General How any miles to a tankful?

[myyluigi]

Hello, just a quick survey pls. How many miles have you all managed to get out of a tankful in your 500s? I'm disappointed with the performance versus economy of my mjt 95 and even though it's now upto 12k, I'm only averaging around 50mpg. So the last couple of weeks I've been driving it like a nun to see what it will really do. A good mixture of open roads with a little bit of commuting. Anyway it has given me the final low fuel warning with 365 miles on the trip, so I'll risk another 10-15 miles and fill her up. This will be my biggest mileage on a tankful and around 55mpg.
I'm keen to see what the difference is between petrol and diesel engines as I may consider switching to petrol if the figures are close, and the cost difference between the purchase of the car and fuel looks beneficial

 

[blitz7287]

My 1.2 does about 35-40mpg and i get about 260-270 miles out of a tank

 

[FraserF]

My 1.2 is getting around 46mgp it says! But again only 250 to a tank.

 

[loveshandbags]

Hello, just a quick survey pls. How many miles have you all managed to get out of a tankful in your 500s? I'm disappointed with the performance versus economy of my mjt 95 and even though it's now upto 12k, I'm only averaging around 50mpg. So the last couple of weeks I've been driving it like a nun to see what it will really do. A good mixture of open roads with a little bit of commuting. Anyway it has given me the final low fuel warning with 365 miles on the trip, so I'll risk another 10-15 miles and fill her up. This will be my biggest mileage on a tankful and around 55mpg.

The low fuel warning comes on with around 32 miles to go. Given that a 500 tank holds 35 litres (excluding the neck) if you're getting 55mpg you should get 393 miles before the fuel light comes on.

My experience on a 1.4 was around 300 miles on a 'brisk' motorway run getting around 39.5mpg before the light came on. That was with 'overfilling' it which is not recommended (reckon by about 3 litres).

I'm keen to see what the difference is between petrol and diesel engines as I may consider switching to petrol if the figures are close, and the cost difference between the purchase of the car and fuel looks beneficial

Few threads on here...
https://www.fiatforum.com/500/287498-diesel-vs-twinair-real-world.html
https://www.fiatforum.com/500/287936-1-2-owners-can-you-help-please-costs.html
https://www.fiatforum.com/500/287661-real-world-500-cost-comparison.html

Bottom line was the the Multi-jet didn't justify itself on 'economy terms' compared with a 1.2 or even a Twin Air based on UK fuel prices given the extra cost of buying and servicing a diesel.
In Ireland with petrol at 5c dearer than diesel - if you are able to recover the VAT on fuel (this is only possible on diesel not petrol here) the saving would be 25% so the diesel wins out if you are doing 20K plus with a lot of motorway runs (no DPF problems).
Performance wise you could not compare a MJ II against a 1.2 given the torque from the diesel engine and some have opted for diesel for longevity if you were clocking up the mileage (TA is not proven at high mileage yet).
The key benefits of a turbo charged engine is the turbo increases the efficiency of the engine. Driving it like a nun will not give the same economy benefits as you would from a 1.2.

 

[Heidi]

42mPg, av speed 23mph, get approx 320 miles a tank I think but as I always fill up when orange lIght comes in could be slightly less or more

 

[306maxi]

I've had 504 miles out of my 1.2 out of 41 litres

 

[myyluigi]

Oh. Do the petrol cars have bigger tanks? Thought they were all the same

 

[jrkitching]

Oh. Do the petrol cars have bigger tanks? Thought they were all the same

They are.

Hello, just a quick survey pls. How many miles have you all managed to get out of a tankful in your 500s?

The answers to this question probably say more about people's attitude to fuelling the car than its actual economy. Maxi once got 504 miles out of a tankful by brimming it (but ran out of fuel in the process ); a couple of folks I know start chewing their fingernails once the fuel gauge dips below 1/4 & dive straight into the next forecourt, no matter how overpriced the fuel.

The car has two levels of low fuel warning & a 'Range' function on the trip; on my 1.2 I usually see about 70 miles to run when I get the first low fuel indication.

The most meaningful way to work out economy is to record the miles you drive, the amount of fuel you put in & do the calculations; putting the car on fuelly is an easy way of doing this. Anyone wanting to get a representative comparison between models could do worse than to spend a little time perusing the public data there; there's now enough 500 drivers to make statistically significant comparisons which aren't unduly distorted by folks adopting atypical driving styles in the search for maximum economy .

 

[306maxi]

Maxi once got 504 miles out of a tankful by brimming it (but ran out of fuel in the process )

LIES!!!!!!

The time that I ran out of fuel I did 502 miles When I did 504 miles I had a good litre or two of fuel left in the tank

Recently I did a trip from North Wales to Northumberland and back and did an average of 61.8 mpg over 438 miles with about 10 litres of fuel left. Assuming I did 50mpg with the remaining 10 litres of fuel I would have done about 530-540 miles on that tank

I average 387 miles per fill up which is on an average of 36.29 litres per fuel up. If I actually ran the tank dry each time I'd be averaging about 450 litres per fuel up.

