My daughter (who lives away) has just bought one and as yet I haven't seen it. She doesn't claim to be able to get a display of current MPG - only average MPG. I haven't read the hand-book - could anyone confirm that the readout will show current MPG - if so, how is it selected? I can't imagine that a car that gives average - won't also give a live readout of MPG.
John ("John" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
I wouldn't be hugely surprised if it had been omitted - Instant economy has to be the least useful feature of a trip computer, imho.
I think it's just average on them, it definately just shows the avg on the Laguna.
Interesting. I was hoping that an instant readout would help her to modify her driving techniques to see how her habits may effect fuel consumption. However, I take you point that in the longer term it is the journey average that really matters.
John ("John" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
It's _so_ variable, though, that it really is useless. To "learn" anything from it, you'd be driving staring at the readout rather than watching the road. Add in that a closed throttle on the over-run means no fuel, so "99.9mpg", and it's just a distraction.
I found the best semi-reactive guide to driving economically was the range-to-empty.
If it's any consolation, the current (and last) Ford Focus only did average on the trip computer, although I believe it may be possible with some button jiggery-pokery during starting to get it into an engineering mode which can display instant mpg (and other things).
If she's really interested in working out what speeds and or driving styles are best, just reset the average at the point you're interested. I'd expect that, over a couple of miles or so, it might be reasonably indicative. Particularly if you want to know the difference between
50mph, 60mph and 70mph - although things like hills can skew results significantly.I quite enjoy attempting to get my average MPG as high as possible - although usually, I just get depressed as it goes back down again when I'm driving around town....
D
The engineering mode is quite probably entered by holding down the button for the "trip" meter (on the main dash, not the computer) for around 10 seconds, you'll hear a bleep and the display should show "88888" press the trip button again and it should cycle through the a few interesting things. That's how it works on the Fords I've had that've had engineering mode. Don't worry about damaging anything, you won't.
Average only m'afraid.
99.9? Pah, uneconomical s**te ;-) My 206 would give 999.9mpg on the overrun off the throttle!
What you really need to help develop an economical style is more of a rolling average over maybe a couple of minutes - that way when you know you've been stuck in traffic or have booted it you can ignore the reading for a while, but it's quite feasible on a journey to experiment and see the effect without being too distracting from your driving.
PCPaul (PCPaul ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Which, on the XM, is exactly what the range-to-empty was. About the last five mins, I think.
I suppose it would be. My first thought when you said that was that it only went five minutes between fill-ups...
PCPaul (PCPaul ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
With a tank THAT size...? My record was 91 litres in one go.
Average only by design: instantaous fuel consumption figures is one, academic and two, a distraction so is omitted for safety reasons.
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