[Closed] Real life diesel lifetyle estate MPG?

Got 58.9 in the end...

Crikey. I had the unfortunate - kinda - experience to have had the "current fuel consumption" up on the dash when the DPF cycle kicked off earlier. I spent a good 15 minutes in 6th at 60 on the motorway at about 20 mpg. Switching to "average consumption" it was plummeting quickly.

45 ish mostly either traffic jam or a road and motorway with a bit of urban chucked in and bike goes inside or on back.

Is a mk3 diesel Mondeo a ' lifestyle ( estate?

Lifestyle?? My Mondeo suited my lifestyle, so 1.8TD did 55mpg overall, now have a VW Caddy Maxi, (not sure it's an estate, looks more like a hearse!) diesel 1.6 does about 45mpg. Maybe older diesels were more economical with their use of fuel?
Never any bikes on the roof, and not yet had the canoe and kayak on the roof of the Caddy.

Passat 2.0l tdi estate 140bhp - averages around 40mpg, but is thrashed everywhere and has a DSG box.

3.0l V6 231 bhp Navara pick-up - weighs getting on for 3t with tools in. On a steady motorway run it'll get anywhere up to 35mpg, at 80mph it'll drop below 30mpg. If I drive steady everywhere (mix of motorway and country roads/towns) I average 30-32mpg, if I give it a bit of welly, usually average 26-28mpg.

If I thrash it to death, it will go below 20mpg

Seat Exeo 2.0tdi

Ave 49-52 without racks

Ave 45-50 with racks

Ave 42-46 with racks with bikes on.

I drive on A Roads and Motorways 90% of the time.

Drops off a cliff over 80 with bikes on though, there's no point trying a 100mph+ midnight blast down to the alps - even forgetting the cost I'd lose more time stopping for fuel!

Jaysus H Christ! Most of these figures are dire. Really poor indeed. I'm so glad I don't have a diesel.
Last time I worked it out it was 20,000 miles a year for 3 years before a Focus/Golf sized diesel paid off. Now I'm not so sure it EVER would....!

Anyone else watching Dispatches [i]"The Great Car Con"[/i] on C4 now?

Yes. Quite interesting.

I'd just like to point out that both displayed and brim to brim mpg on my kitten murdering diesel is what the manufacturer claims.

I spend virtually no time stuck in traffic however.

That last bit testing the mumsneter's Alhambra - MPG was interesting, ~10 MPG below Manufacturer's claimed figure? 38 isn't bad though for a 7 seat monster... But it will give you cancer and ruin your lungs.

Think I'll try taping up all the panel gaps and grille, removing the back seats and spare tyre from my car, any other top fuel saying tips tips?

e46 320d touring

day to day - 37-39
motorway at 85 - 43

Bikes go in the boot with the climbing kit.

2006 E91 335D - Not chipped, yet...

Bikes inside, motorway (80mph) 39mpg

Fully loaded with 3 bikes on a rack, 80mph... 34mpg

Average including town, about 35mpg

Driving it absolutely flat out, still does over 30mpg!

megane 1.5dci -last 4k miles mainly a roads and weekly trips to the shops 4 miles round trip 53.6mpg

Not an estate, but mine will do 55mpg with no bother. Last summer it was regularly getting 61-62mpg. The winter does hit the fuel consumption a bit...

Lowest I've ever seen was 46mpg and that was with two bikes on the roof and gear for comfy camping for a fortnight, plus we were, what's the expression....making progress!

My Wife's 2 litre tdi is currently getting around 60mpg since she's recently been doing a longer commute. But that's a small car with quite a punchy engine.

Interesting programme - it was a bit biased in one respect - there's the usual real world v lab tests and manufacturers bull shit claims AND there's the non Co2 pollutants that diesels produce - but the programme makers linked them as if the mpg claims of petrol cars were completely legit.

In regards to the other dioxides - are these damaging to the environment as a whole (global warming etc) or just to people who inhale them? Does the old 'diesel for the motorway, petrol for the city' rule of thumb still ring true?

Are these computer results or calculated?
According to the car I get around 44 mpg in the winter and 49 in the summer.
In reality these are 40mpg in winter and 44 in summer.
Most of my driving is a 12 mile each way commute mainly on country roads and a short town section. On a long run you can add 4-5 mpg on to these.
2013 Skoda Superb Outdoor estate 2.0 CR TDi 170 PS 4x4 manual.
Bikes in the back.

Way better than my old Legacy Spec B and not much slower A to B across country.

Most of these figures are dire

Poddy, as someone who knows how to drive economically you would do far better than the numbers chucked about here.

Jag XF Diesel S Estate. About 38mpg. Quite a big engine though - they do a 4 cylinder which no doubt is better...

molgrips - Member

Poddy, as someone who knows how to drive economically you would do far better than the numbers chucked about here.

