[Closed] Intrinsically uneconomical drivers.

Different roads admittedly, but that’s a big hit over a very small % of the driven miles.

It's not really - a 2%? variance. Could depend on a multitude of factors, including external temperature, road surface, wind/drag etc.

I wouldn't worry about it. Literally.

Bill her for the difference.

Short trip round town is always going to get much lower mileage compared to a long steady cruise.

Was your 350 versus her 7 miles on the same mix of driving conditions? Otherwise there's no point in looking much further. On 7 miles, town driving(?), the van would barely even have warmed up

It won't show in the mileage, it'll be the considerably longer time taken to park it.

I'm not worried about it, I was just wondering if there is such a thing as unecomomical/ecomomical drivers who by an large have laid back habits.

I think trying to bill here for the extra fuel could seriously backfire! 🤣

It won’t show in the mileage, it’ll be the considerably longer time taken to park it

Although I should defend her from this sexist remark, she actually won't reverse it! On the odd occasion tried as soon as the first reversing beeper goes, she just stops dead.

Are some people naturally uneconomical drivers?

Yes.

It’s not really – a 2%? variance

I was reading it that an average of 57.8 after 350 miles has dropped to an average of 57.1 after 357 miles, so I see where the OP is coming from. Driving style definitely makes a difference carrying speed into corners rather than braking and accelerating, anticipating traffic etc will reduce the amount of throttle required. However it's not unsual to see a higher consumption on a small journey - engine is colder, more starts/stops and so on.

Yes there are. I'm one. Riding motorbikes across France with my buddy, me on a BMW r1100rs him on a zxr1100. the BMW is lighter, has by the book better fuel economy. I got thru more petrol and wore my tyres worse - significantly so

We put it down to standing starts - I tend to rev out in first he rolls it into second.

I think you're right and the difference would be quite significant. Hence hypermiling.

I was reading it that an average of 57.8 after 350 miles has dropped to an average of 57.1 after 357 miles, so I see where the OP is coming from.

You interpreted it correctly scotroutes. Completely understand that the cold engine and urban/fast road mix will make a difference, but that much over such a short distance?! That's my point.

Some people are terrible drivers. Watch how much people are constantly on the brakes because they're too close to the car in front. Or keep tabs on the person behind you as they accelerate up your chuff then back off again. It's all just wasting fuel.

I, of course, am the only perfect driver.

That makes the 7 miles at 35mpg. Not unusual I think. I see similar figures driving my wifes Yeti. It'll show average mpg for the "trip" starting at 30 or so then the average will be over 50 mpg by the time we reach Inverness.

Could just be to do with traffic levels also. And way too small a sample size.

Just looks like you're trying to find evidence for you being a better driver tbh.

I was just wondering if there is such a thing as unecomomical/ecomomical drivers who by an large have laid back habits.

Oh, I often drive like a ****. Really kills the fuel economy.

Cold engine and stop start driving will do that for sure. 350 miles isn't big enough to be a proper average and 7 miles of 20(ish)mpg will have nose dived it.

It used to be incredibly frustrating to come back from a long commute one day showing 60 odd mpg to do a few around town trips over the weekend and it lose 5mpg - it happens.

But in answer to the question; Yes some people have no idea how to make the most of fuel. It's mostly acceleration and braking. Not the braking itself as that's free from a fuel point of view, but the excess of speed for the upcoming traffic (usually) conditions that requires use of the brakes when an ease off/coast would have been more appropriate.

That makes the 7 miles at 35mpg. Not unusual I think.

Ah, thanks for doing the maths. Next time I'm driving to town I might try and see what I get over the same journey.

Just looks like you’re trying to find evidence for you being a better driver tbh.

I've not had this conversation at home! Do you think I'm mad? 😨

She sitting texting for ages idling, pretending to be at the gym 😉

Light use of the pedals coupled with short shifting rewards with improved fuel consumption.

I think you should cut her allowance and tell her why.

Report back on how it goes. 🙂

She didn't go to the Gym ,she was in a hurry to meet her lover.

My GF is the same.....

I have to sit there and bite my tongue because I'm either too drunk or stoned the (legally) drive.... Watching the average climb due to a heavy foot, late braking and cruising along in the wrong gear.

In the old van (2.5 T5) I used to average 7.5-8l/100km....the GF was always around 9-10l/100.

Drop even... I k w y m tho

Some contributing factors
You know your commute, the traffic light sequence, when to lift off or roll up to the lights etc.
Car gets up to operating temp and distance is done at correct temps
Weight of traffic during rush meams booting it pointless
Most women are horrendous drivers

Its not just her. Dimlo drivers accelerating up to a light that had kust gome red, its going to be red for 1 minute so why the rush

Same morons who drive 4ft off the car in front as its gotta be quicker right, fail. They are constantly braking then accelerating

Booting it away from traffic lights when there is a queue 50mtr in front.

