In the 500, the 1.2 is the engine of choice if your main priority is economy and you are prepared to drive accordingly. Averaged over 3yrs / 20000 miles, mine has managed a shade over 60mpg but you will need to keep the speed below 55mph at all times to get close to this.

Most TA owners on the 500 forum are averaging figures in the low 40's, so in a heavier Punto, 38-40mpg would be in line with my expectations if you drive normally at or close to UK speed limits.

I'd agree the official figures are not typical of most folks experience; a quick check on fuelly shows that average real-world TA economy figures are no better than the 1.2. IMO, anyone paying a premium for the TA engine over the 1.2 in the expectation of better economy could justifiably claim to have been misled.

Urban rush hour traffic kills the ta economy, this is not the same conditions that the urban mpg figures are gathered from.

I've heard of people taking on fiat before about ta economy and getting nowhere.

Best of luck to you if you do persue this.

Jamito45 said:

Like i've said in other threads, the MPG is not what they stated. My Punto TA is currently getting 36 MPG in these cold coditions. What I will say is that I drive Urban roads with the start-stop, slow moving, and hill starts.. that cripples my MPG.

On a quiet evening on a 30mph road I can easily get 55MPG on the trip computer, but to get this as an average requires luck and forward planning.

I think everyone here would be interested in seeing what Fiat do. I was told once my engine "breaks in" I would see an increase, granted its only at 1300 miles, but from what I've heard the next 5000 miles won't make a difference.

Do you know in your dealings with Trading Standards whether there is a % they can be out? As on Motorways I'm almost 3 times less the MPG they stated.

(That said, still love my car )

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Fiat just keep saying that all conditions must be perfect to get anywhere near the advertised mpg. Trading standards are still looking into it and I will post what they say when I know. They were very interested in what the finance company said when I challenged them. They said they had had quite afew complaints and some guy took it to court but lost!!!
They do however want people to make it known to them hence why I asked the question on here. You seem to be the onlyone to say they have this issue with their TA as most just tell you how to drive or compare it to their 500.

Just an update for you. Drove just under 1000 miles on a trip to sunnyScotland and back. I got 46.45MPG on the way up and 47.13 on the way down. (Forthe record I drove at bang on 70 with Cruise control the whole way. I drovelate evening )

The trip wasn't 'perfect' conditions, but no stops or roadwork’s and verylittle wind/rain.

Can't say I'm surprised at the results, but disappointed I didn't break the50 barrier .

Jamito45 said:

Just an update for you. Drove just under 1000 miles on a trip to sunnyScotland and back. I got 46.45MPG on the way up and 47.13 on the way down. (Forthe record I drove at bang on 70 with Cruise control the whole way. I drovelate evening )

The trip wasn't 'perfect' conditions, but no stops or roadwork’s and verylittle wind/rain.

Can't say I'm surprised at the results, but disappointed I didn't break the50 barrier .

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hi again,

thanks for a REAL WORLD post,

I would say at a constant "indicated" 70 mph, that's actually pretty respectable..,
my 1.2 punto mk 2, does 45 urban, 50 on a run, but 70 mph sees it down in the low 40's,

Charlie

We picked our twinair up last friday! Other half loves it but im concerned about the mpg! We had a 1.3 multijet turbo diesel and the guy who sold us the twinair told us it would match that if not be better on the mpg! We havent even hit an average of over 28mpg yet and are using a lot of petrol!! Car currently only has 142 miles on it - will this get better as im worried we have been conned a little!

Matt84 said:

Fiat just keep saying that all conditions must be perfect to get anywhere near the advertised mpg. Trading standards are still looking into it and I will post what they say when I know. They were very interested in what the finance company said when I challenged them. They said they had had quite afew complaints and some guy took it to court but lost!!!
They do however want people to make it known to them hence why I asked the question on here. You seem to be the onlyone to say they have this issue with their TA as most just tell you how to drive or compare it to their 500.

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The Punto TA isn't the first, and it certainly won't be the last, to fall foul of the NEDC economy test not translating to real life.

nicky1987 said:

We picked our twinair up last friday! Other half loves it but im concerned about the mpg! We had a 1.3 multijet turbo diesel and the guy who sold us the twinair told us it would match that if not be better on the mpg! We havent even hit an average of over 28mpg yet and are using a lot of petrol!! Car currently only has 142 miles on it - will this get better as im worried we have been conned a little!