Patronising? Much?

2006 Octavia Estate - 1.9TDI 4x4

Genrally:
Day to day driving frugally (generally 25mi or thereabouts a roads) : 50-55mpg
Same, but driving as enthusiastically as such a vehicle allows : 40-45mpg
Knock off about 5mpg for bikes on roof

Extremes:
Driving like every drop of fuel is worth a fortune : 65mpg achievable
Driving like you stole it : 35mpg

Interesting.... Kind of makes my T5 2,5ltr 130bhp LWB look respectable. On the Autobahn with two bikes on the rear rack, sitting at 100km/h it drinks 6.7ltr/100km or 42mpg! (averaged over 600km trip from Munich to Berlin).
Average is around 35ish-mpg.
Have had average of 15,5ltr/100km (18mpg) when caning it back from Hamburg at 115mph after a job once.... Only happens when I'm not paying for the fuel.

garage-dweller - Member

Is a mk3 diesel Mondeo a ' lifestyle ( estate?

As far as I can tell "lifestyle estate" is slang for "estate with a terrible boot, despite not being all that small", like the V40. So no. But it fits my lifestyle of carrying bikes around effortlessly and not being precious about cars

Northwind - Member

As far as I can tell "lifestyle estate" is slang for "estate with a terrible boot, despite not being all that small"

That would be my take on it as well

Last one owned
54 plate Octavia 1.9Tdi
45mpg on not bothering everything
50mpg motorway runs
55-65 long cruises through France

not a lifestyle estate though

As far as I can tell "lifestyle estate" is slang for "estate with a terrible boot, despite not being all that small", like the V40.

BMW 320d ED.

Average since new 54mpg. Avg day to day anywhere between 50 and 80 mpg. If I decide to drive sensibly 70-80mpg

Bikes on the roof doing 80mph about 40mpg.

2006 E320 Cdi Mercedes Estate - 3 litre V6 Diesel -167,000 miles on clock owned from new,

33.5mpg - average MPG to date according to the car computer
45 mpg - in “holiday take it easy” mode, 65 - 70 mph on empty French / Spanish motorways
39mpg - 100 miles up the M6 yesterday with a few roadworks at about the speed limit.
30 mpg - on the school run - 5 miles each way on country roads.
20 mpg - fully laden 4 passengers, trailer with 4 motorbikes crossing the Pyrenees.

Bikes on the towbar rack knock about 3 mpg off.
Bikes on the roof knock about 7mpg off

I generally bank on it doing 32 - 36 mpg when I’m do rough calculations of of much a trip might cost.

Dacia Lodgy TCE petrol, mainly town and mountain road use. 18 months from new, corrected for optimistic trip which reads 5.8:

6l/100 = 47mpg

Bikes go inside even with a couple of rear seats up.

Makes some of your diesels look thirsty.

2013 Skoda Superb Greenline - over the last 13k miles it's averaged a 'real' 54mpg...cold air seems to hurt it more than others I've had. Up until July it was averaging a 'real' 59mpg - job change means miles have reduced substantially (shorter journeys too).

very happy with it...

70mpg easily attainable if you drive like a granny!

Most of these figures are dire
Poddy, as someone who knows how to drive economically you would do far better than the numbers chucked about here.

Yeah, I'd bloody well hope so! 🙂
Mid 40s or less out of a diesel is seriously crap. I wouldn't entertain one that couldn't average 55-60 365 days of the year. But that's a mute point anyway because we'll be keeping our car for at least another 2-3 years I think as I've just put 4 tyres on it and done the cambelt and a full service. The real way to save money in my book is not to keep throwing thousands of pounds away on depreciation every few years. Our car would be a great secondhand buy right now so why would I sell it? It suits us, it's reliable and cheap to fix if it does go wrong, does over 40mpg fairly easily and I've put a tow bar and cruise control that I'd have to pay for again.
We've had it 6 years now. I can see us keeping it for 10 🙂

mute point

[img] [/img]

This thread gets a Saddo rating of 10. 😉

PP - don't you sit behind LGV's on motorways doing 56mph? I'm not surprised you get good mpg

Edukator
Dacia Lodgy

Makes some of your diesels look thirsty.

Makes most of diesels look like Ferrari's too!

😉

hahahahah 🙂

My old Ibiza (R reg) 1,9ltr Diesel used to easily hit 55+mpg and I could get an average of over 60mpg on a tank if cruising around everywhere at 60mpg and driving as if I was high (at the time I mostly was).

Whilst I appreciate the humour, Maxtorque, the power : weight ration is also better than some of the diesels being quoted. Better than the BMW 318d for example which returned 41mpg in Iainc's hands. Not that performance is an issue in our household. A low-slung Ferrari would have failed to plough through the snow on our last outing, and the ability to carry a drum kit, bikes, amplifiers and the like is the main consideration.