Not looking 150mtr up the road to the line of cars all stationary with their brake lights on and accelerating as if they will all simultaneously evaporate and the road will be clear

Booting it out of every roundabout and redlining the motor in a drag race against other cars who arent racing, when the actual race is the one to see who can empty their fuel tank quickest and the prize is dropping 70 quid at esso.
See also ragging cold engine, gearbox and bearings
Inability to calculate closing speed of oncoming cars to enable 3rd continuation at roundabouts and junctions

The other day i was in a queue at an almost gridlocked roundabout, so engine off and use gravity to get the front. Gentle downslope but enough to get to walking speed and the woman behind banzai s in around me into the 10mtr gap. To sit 1 car length in front of me for another cycle od lights.

Yes they are. And they are the sort of people who fill the kettle to make a single cup of tea.

Most women are horrendous drivers

Most men are too.

The other day i was in a queue at an almost gridlocked roundabout, so engine off and use gravity to get the front.

Driving test fail IIRC

Yep, no engine off ever for anyone.

Which isn't to say you cannot still roll down a hill.

Save the baby koala bears pass tho

Dont annoy the locals by stting there with a dirty diesel engine running pointlessly

And stop start equipped cars whose owners re start them at level crossings the instant they switch off, which is aircon reasoning i guess

What van you driving?

Almost 58mpg in the real world sounds like my sort of van.

Driving test fail IIRC

Absolutely. Moving in neutral is a fail.

Moving, engine off, in traffic is downright daft given your brakes and steering will both be ferkin useless without it on.

Almost 58mpg in the real world sounds like my sort of van.

Indeed, I'm not even sure I get that on a "current" readout, let alone average.

I’m not worried about it, I was just wondering if there is such a thing as unecomomical/ecomomical drivers who by an large have laid back habits.

Yes, very much so, but those numbers don't necessarily incriminate your wife.

If the maths done above is correct and her gym trip is 35mpg, that's entirely in line with what I'd expect. If she's hit traffic and queued for a bit, on a short run that's entirely within my experience. I'd get 55 or even low 60s in some circumstances in the Passat on longer runs, but a short town run could get down to mid-high 30s, and a bad traffic light on a really short trip will really ruin the average.

Next time I’m driving to town I might try and see what I get over the same journey.

Same time of day as well.

Most women are horrendous drivers

The worst drivers I see are school run DAD followed buy school run mum but dad is ruddy dangerous

singletrackmind

Drop even… I k w y m tho

If your talking about alpin he's in Germany so using l/100km so higher is worse.

I had a Mk1 Mazda6 that had a really stupid l/100miles display!! I know we buy it in liters and use MPG its a mixed up system really.

What van you driving?

Transit Connect L2 1.5 turbo diesel.

Impressed. I couldn’t get that out of a Mondeo.

My GF is the same…..

I have to sit there and bite my tongue because I’m either too drunk or stoned the (legally) drive….

So you're baked and you're still fretting about fuel economy?

Are you sure you're doing it right?

Christ, I'm glad I drive an ancient car with no MPG gauge. Life's too short surely?

Moving, engine off, in traffic is downright daft given your brakes and steering will both be ferkin useless without it on.

my car has stop start. It will happily move in neutral down a hill at up to 7mph at which point the engine kicks in. I can't imagine that driving my car would fail your driving test.

Well it would - freewheeling is an instant fail

Christ, I’m glad I drive an ancient car with no MPG gauge. Life’s too short surely?

Don't call me Shirley

Is it a Peugeot/Citroen van? Our old Picasso used to measure the MPG in random steps rather than 0.1 it would jump and drop by around 0.7, sometimes 0.6 or 0.8 (guessing based on a translation from metric?). I may be that you were only just on 57.8mpg and a short urban drive has just tipped it over the limit to jump down a step which a 0.7 step would give you the 57.1mpg

Yep, I used to get ~42mpg in my old C-Max (1.6 petrol).

OH borrowed it for an IKEA trip with her sister and managed to get 32mpg, on mostly motorway/A-roads!

She doesn't quite believe that this might also be why her Fiesta is rattly and hanging by a thread at 150k, and my C-Max drove like it was fresh out of the factory at the same mileage.

Our v70 diesel and 1.4 petrol Ibiza

Local journey from cold, stop start, under about 20mins,  30-35mpg if you are lucky from both. No matter how you drive.

Long trip cruising at maximum 60mph on a A-road, v70 will do north of 50, sometime 55mpg, after a 10min warm up, Ibiza around 42/43mpg.

Motorway trip over an hour at 70mph - V70 drops to 47/48 and Ibiza stays at 40mpg.

I was delayed for ferry the other day so the V70 was given a good Italian tune up (made it with 3 mins..ahem.), and I still got 44mpg.

It seems engine operating temperature has bigger impact than my right foot..

My v70 would only get about 40mpg on the motorway with cruise on.
Making progress on smaller roads I'd average about 19mpg.

But it was a 5 pot 2.4 turbo petrol with AWD in fairness 😀

Best thing I ever did* was go on a fuel efficient driving course. It's not really about fuel efficiency, it's just not driving like a dick. e.g.

There's a traffic light junction near home, turn out of it onto a road for about 0.5 mile until a roundabout. Invariably, I drive at the limit of 40mph with the person behind right up my bumper. In the past, I've always gone straight on at the roundabout but recently moved house down the road to the right, so approaching the rndbt I keep in the right lane of three. Invariably again, the person up my bumper, as I drift right, speed up to come past me and maybe get a nose in front before having to slow down for the roundabout. WHY? What's to gain?

