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Miles per Gallon?

M

Max10

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Location
Coventry
Car
Honda Accord Diesel
I bought my first Honda diesel this year and have not been overly impressed with the motorway miles, but is the mileage performance normal?

It has cost me £40.00 to complete a 260 mile round motorway trip. I drive normally between 70-85, Is this normal for the accord cdti?

I carried out a full service this year but I noticed no difference to mileage performance. The independent garage did not change the fuel filter!! If I change this wil it make a difference?

Aa
 
I have worked out from your figures that you achieved 48.5 mpg, I have reservations on how accurately you ***essed the distance compared with your £40 cost - the inaccuracies can account for a wide variation in mpg.

However, if the distance was all motorway then I would have expected a bit more - low 50s I would expect from motorway driving. I get around 47mpg but do not do very long distances at constant speed.

Do not forget that this car is a 2.2 litre, I believe that the mpg is quite respectable.
 
According to my calculations that means you're roughly getting 40 mpg!?

I recently did a round trip (290 miles) mostly motorway (60-80mph) with a little urban, and without trying to drive economically I still got 50 mpg.

I would say your mpg is lower than could be expected. I doubt changing the fuel filter would make up for such a difference. I'd say it was much more likely to be due to your driving style. ie hard acceleration & braking or tailing the car in front. Try to drive smoother and keep off the turbo a little more.

If you want 60+ mpg you need to be smooth on the accelerator and stick around 60 mph. I've got 67.5 mpg driving like that so it is achievable if you try.

Try watching the instantaneous fuel consumption bar on your dash display as you're driving, it might help you learn where you're going wrong.
 
Doc said:
According to my calculations that means you're roughly getting 40 mpg!?

I recently did a round trip (290 miles) mostly motorway (60-80mph) with a little urban, and without trying to drive economically I still got 50 mpg.

I would say your mpg is lower than could be expected. I doubt changing the fuel filter would make up for such a difference. I'd say it was much more likely to be due to your driving style. ie hard acceleration & braking or tailing the car in front. Try to drive smoother and keep off the turbo a little more.

If you want 60+ mpg you need to be smooth on the accelerator and stick around 60 mph. I've got 67.5 mpg driving like that so it is achievable if you try.

Try watching the instantaneous fuel consumption bar on your dash display as you're driving, it might help you learn where you're going wrong.
Click to expand...

sorry used 5.45 l per gallon instead of 4.54
 
Saloon or Tourer?
 
I'm averaging 40mpg (car indicated 45) around town and normally get an indicated 53-55 on the motorway, but that is driving like a granny as I normally do.

Matt, why do you say tailgating the car in front? That's a hypermiler tactic and reduces your fuel usage (not that I recommend it of course).
 
Can someone please send me the link or excel sheet for working out the MPG ? Thanks
 
http://www.mpg-calculator.co.uk/

Obviously you'll have to work out the litres by dividing the amount you put in (in pounds) by the cost per litre (in pounds), so £40 divided by 1.339 for example would be 30 litres ish.
 
HuskyMan said:
Matt, why do you say tailgating the car in front? That's a hypermiler tactic and reduces your fuel usage (not that I recommend it of course).
Click to expand...
If you're tailing the car in front you leave yourself no time to react to changing speeds therefore when you do react you will have to brake harder, so you don't hit the car in front, then accelerate harder, to catch it up again. Keeping a 2 second gap to the car in front of you is far better, not only is it safer, you are able to drive smoother by cancelling out the stop start actions of the cars in front. When they brake you can just lift off a bit or coast and let the gap reduce slightly, then when they accelerate again you will likely be travelling faster (carrying more momentum) so you can accelerate lighter back to the same speed and allow the gap to increase again. And you will still get there the same time.

Trying to tailgate the car in front is not a hyper mileage technique, unless your driving an aerodynamic Nascar bumper to bumper drafting the car in front at 180 mph. You don't get any positive aerodynamic effect off the car in front travelling at 60-80 mph 20 ft in front of you to reduce your air resistance. Cars are primarily built to an aesthetic design not an aerodynamic one, so will have bags of turbulent 'dirty' air coming off it. At that distance you're driving through the dirty air off the car in front. Your car is more aerodynamic and efficient in 'clean' undisturbed air, so the dirty air will only reduce the aerodynamic efficiency of your own car. To get in the air pocket of the car in front and reduce your cars aerodynamic effect you would have to be within about 5ft of the car in front to get the effect of one car (known as drafting) or doing at least double the national speed limit for the car in front to create a large enough air pocket to reach your own car. To put it in perspective the front and rear wings on an F1 car have no aerodynamics effect below 100 mph and they are are extremely aerodynamically efficient so why would a road car which is as aerodynamic as a brick have any significant aerodynamic impact at 80 mph. It's just dangerous and liable to land you in prison on a dangerous driving charge if you cause an accident.

If you want to hyper mileage drive then you would be better off tailgating a lorry at 55 mph. They are big enough to create a significant air pocket behind the trailer. This works because of the scale of the lorry compared to that of the car. The car can fit inside the huge air pocket created by the lorry significantly reducing your cars aerodynamic resistance. Up to 40% fuel saving and the only person you will hurt is yourself! Not that I would recommend doing this either.

Mythbusters Lorry Drafting

Sorry if this reply became long winded I just hate tailgating with a passion, especially from people who think that because their favourite F1/ Nascar/ Indy car driver can get a slip stream effect from their $100m race car at 220 mph then they can do the same in their family car at 80 mph and put everybody's lives at risk in the process for a perceived fuel economy saving they will never get, which would become an actual and meaningful fuel saving if they drove slower more considerately and carefully. Rant over. :unsure:
 
A lot of good advise there matt.

Along with the usual checking tyre pressures and keeping the car well serviced, keeping the car just below 2k rpm (~67mph) should also help. This is my normal commuting speed and reguarly get 50mpg+. Thats far better than my old 106 1.5D :D Its also better to work out the mpg over a longer period, 260 miles isn't really enough imo.
 
Funnily enough, Matt, I was going to add to my post "We're not driving F1 cars" cos the principles are so different! I was ***uming the idea of driving behind a vehicle at least twice the size of your own as well, I used to test the theory in the Delica behind big artics, it definitely does work but as you say it leaves no room for error so I was taking bites out of my seat the whole time. I don't do it any more cos it's just silly.
 
Thanks for all your advice. Looks like I will have to drive a little slower and smoothly i.e foot of the accelerator and rather than reach for breaks.

By the way I have saloon.
 
I can get 250 miles from £30 worth of diesel thats just taking it easy on the motorway at a speed of 60-70mph

What price do you pay for your diesel?
 
HuskyMan said:
http://www.mpg-calculator.co.uk/

Obviously you'll have to work out the litres by dividing the amount you put in (in pounds) by the cost per litre (in pounds), so £40 divided by 1.339 for example would be 30 litres ish.
Click to expand...

Or you could always read it of the receipt :)
 
Sorry not read all the replies so apologies if already answered but sticking to 70-85 will not achieve best economy in this car, especially if it has the 5 speed box. You need it keep at around 1900rpm, that's the sweet spot for amazing economy - but its about 65mph if you can live with that.
 
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