Rover 75 estate 02 plate plymouth - leeds 50mpg two adults one bike on roof plus plymouth to afan 5 blokes 5 bikes (2 on roof 3 on trailer rack) plus all gear for 4 days riding 35mpg

PP - don't you sit behind LGV's on motorways doing 56mph? I'm not surprised you get good mpg

Nope. Car rarely goes on motorways these days TBH. Even when I was doing a lot of miles in it I was cruising at 65-70.
There's just no rush. I once worked out how much time I'd save by upping my average speed 10mph (which is a big ask) on my regular M4 journey. 4 minutes it was. I just found it incredibly relaxing not having to bother with the faster traffic, less concentration required, less stress, not looking out for cameras.
Basically I just stuck to the speed limits. 1.6 petrol Focus was getting 40-45 mpg like that. If I recall correctly the average was around 42-43mpg at one point. It's now down to 39.2mpg over the last 52,000miles or so. 🙂 That's comparable to around 41mpg in a diesel as petrol is cheaper.
Im gonna crunch some numbers... Hang on....

Current: VW T5.2 Caravelle 180 DSG
Around town in traffic: 28mpg ish
Relaxed motorway run 70-75 38-40mpg
Loaded for hols, run to Wales for example: 32-36 mpg
Towing the caravan: 23mpg

Previous Merc E Class 250 CDI
Town: mid 30s
Motorway: mid 40s with bike racks on
High 30s with bikes on top.

Right. Using my 'diesel adjusted fuel consumption' for a more direct comparison and some figures from the app I use to record stuff like this:
I've spent £7902 in fuel over 51479 miles but we've actually done 70,000 (approx, probably just under) so I'm going to call that £10,500 in total.
If I could get 55mpg out of a diesel I would have used 74.5% of that, £7822, a saving of £2678.
I've had the car 6 years. Most people change every 3 on average I reckon, so by now I'd be coming up to my second change. That seems a fair assumption, no?
We pay around £6k for a car. I had it valued at £2500 a few years back. So by now I'd have lost £7k in depreciation over 6 years on 2 similar cars. That's more than the purchase price of the car and 2.6 times the amount a diesel would save me.
However, that's cheating a bit because 3 cars would last me 9 years. 😉
So the fuel difference would be around £4000 over 9 years.
Still £3000 cheaper!
This of course doesn't take into account the higher running costs of a diesel (servicing, tyres don't last as long etc) and the higher likelihood of something going wrong and it closing a lot more to repair.

I've never worked it out before but I've always assumed it was cheaper to keep a car a LONG time, and I've sort of proved it to myself I think. 🙂

To be fair, I needed a vehicle to do a long regular commute cheaply and I bought a motorbike specifically designed to do just that, which also saves around an hour a day of my free time. I'm pretty much sold on the fact that cars are, generally, money pits and deserve as little of my attention as possible. Sure, I look after them like I do anything else, but it's simply white goods to me, to be treated as an expense and run as cheaply as possible. I'm fairly happy with how it's turned out. 🙂

Vectra 150 auto

Average on the trip computer (for the 20k I've owned it) = 42.2mpg

When I fill up I always calc the mpg, and 40mpg is about right. This is for short-ish rural (<10 miles) journeys with little stop/start.

If I do a long motorway/A-road trip back south I can get +55mpg out of that tank.

Speed-wise, making progress and overtaking 🙂

I had the equivalent car but with the 2.2i auto engine, and averaged 32 mpg over 70k in two years - driven hard though.

So a gain of about 30% going from petrol to diesel.

And to go with PP's motorcycle comment, 56mpg over 20k miles from a Triumph 1050 on a fast commute into London 🙂

I've had the car 6 years. Most people change every 3 on average I reckon, so by now I'd be coming up to my second change. That seems a fair assumption, no?

No!

You're comparing petrol and diesel, not comparing yourself with serial car changers! If you'd bought a diesel, you'd still be keeping it just as long wouldn't you?

You have got to love a Rover 75!! Good work old chap!

Motorway @ 70mph cruise control for an hour = 42 mpg

B roads at 30-50mph for 10 miles / 20 minutes = 44mpg

Weird.

[i]Motorway @ 70mph cruise control for an hour = 42 mpg

B roads at 30-50mph for 10 miles / 20 minutes = 44mpg

Weird.
[/i]

or 5h1t aerodynamics?

PeterPoddy - Member

This of course doesn't take into account the higher running costs of a diesel (servicing, tyres don't last as long etc) and the higher likelihood of something going wrong and it closing a lot more to repair.

Eh? I'm sure these 'reasons' are used to justify why diesels aren't worth bothering with, but in my experience there is no real proof that they are real....

