gauge to tell you when to change gear
6. Should get well into the high 40s on the open road if driven sensibly
7. Has the torque of a diesel.
8. Suspension is softened in the 500c for 'comfort' and should match the standard 500c

I've posted a youtube which probably everyone has seen to balance the 'argument' in the direction of a TA 500c...