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General Running costs/range per tank

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General Running costs/range per tank

Kekybobo

Kekybobo

1.3 mjet 500 sport
Parked in the garage
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Jun 21, 2016
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Following a thread that went a little of topic I thought I'd ask/evaluate the running costs/range of each 500 variant and therefore the merits of owning that variant.

My 08 1.3mjet cost me £4500. At the time it had 45k miles (it now has just over 70k). My tax per year is £20.

Range: now obviously this will vary widely due to driving style and conditions.

My norm is about 350 give or take (brim to light just on - the 2 smaller indicator bars). I reckon it could do another 50 before conking out. That mileage is roughly a 50/50 split between motorway and city driving. I usually go thru a tank per week.

At the time I bought my car I thought about going for the 1.4 petrol but after weighing everything up i opted to go diesel.
 
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Sorry for the thread drift. :D

Copied from that thread:
Mick F said:
That's a good question.

For me with our 85TA, we are averaging 42mpg. Measured over two years and 10,850miles.

With only a 7.5gal (imperial) tank in a 500, it means on average we get just over 300miles on a tankful.

Our average mpg is low due to the hills round here. Locally, the figure is about 35mpg, but if we go further afield, the average goes up to the mid 50s quite easily. Therefore if I drove further and maybe flatter, we'd get maybe 375 miles per tankful.

Cheers,
Mick.
Click to expand...
 
My for my TA85 my Stats are (in US MPG):
graph7188.gif


I've knocked on the door of 60mpg UK twice, this current tank looks likely to break 60 at long last. UFI's a weekend car so driven harder on hilly, twisty roads. It's hard to restrain myself for the 500miles it takes to empty a tank too. The dip in the middle of the graph I put down to a weak battery, replacing it resulted in a record tank.

As for running costs you have to figure in the cost of diesel service, maintenance and repairs.
 
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UFI said:
The dip in the middle of the graph I put down to a weak battery, replacing it resulted in a record tank.
Click to expand...
Sorry for the thread drift .......... perhaps I'm good at this!

Since my issue with the stop/start recently and thinking that my two year old battery was failing, I've decided to put it on charge every single time the car is parked on the drive supplied from the front porch. I've extended the cable to the car using a four metre twin core and using the connector fitted to the battery terminals instead of croc-clips. The Ctek charger sits on a shelf inside the porch with the cable out through the doorway to the car.

I could swear that the car now runs better when cold. I've not re-fuelled yet, and no doubt one tankful won't tell a tale, but if I carry on doing this, it's very possible that the economy will improve. My fingers are crossed over this but I don't really expect miraculous economy.

Meanwhile, the S/S is perfect, which is brilliant. :)

Regards,
Mick.
 
Mick F said:
I could swear that the car now runs better when cold.
Click to expand...

It quite likely does as there will be less load on it; on initial startup, the alternator would otherwise have to work hard for the first few minutes to replace what had been lost overnight from self discharge and residual current drain. It also means a little bit less engine wear during warmup.

Mick F said:
I carry on doing this, it's very possible that the economy will improve.
Click to expand...

It certainly should; the interesting thing will be if the difference is enough to measure. The fewer miles you do, the greater will be the percentage difference (the overnight losses are pretty much constant).

If you mainly use the car for short journeys, something in the order of a 5-10% improvement wouldn't surprise me.

Mick F said:
Sorry for the thread drift .......... perhaps I'm good at this!
Click to expand...

There's an interesting parallel thread running in the Panda section just now.
 
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Mick F said:
Since my issue with the stop/start recently and thinking that my two year old battery was failing, I've decided to put it on charge every single time the car is parked on the drive supplied from the front porch. I've extended the cable to the car using a four metre twin core and using the connector fitted to the battery terminals instead of croc-clips. The Ctek charger sits on a shelf inside the porch with the cable out through the doorway to the car.

I could swear that the car now runs better when cold. I've not re-fuelled yet, and no doubt one tankful won't tell a tale, but if I carry on doing this, it's very possible that the economy will improve. My fingers are crossed over this but I don't really expect miraculous economy.
Click to expand...

Yes, when I got my third battery (OEM, DIY LiFe, now just a plain 120Ah PB) I also started plugging in whenever parked. The smart alternators in these cars means that on a fully charged battery, the alternator is electrically disabled so essentially you go from a power hungry alternator to just an idler pulley.

I've found that on a fully charged battery I can drive over 100 miles without the alternator switching back on (engaging only on overrun). Expect about a 5% economy gain, perhaps more if it increases S/S reliability.

However, even with daily charging, my non-S/S battery refused to S/S last I drove UFI, I've given it a repair charge and we'll see what happens. Remember to that you'll need to use an AGM mode charger for S/S batteries.
 
Just refilled my car. It took 30.66 litres right to the throat @ 109.8 per litre. I know I shouldn't but I always fill it right to the top. I had just clocked 381 miles so that equates to 56.53mpg.

Tom
 
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I recently changed the route I take to work. It's slightly longer distance but is a smoother journey. It's around 90 miles a round trip now mostly on A roads. Previously I was going on the motorway but the traffic meant it was very stop start. It now means that I'm achieving over 400 miles per 30 liters. Winning!
 

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