 

[ahmett]

The fuel tank is 40 liters. Maxi put 42 because he included the fuel pump as he ran it bone dry. Most ive put in is 39 liters.
My best is 310 miles on the 1.4 but typically more like 280. Do not worry when the fuel light comes on, still plenty of fuel left. The only time you should start considering finding the nearest fuelcourt is when the fuel gauge completely disappears and even then id say you have 20 miles left.

 

[306maxi]

The fuel tank is 40 liters. Maxi put 42 because he included the fuel pump as he ran it bone dry. Most ive put in is 39 liters.
My best is 310 miles on the 1.4 but typically more like 280. Do not worry when the fuel light comes on, still plenty of fuel left. The only time you should start considering finding the nearest fuelcourt is when the fuel gauge completely disappears and even then id say you have 20 miles left.

Please stop. Since when has a fuel pump held 2 litres of fuel? Since never.......

The range goes blank when you have 30 miles left according to the trip computer. When I ran out of fuel I think I'd done about 15-20 miles on top of that.....

 

[loveshandbags]

The low fuel warning comes on with around 32 miles to go. Given that a 500 tank holds 35 litres (excluding the neck) if you're getting 55mpg you should get 393 miles before the fuel light comes on.

The car has two levels of low fuel warning & a 'Range' function on the trip; on my 1.2 I usually see about 70 miles to run when I get the first low fuel indication.

...The range goes blank when you have 30 miles left according to the trip computer. When I ran out of fuel I think I'd done about 15-20 miles on top of that.....

I'd like to correct what I said earlier on (meant to say Range & not low fuel warning) but I see JR & Maxi covered it.

 

[myyluigi]

Now I'm really confused about fuel capacity. I thought it was 35 l so all this talk of 40 l? How big is the fuel neck! Lol.
I do use fuelly and record my fuel economy but was just interested as I see people quoting big fuel range figures.

Just to add another thing in- my fuel guage must be extremely pessimistic, I ran it past the fuel light and onto the final warning when the range countdown goes to ---- and there is just one small bar left on the gauge. I ran it for another 10 miles and then have just filled it right to the top of the neck - it only took 31.06 Litres! Averaged 54.33mpg.
I'm gonna drive it like I've stole it next week and see what difference it makes

 

[306maxi]

nothing wrong with the fuel gauge, you just need to brim it if you want to properly fill it up

 

[myyluigi]

I brimmed it so much today that some overflowed when I put the cap in- only took 31 litres!

 

[frupi]

I brimmed it so much today that some overflowed when I put the cap in- only took 31 litres!

You've got my vote fellah! Anyone that can afford to let their petrol spill out all over the forecourt floor must be earning buckets of cash! Only joking!

Be careful though, a couple of years back, a motorist filled up at a supermarket near me and washed the forecourt floor with about a gallon of unleaded. Fire service came out at the request of the forecourt staff and had to clean up. Motorist allegedly received a clean up bill for about 300 odd quid if I remember rightly!

 

[udtrev]

I brimmed it so much today that some overflowed when I put the cap in- only took 31 litres!

then you didn't drain it enough, the Panda also has a 35 litre tank, in 115 fill ups my Panda had 5 over 35 litres, and I am not even in the same league as Maxi :worship:

The best I had out of my 1.2 Petrol Panda was 461 miles and a set of fingernails !

Trev

 

[the00]

I'm not sure how much I get in the tank each time, but my 1.3 diesel is so far averaging 62mpg (ish). On the motorway at 62mph it'll do 65mpg, at 68mph it'll do 60 mpg, unless you're slipstreaming a National Express Coach, in which case it'll be more like 70mpg...

I get about 450miles to the tank... and I need more than 1 a week

 

[myyluigi]

62mph on the motorway? Seriously?
The little diesel will sit comfortably at 90 (where legally permitted of course!)
We'll see how my little tests work over the next few weeks. My last tank of short shifting and 65ish on mways, dual carriageways and A-roads was disappointing in the mpg stakes and even more frustrating in the driving stakes. Next tank will be driving like I used to at 18 in my Nova SR (them were the days) and then I'll have a tank of driving like a real grown up

 

[loveshandbags]

62mph on the motorway? Seriously?
The little diesel will sit comfortably at 90 (where legally permitted of course!)
We'll see how my little tests work over the next few weeks. My last tank of short shifting and 65ish on mways, dual carriageways and A-roads was disappointing in the mpg stakes and even more frustrating in the driving stakes. Next tank will be driving like I used to at 18 in my Nova SR (them were the days) and then I'll have a tank of driving like a real grown up

Good points made. I've driven diesel cars for years and didn't even consider a petrol version for this purchase - but tbh the mjt is the worst decision i think I've ever made in my car buying history. Although going down the Fiat route full stop is also not helping. I regret getting rid of a 140bhp+ Fabia which was only 4-5mpg less economical than my 500. There really is something wrong when such a gutless little car is so poor in the mpg stakes

Bit of a contradiction in your posts (taken from Which 500) but you appear at times to be driving your diesel like a petrol head. The shape of the 500 doesn't lend itself to high speed motoring and generally you find that economy drops off after 65mph. You might find that a T-jet is more satisfying to drive or even a Twin Air and that's from having 2 cars the same - one with a MJ and the other a T-jet.