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A salesman will tell you exactly what you want to hear about anything; did you not do a bit of research prior to buying a car?

You have to be driving it pretty hard to get 28mpg - granted, it's new (and the TA engine is pretty tight when brand new), but you need to drive differently because the engine behaves quite differently to a four cylinder motor. Less revs, and 'feel' the car progress rather than 'forcing' it to.

nicky1987 said:

We picked our twinair up last friday! Other half loves it but im concerned about the mpg! We had a 1.3 multijet turbo diesel and the guy who sold us the twinair told us it would match that if not be better on the mpg! We havent even hit an average of over 28mpg yet and are using a lot of petrol!! Car currently only has 142 miles on it - will this get better as im worried we have been conned a little!

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hi what car is this TwinAir in..?, 5 or 6 speed??

28 mpg does sound VERY low..!!,how does that compare = computer vs pump + odo.
I could never expect it to match a diesel for economy,
but on low-mileage running costs maybe..!!

charlie

nicky1987 said:

We picked our twinair up last friday! Other half loves it but im concerned about the mpg! We had a 1.3 multijet turbo diesel and the guy who sold us the twinair told us it would match that if not be better on the mpg! We havent even hit an average of over 28mpg yet and are using a lot of petrol!! Car currently only has 142 miles on it - will this get better as im worried we have been conned a little!

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28mpg is what I get if I drive mine around flat out.
I have 12k miles on my 500 TA and noticed that it got a lot more economical after the first few thousand miles.
A lot depends on driving style too. You have to really pay attention to achieve good mpg on a TA, unlike a diesel which gives good mpg however it's driven.
Hope this helps.
Ian.

very concerned now, don't know what's going to happend when i get my panda ta in march. :bang:

Many Fiat engines and arguably the TwinAir in particular, are very tight when new. The TwinAir engine in my Parents 500 has changed noticeably from new to the current 9500 miles and I suspect it'll continue to evolve over the next 9500 miles. I've said elsewhere on the forum that Eco mode now behaves how non-eco mode behaved when new, the difference really is that stark.

The mpg on the trip computer has hovered from 45-50 consistently since new, but the actual miles per tank has increased, which obviously means (without any calculations being done by me) that the mpg has improved. As a rough guess from the miles achieved per tank we're hovering around late 40's to the gallon, which is fine by me and the Parents as despite the huge mpg claims, I always said to the Parents that it wouldn't regularly achieve the figures and it was the fun choice, not the frugal choice.

If the 500 TwinAir gets around 45-50mpg then the heavier Punto should get about 42-45mpg. It may get a bit more because of the 6th gear (500 only gets 5 speed), but this all depends on the actual ratio's, which I don't know enough about to comment. Certainly the Punto TwinAir I drove was getting over 50mpg on the computer in Eco mode with about 5000 miles on the clock. How accurate the computer readout was, I can't say as it was just a test drive.

I do sympathise that people have been sold the TwinAir Punto's under the impression that they'll match the Multijet mpg figures - because Fiat's Multijet engines usually do achieve their figures I really don't think the TwinAir Punto will match them on a long term basis. However, I do think people are getting a bit ahead of themselves by worrying about the mpg being achieved on a car with a few hundred to a couple of thousand miles on the clock - wait till you're on 9 or 10,000 miles and if you're still getting under 40mpg, start to worry. I also think that despite the mpg figures being very shakey, the engine is still superb for its size in other respects & was more impressive in the Punto because the better soundproofing sheltered the occupants from some of the more intrusive noise that the 500 lets into the cabin.

Thanks Liam,
I've only driven Punto's,
but I can imagine the 5 speed 500 is a bit "buzzy" at dual carriageway speeds,

I considered the engine "a little 2-stroke",
so NEEDED the 6 speeder in a Punto,

Charlie

JTD_Liam said:

Many Fiat engines ... 500 lets into the cabin.

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Very good bit of advice (I cut down the quote as people can read it themselves). The TA is not the car for just MPG. Even at 3k miles I've noticed a big difference in MPG since new. Plus, as I think people keep forgetting, it's a real joy to drive. Still makes me smile when I drive my Punto TA round town, and still turns the odd head, which for a car that costs half a (boring) VW Golf is pretty impressive!!