Servicing my diesel costs about the same as servicing my old 1.4 Fiesta. It does cost a little bit more, but it's a larger engine so requires more oil, which will be a large part of the cost discrepancy. If I had bought a larger petrol engined car, I would also have expected that to cost a bit more to service.

Tyres not lasting as long on a diesel? Why is this? Presumably you are comparing tyre wear of comparable sized cars with comparable engine outputs?
I used to get about 25k miles out of a set of fronts on my Fiesta (1.4 with 75BHP) and I get around 20k miles out of my current front tyres. But, the car has 55BHP more (3x the torque) and weighs about 300kg more so extra wear is to be expected. The weight gain is largely car related, not engine related - had I gone for the petrol version of my car, it would have only been 25kg lighter).
If I had bought a diesel with comparable performance to my old petrol Fiesta I would expect tyres to last at least as long.

My diesel has been a lot more reliable than the petrol Fiesta. The only failures specifically related to the fact it is a diesel have been 2 intercooler pipes that have failed (in 253k miles), which cost £45 for one and £125 for the other.
A faulty idle air control valve on the Fiesta cost more to replace than those two 'diesel failures' by itself.

Kryton57
Motorway @ 70mph cruise control for an hour = 42 mpg

B roads at 30-50mph for 10 miles / 20 minutes = 44mpg

Weird.

Why is that weird? The power required to push the air out of the way goes up with the cube of speed!

So:

at low speed (<30mph), you have little or no aero drag, but huge parasitic friction from having to be in a low gear (so you engine has to turn many more times per mile driven) and the average engine power required is tiny, so the overall engine efficiency is low.

at high speed (>60mph) aerodynamic drag increases massively, but you are in a high gear, so parasitic friction is low. Overall power output is high, so overall efficiency is high

Somewhere between the two, a point exists where you only need a low amount of power to move at that speed, but the losses in making that power are also minimised. That speed is the vehicles maximal fuel economy speed, and for most passenger cars, is the slowest speed you can hold in top gear at about 1200rpm, typically 45mph these days

only failures specifically related to the fact it is a diesel have been 2 intercooler pipes that have failed

Not diesel specific. A turbo petrol car could well have an intercooler.

[i] That speed is the vehicles maximal fuel economy speed, and for most passenger cars, is the slowest speed you can hold in top gear at about 1200rpm, typically 45mph these days [/i]

Agree, except in my auto it is 65mph before 6th gear appears

Why is that weird?

Maxtorque, thanks. I was comparing it to the manufacturers claimed 61mpg on m/ways, which as you state is probably at 56mph in 6th or whatever appropriate combo.

Octavia 4x4 2ltr 140PD 45-49mpg, usually 47. Bikes went inside.
Vivaro 115 swb 33-39mpg, usually 37. Bikes inside

It's not a diseasel estate, but what the heck:

My Golf .. with um, a 3.2 V6.

- 25mpg overall
- 35mpg on a gentle run
- Will not crack 30 with bikes and roof box

MPG is really not the be-all and end-all. My 2008 R32 will cost me less to run than any Eurobox 1.6d I can get through our work lease car scheme, due to low depreciation. 😀

2003 Audi A4 Estate 1.9TDI 130PD. From the inboard computer for the last 56hrs of driving at an average of 35mph my mpg has been 47.7mpg. With bikes in the roof on a long run it can reduce by approx 5mpg.

Some of these figures make my car look like it's got a drink problem!

It's a SMax 2.2d, lots of options / glass roof so it's heavy, and quite an old engine design I think.

It's only used on motorways really and if I keep an eye on the instant fuel reading, I can generally get a 40 - 42mpg average at about 65 - 75mph speeds.

Mid 40s or less out of a diesel is seriously crap

Depends on the car. If it's a white goods car like that Vectra I bought off you I'd agree. That returned circa 50mpg in my hands.

If you have something like a 3l ~300bhp modern big diesel it's a different story. You get around 30% more to the gallon than an equivalent petrol of the same power and lower depreciation in general so the saving long term is pretty good. Cars like these aren't about value so much, more about the way they drive at an acceptable cost. Also there are many more to choose from 2nd hand so easier to find a well cared for example. I can't see many of few and far between high power petrol estate cars being in as good condition as the diesels. The 335D I bought was a 1 owner rich guys family holiday car!

I also run a petrol Nissan car for around town and despite being used for short trips it does 40mpg! It will likely be replaced with a petrol. I'd agree for most people if you want a 'standard' white goods car that these days petrol is probably the best option, or atleast as good as diesel long term with lower risk mechanicals.

15yr old Seat Alhambra 1.9TDI so a big old lump of a bus, average 45mpg over a full tank (about 600 miles), get low 50s on long cruisey journeys.

Eh? I'm sure these 'reasons' are used to justify why diesels aren't worth bothering with, but in my experience there is no real proof that they are real....

Tell that to some who's paid for a new turbo, dual mass flywheel, DPF etc....