Real-world mileage =/= Estimates (news/opinion)

[niky]

I'm starting to wonder how wise it was to install those headers... damn this Gran Turismo life-style! Quick off-the-back-of-my-hand calculations show my km/l dropping to 6-7 (14-16 mpg US). I'll know more when I reset my ECU and fill up again, but that's just depressing.

But then again, maybe it was my driving. It was a hot day.

 

[Famine]

could someone explain the difference between how US octane and european Octane are measured? cause I had someone on here tell me that US octane 87/89/92 are the same as british 92/95/98...where I believe the rest of the world gets better quality fuels..and they send the cheapest, crappiest stuff over here.

There's two bench tests. They're called MON (Motor Octane Number) and RON (Research Octane Number), which have different test conditions (intake temperature, engine speed). MON is more indicative of "real world" driving than RON is, and in normal, refined petroleum it is usually 8-10 points below the RON rating.

British petrol is sold with only the RON rating. 95RON is normal, 97/8/9RON is "Super-unleaded" (Shell Optimax is 98RON, BPUltimate is 98RON, some supermarket crap is 99RON). The MON rating of this fuel - that is the actually useful part - can vary, though it has a set range under industry code and standards law.

American petrol is sold as "Octane" or "CRC", and is what is known as Pump Octane Number (PON). The PON rating is calculated by adding the MON and RON together and averaging:
PON = (MON + RON)/2

Since MON is usually 8-10 points lower than RON, PON is usually 4-5 points lower than RON.

So US 87 octane (regular) = UK 93RON (not sold)
US 89 octane (plus) = UK 95RON (normal)
US 92 octane (premium) = UK 98RON (super)

We do have a company - BP - who are trialling a 102RON petrol. It costs £2.40 a litre.

Which is another point - the US pays $3 per gallon (US). The UK pays £3 per gallon (US)...

 

[Crash]

My father's Grand Caravan is rated to average 18mpg. On average though, we barely get 14mpg.

 

[Sniffs]

famine: last time I tried replying, here, i had some sort of crash

i have NEVER seen US 89 labeled "premium"...only Plus. where I'm at, premium is the 92...and I've LOST 2 miles per gallon trying premium (the engines just suck the thing down even faster )

the difference is only one grade up.

 

[Wolfe]

I just filled my tank tonight, and found that I was getting 30.28mpg from city driving.

 

[1X83Z]

In Denver, "a mile high," premium is 91, plus is 87, and regular is 85 if you can believe it. The only place you can get 93 and above is at the dragstrip.

By the way, I get ~17mpg in my Volvo. I used to get 13mpg, but then I started dating a girl who lives about twenty miles away meaning I had to take the highway to get to her house, which drastically improved my mileage. We just broke up, but since I'm selling the car anyway it won't matter (to my mileage, that is).

 

[Pupik]

I always use my tripometer to see how far I've made it on each tank. Most of the time I'll take the receipt, write the tripometer number on it, and then check out how well my car did on the calculator at home, but sometimes I'm just too lazy to be bothered.

I don't keep a long-term log, however.

I tried a log for 6 months for Honda Accord back in 1994, but I gave up after a while, since it was pretty much the same for all my driving.

Same here; the number of miles per tank really varies depending on the driving I do. If I only go back-and-forth to work, I'll get 270 miles out of the tank (about 15-16 gallons go in each time), which puts me at the EPA's posted figures. But if I do some highway stretches, it increases to about 23-35, since I've got a lead foot.

The best I've done was a stellar 32 mpg; conditions were just right: No A/C (nice 60-68 degree day), no rain, rarely exceeded 75 mph by driving on country, backwoods roads. I got just over 520 miles out of that tank (ran it down to the warning light).

Compared to the Corolla, the GS's fuel economy isn't really that bad, except when I do my strictly-work-and-errands type of tanks, which gives me my worst figures. The Corolla did a steady 20 mpg in the city and maybe 24-26 on the highway/country; I suppose 130,000 miles on any engine hurts it after a while. I managed one 31 mpg average, country-road adventuring gets great results.

So it's possible to beat the EPA average; it's got to be a "perfect storm", though. My old Honda Accord could do wonders in pure Highway driving, running at 75-80 mph with that little 98hp motor yielded 32-34 mpg with the A/C on. Our CR-V did an amazing 35.5 mpg once; driving back and forth to the Key West is a quite the leisurely trip, you rarely get the chance to go over 50 mph at any point on the Overseas Highway. With windows down, a nice breeze, you didn't need A/C, even in the end of June.

 

[Killer Cobra]

my dad has been knowen to do around 14-15 MPG on motorway in his kia rio

its sad i know but it drank and drank untill we ended running out 2 mile away from petrol station

 

[daan]

my dad has been knowen to do around 14-15 MPG on motorway in his kia rio

its sad i know but it drank and drank untill we ended running out 2 mile away from petrol station

What speed was he doing? Constant speed on a motorway tends to give you your best fuel consumption, unless he's flat out.