Back to the course, and the instructor essentially said "don't race to the next lights / junction, keep a gap between you and the car in front so if they slow down you can just ease off rather than brake. If you have to brake, you've wasted energy".

It might sound boring, but I'm OK with that because really it's just not driving like a dick.

*well, not quite.

Absolutely.. Reading the road ahead and driving progressive makes a huge difference.

Easing off the go pedal before you need to brake, don't accelerate hard, efficient gear changes... It all adds up to smoother drive and less fuel consumption.

It's also a much safer way to drive as your less likely to be caught out by a random hazard.

Christ, I’m glad I drive an ancient car with no MPG gauge. Life’s too short surely?

You seem to think people are actually worrying about these things, in a negative way. Don't assume that. Me, I think of stuff like this because I'm interested, curious and I like understanding things.

For me, life's certainly too short to be criticising others on the internet for indulging their curiosity.

Most women are horrendous drivers

As a cyclist, I'd rather all drivers were women than men. If I am riding along and a car behind me sits back and waits for a nice safe place to pass with good distance, it's nearly always a woman, sometimes an older man. If on the other hand a car bombs past too fast, too close or pulls some other dick move, that's nearly always a man.

And driving like a looney up people's backsides and doing dodgy maneuvers is just creating extra danger.. If you're running late you may as well be ten minutes late as opposed to 5 minutes late and drive more safely. Makes no odds.

The younger boy racer version of me would disagree though. 😀

As a cyclist, I’d rather all drivers were women than men.

^^^^ this

*EDIT - also, as a driver, come to think of it

The worst drivers I see are school run DAD followed buy school run mum but dad is ruddy dangerous

Once saw an old neighbour of mine (school run dad) mount a kerb just to get around a bin lorry to get the kids to school, thing is, we lived on a square, so could have just gone the other way.

As for the OP? Yeah probably. I don't 'drive it like you stole it' but I also never check what MPG I'm getting.

The few times I got hit or a near miss on my bike were all women. Two looking down at their phones and another shot straight over a roundabout I was on. So I'd say the opposite. Does that make me a sexist? 🙂

Are you sure you’re doing it right?

Yes... 😁

Given the grief I had last time we're all more than cool with this set up.

Are some people naturally uneconomical drivers? I don’t notice any poor mechanical sympathy when I’m passengering, but we do seem to have large fuel performance differences.

Yes some drivers are terrible at driving economically. My sister was regularly complaining about the poor MPG out of her car (Zafira 1.6 petrol) when she first got it and though it was faulty. I was travelling with her on a trip to a friend's house a good 2-3 hours away so agreed to share the driving and took the opportunity to compare our MPG figures on the dash to each other. She was getting 24-6 mpg regardless of whether it was motorway or A roads whereas I could easily get into the mid 30's and higher with a bit of effort. She does have a rather forceful driving style that won't help but I must have a natural knack for it as I've always been able to beat the book figures for my cars without doing any stupid hypermiling stuff. current car should get 49 mpg on the combined cycle but I get that with the bike rack on the back, 53-5 mpg is my usual figure (measured full tank to full tank, OBC says 3 mpg lower usually).

Men tend to drive more agressivley but women seem to be be more clueless so it's swings and roundabouts really. 😀

My mates Mrs. for example will drive at the speed limit right upto what will be a red traffic light that she could predict if she was reading the road ahead. and then anchor the brakes on at the last seconds.

He on the other hand doesn't do that but tends to drive too fast around corners with limited visibility.

Men tend to drive more agressivley but women seem to be be more clueless so it’s swings and roundabouts really.

This I wholeheartedly agree with. Been noticing more than a few examples of completely clueless road positioning (blocking a junction by turning right from the middle rather than the right); swerving into junctions; parking on the zigzags outside school; not noticing lights have changed whilst looking at their navel; etc. All seem to be women. Meanwhile all the blokes are just driving like ****s everywhere aggressively.

Anyway, back to the OP. I once did a Guildford - home journey on a Friday evening and averaged 70mpg by the time I got to M6/M56 junction due to the traffic being slow but steady. I promptly proceeded to see how low I could make it before I got home, the answer was 62 ish. That's 200 miles at 70mpg and 30 miles at considerably less (about 35mpg I think). So it's definitely possible to do, but you have to drive like a dick.

women seem to be be more clueless

Not in my experience.

So I’d say the opposite. Does that make me a sexist?

Yes mate it does.

Some stats:

In England, men travel an average of 7,200 miles per year compared to 5,800 miles that are covered by women.

So men drive 24% more than women but...

In Great Britain, men account for 74% of road traffic deaths, 69% of serious injuries and 57% of slight injuries on the roads. (Brake, 2020) (Source: https://toptests.co.uk/driving-statistics/)

... cause three times the deaths.

So leave out the 'women are crap' stuff please. I stand by my earlier comments. Not noticing the lights have changed is slightly annoying but resolved by a friendly beep of the horn. Being killed though is a bit more difficult to deal with.