poor MPG

In similar driving with other cars, how is/was your fuel economy compared to what the book says for those cars? It could be that your driving conditions (e.g. stuck in traffic jams a lot) are contributing to high fuel consumption.

hi there

going by past experience with a 2.0 petrol Mondeo LX that gave pretty much what the book stated, I also checked with other people in the company how have same car carry similar weight in the boot and have similar driving conditions they get approx what the book states.

my driving is a mix of motorways and town. I recently went down to the Lake district with the family, I stay in Glasgow and the car returned 35mpg and the was a constant 70mph with the aircon switched off, so I'm pretty convinced there is a problem.

hope the above helps

Roddy

Hi,

I have a Focus with the same engine as yours and roughly the same mileage, although it is not an estate. I am constantly stuck in heavy traffic, but somehow it manages to average 45mpg. On a couple of motorway journeys it averaged 50mpg, but this is without keeping to a constant speed and the a/c switched on. I have noticed that the fuel computer gives lower readings than it is really achieving.

Hope this helps, Pete

Focus estate TDCi Ghia 115PS. . I have just done a 350 mile round trip. About 240 miles at between 40 and 75 mph, and the rest lazyilly going down country lanes.

The car has now done 500 miles in all. It returned 45 mpg. I am very unimpressed - unless something else is going on. My old 140,000 mile Peugeot 405 TD would have done 48 mpg on a trip like that, and with all this new fangelled technology with common rail etc, where has the 10-15% better mpg gone. I had the climate control on auto all the time. But really would it make that much difference? The trip computer read 52.3 mpg when I refulled, I reset it at the previous tank-up. I can't believe that the trip average mpg is the average of the whole number of miles since the last time it was reset. Can anyone confirm this? I noticed that having done 300 miles and going up a long drag at 75 mph that the average mpg fell from 52.3 to 50.X. I can't believe that a half mile hill would have have any effect on the average for the whole 300 miles.

So, where is the fuel cost benefit gone? What am I not doing right?

Can Ford technical help here?

Thanks

Richard

I'm not saying there isn't anything wrong with the car, but with only 500 miles on the clock it will still be as tight as a ducks ar-se. I would expect to see mpg improve by 5-7mpg when you have 15,000miles on the car.

Whilst your running it in, do not be too gentle either- modern engines, especially some diesels in particular have to be treated quite hard when new if you're to get max mpg and performance and minimal oil consumption later in life. That means plenty of load and plenty of revs. Of course only when the engine has reached operating temp.

Tim..

45 mpg in a Focus and your complaining?

Fred Many

Probably imperial gallons, so it is probably around 38mpg in US gallons. Since it has a diesel engine, that is not very impressive for that class of car (45-55mpg in US gallons would be expected).

This is 45 miles from an imperial gallon, which is 1.2009 times bigger than a US gallon. Its also diesel which is about 10% denser than gasoline/petrol

Sep 2002 TDCi (115bhp) Hatch, now on 14k, 10k when bought.

Motorway at constant ~80mph (indicated) is ~52 mpg. I suspect if I dropped to ~70 mph I'd see an improvement (?55+). Aircon on or off makes no noticable differance - and this is after a number of 500 mile runs; some with aircon on almost all the time, but most recently not using it at all, so a good test.

Local (mixed and mostly bad traffic) driving ~ 42mpg.

I'd expect *constant* heavy traffic to drop the mpg to ~38: worst case. If you are getting this on a run, or even on average, then compared to mine there is a problem.

BTW, further to other posts on this thread, my TDCi does not have a computer. My wife's petrol (bleugh) Ghia does - and I'm never sure about the reliability of the computer with regards MPG - it typically is not accurate and does not reconcile to the cost at the pumps. So the TDCi MPG figures quoted above are from actual cost, not what any computer is reporting.

Now the first 10k on mine (in 10 months) was while it was run by the local main Ford dealer (so a demo / loan / Saturday night out car). Which probably means it got a right kicking. From what I've read elsewhere, and contrary to what I'd do to a new car, it almost seems that a good kicking for it's first months of life does the engine a world of good. But who knows?

driving style has the biggest influence on fuel consumption

5 different drivers in the same car will achieve 5 different figures harsh acceleration and holding low gears shove these figures up If you have a rev counter try keeping in the optimum rev band listed in hand book. Fords figures are done with a good driver aiming for High economy. He is not late for work or rushing to get any where Just out to get fuel figures the only diesel I drive is a 44 tonne truck average of 8.7 mpg keeping in the green makes a hell of a difference to fuel economy Watch the Low gears as it is easier to high rev the engine in these Tyre pressure can make a difference check they are correct BUT don't put that extra few pounds in yes the tyre will roll easier and fuel economy goes up but tyre wear goes up on the shoulders and the overall cost will be more. don't leave the engine idling for long I tried an economy VW the engine stopped after about 2 seconds of idling almost every set of lights It was to cut the fuel costs but it did my head in. If you want to save fuel you can switch off on just turned red lights it does really save fuel. Legal requirement in Switzerland.

Roddy

I've got a Zetec 5 door hatch with the same engine as yours. Mine has done just 1500 miles and I'm getting 42mpg at the moment which is only slightly better than your are. I'm hoping to get a bit more when the engine loosens a bit but your engine should be well run in by now. I suppose you could try a specialist tuning centre but that's going to cost you.

Phil