 

[Killer Cobra]

What speed was he doing? Constant speed on a motorway tends to give you your best fuel consumption, unless he's flat out.

he was keeping it at around 95MPH down M74 and he neva pushs the car to hard or it will go cuz it only 4 years old with 73,000 Mile on clock

But the 14-15 MPG was when he was giving it all hell up to Elgin Pushing Around 110-115 MPH out of a 1.3

 

[niky]

1.3's tend to give horrid mileage when you cane them, but they can give you over 40 if you work the accelerator pedal with just your pinky toe. I should know, I used to have a 1.3 car... my mileage sucked, but mostly because I was usually doing over 100mph at 2a.m.

Ah, the good old days of being reckless, irresponsible and unconcerned about gas prices.

 

[daan]

he was keeping it at around 95MPH down M74 and he neva pushs the car to hard or it will go cuz it only 4 years old with 73,000 Mile on clock

But the 14-15 MPG was when he was giving it all hell up to Elgin Pushing Around 110-115 MPH out of a 1.3

Can you try and post in English please. It is a condition of your membership here.

No slang words that promote laziness, ie; "r", "u", "plz", etc. will be tolerated. Decent grammar is expected, including proper usage of capital letters. Repeated violations will be grounds for suspension and/or permanent removal from the forums.

Thanks.

 

[Killer Cobra]

im sorry but i have trouble with spelling and grammer and i do text talk alot to hide this as i am ashamed of having a spelling age of a 9 YO

but anyway that car will drink a tanker dry in a week the way my father drives it.

 

[Swift]

My BMW is rated at 23 city/29 highway. I regularly get 27-30 city.

I actually get 25-27 highway because of my lead foot.

This website is a good resource for EPA mileage ratings for cars as old as 1985.

That's a good site

My Spec gets a little more then what they say it does. But that's because I skip gears, usually keep it under 3K RPM and less then 75 mph. So it's more like 25/31

 

[Wolfe]

I just got 32mpg highway on the way back from a trip to visit family in southern Indiana. My new "high scores" for mileage are 30 city 32 highway.

 

[niky]

Current high scores are 28 / 33, but I can't drive like that everyday.

 

[neanderthal]

mine (1990 mercedes 300E, 2.6) is rated at 19/ 23.

i mostly drive on the freeway (95%) anticipate traffic and lights, coast to stops, rarely use AC, maintain momentum as much as possible, almost never drive with windows open, keep my slightly oversize tires slightly overinflated vs mfr spec, keep the car well maintained, and get to cruising speed quickly without doing drag race starts regularly. these are all techniques that increase fuel economy, some insignificantly, but combined they can be significant. as in my case.

im getting about mid 20s in my mixed driving, and near 30 (im guessing about 27- 28) on long flat interstate drives.

something i posted at a mercedes forum

so i just came back from a trip to colorado. decided to go see some friends i know from a granturismo forum. spur of the moment kinda thing. airline tickets werent cheap at 400 each way last minute. but i can drive right?

google maps puts the distance as 1060 miles. drove there, hung out with internet geeks, drove back a week later. did both legs in one sitting with only a 1/2 hour stop besides stopping for gas. 100 plus at night on long deserted stretches of road somewhere in southern utah. car just sang the whole way. didnt have any problems. and all i did pretrip was add water to the coolant system and top up the oil, which it consumes anyway.

25 mpg avg. amazing for a car rated 23 hwy, especially in light of many 6000rpm, 3rd gear ascents up some pretty steep roads in colorado. and my little 2.6 liter engine certainly was breathless in those higher altitudes, but it soldiered on. and i was maintaining about 5- 10 over the limit the whole way here. time on the road worked out to be just over 15 hours. but since i spent the fist 40 minutes being lost in parker, colorado and at least 30 minutes in vegas traffic, i avgd 75 the whole way back. 25 mpg at 75mph? i'll take it any day and all day. fantastic

i cannot recommend a better long distance hauler than a W124. the panzer is a beast. i only wish i had an overdrive fifth gear

ok, so maybe that ones a lie. i wish i had the M104 2.8 liter, (same power as the 103 3.0 liter but same fuel economy as the 2.6) the rear end ratio of the 1995s (slightly longer, better fuel economy, lower revs no real perfomance loss) and the 5 speed overdrive (the problematic 722.5) from the 6 cylinder W140s and R129s. yeah, call me a sadist.

all very very possible with ebay. im sure with that combo id be able to get 30mpg on long trips.




ps southern utah and colorado are amazingly beautiful. postcard pretty in fact. im definitely going back, and this time with a mind to appreciate it and take some pics.

 

[Sniffs]

best econ scores so far.

27 highway: ford 3.0 liter pushrod V6, 93 Taurus, 150+k
31 CITY: GM 2.5 pushrod 4, 83 Celeberty automatic base, 89 US octane

 

[High-Test]

The mileage computer on the saab I'm driving has said anything from 3.2 to 87 mpg.

Usually it's in between 25/33.

The Motor in My chevy was designed when people still didn't really care about gas prices.

But, I've read a few web pages on 305s, and with similar parts as mine will have, and in a heavier car than the Biscayne, they got between 17 and 24.

Stock with a 2 barrel The motor in the test got between 13 and 16.

My sales pitch for a stock 305: "the 1977 Chevy 305: The power of a six, the economy of an 8."